Enhancing Author Experience for ASM's Community by Providing Accessible Content

This case study explores how the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is enhancing the accessibility of its published content to serve a diverse global audience. By leveraging Kriyadocs to make content more accessible, ASM is setting new standards for inclusivity in scholarly publishing.

Ellie Ghatineh, Digital Content Publishing Manager, shares how ASM is transforming workflows, enhancing author experience, and advancing the mission of microbial sciences.

Q: What motivated your decision to prioritize accessibility for your content?

Ellie: Our commitment to accessibility has always been a priority, but we previously faced challenges with time and resources to fully implement it. The transition to Kriyadocs presented an opportunity to rethink our workflows and leverage new tools to enhance accessibility. We started by piloting the addition of alternate text (alt text) for figures in one of our journals. After gathering feedback from this pilot, we refined the alt text writing process and have since expanded the initiative to include alt text for every figure across all 16 of our journals.

In addition to implementing alt text, we’ve also improved table accessibility by discontinuing the use of images as tables, which are not compatible with screen readers. Our efforts extend to providing comprehensive guidelines for authors on how to optimize the accessibility of their images. This includes using WebAIM’s contrast checker to ensure sufficient contrast, recommending accessible fonts and color choices, and offering resources for designing figures with color vision deficiencies in mind.

Q: How do you envision accessibility enhancements benefiting the ASM community, both in the short term and long term?

Ellie: At ASM, our mission is to promote and advance microbial sciences, and accessibility is fundamental to ensuring that our work reaches the widest possible audience. By enhancing accessibility, we are not only improving access for individuals with visual impairments who rely on screen readers, but we are also making our content more user-friendly and inclusive for everyone. The implementation of alt text for figures is a key part of this effort, allowing us to provide clear, meaningful descriptions that complement, rather than duplicate, figure legends. By adhering to NISO JATS Accessibility recommendations, we ensure that alt text is concise, relevant, and informative.

In the short term, these enhancements significantly improve the user experience, allowing readers to access critical information regardless of their abilities or the technology they use. For example, alt text ensures that figures remain understandable even if images fail to load. This not only supports readers with disabilities but also enhances overall usability, making our content more robust and resilient in various digital environments.

In the long term, accessibility improvements contribute to the discoverability of our research. Alt text helps search engines better index and interpret images, which improves search rankings and makes our articles easier to find. This increased visibility supports our authors by expanding the reach of their work and fosters a more diverse, global audience for microbial science research.

Q: Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for the future of accessibility within ASM and the broader publishing landscape?

Ellie: In the future, I hope to see accessibility and inclusivity become standard practices rather than exceptions in the publishing industry. Achieving this requires a fundamental shift in how we approach content design—recognizing that the way one person interacts with content is not the only, or necessarily the right, way. By setting aside our personal assumptions and preferences, we can broaden our perspective to meet the diverse visual, auditory, and cognitive needs of all users.

At ASM, I envision a future where every new feature, service, or workflow is designed with accessibility at its core, ensuring inclusivity from the start. Small, incremental improvements—whether through alt text, keyboard navigation, or contrast enhancements—can collectively create a more welcoming and equitable experience for all users. Central to this effort is user research and testing, but it's crucial that we include diverse voices in these processes. We need to actively seek out a range of users, including those with disabilities, to inform our decisions and ensure their needs are reflected in our services.

Looking beyond ASM, I believe accessibility will be an essential pillar of scholarly publishing as a whole. As digital content continues to evolve, the need for flexible, accessible formats will grow, allowing publishers to provide content that can be easily navigated and understood by all, regardless of ability. This includes innovations such as semantic tagging for better screen reader navigation, customizable text and layout options, and the integration of technologies like AI to enhance accessibility features. Ultimately, accessibility benefits everyone, not just individuals with disabilities, by improving usability, discoverability, and engagement with content. A fully accessible publishing environment helps advance the global exchange of knowledge—something at the heart of the scientific mission.

Q: What kind of feedback have you received from the ASM community regarding the accessibility improvements implemented so far, and how has this influenced your ongoing efforts?

Ellie: It’s still early to gauge widespread feedback from the ASM community, but the response so far has been promising. Internally, ASM staff are enthusiastic about the new alt text feature, and our authors have generally embraced it, occasionally offering small edits to enhance clarity. On the rare occasion that feedback has been provided, it’s not about the concept of alt text itself but more about ensuring the accuracy of the descriptions. Kriyadocs has been proactive in incorporating this feedback to continuously refine its product. The long-term goal is to use human-generated alt text to improve the precision of AI-generated descriptions, with an eye toward eventually automating this process through AI while maintaining quality.

In addition, when authors submit images as tables, and we request that they convert them to either typeset tables or figures, they have been supportive, recognizing the benefits for both accessibility and discoverability. This openness is encouraging, but it also highlights the need for ongoing education. Authors are primarily focused on publishing their work quickly and accurately, so it’s our responsibility to help them understand the critical role accessibility plays in expanding their research's reach and impact.

As accessibility becomes more integrated into the publishing workflow, we aspire to shift perceptions—so that accessibility isn’t seen as an extra step or a nuisance but as a vital part of the quality assurance process. Our ongoing efforts will continue to focus on educating our community about the value of accessible content, ensuring that it’s not just a compliance requirement but a standard that enhances the usability, discoverability, and overall quality of the scholarly work we publish.