Do physicians make their articles readable for their blind or low-vision patients? An analysis of current image processing practices in biomedical journals from the point of view of accessibility
Resum
Visual content in biomedical academic papers is a
growing source of critical information, but it is not always
fully readable for people with visual impairments. We aimed
to assess current image processing practices, accessibility
policies, and submission policies in a sample of 12 highly
cited
biomedical journals. We manually checked the application
of text-based alternative image descriptions for every
image in 12 articles (one for each journal). We determined
whether the journals claimed to follow an accessibility policy
and we reviewed their submission policy and their guidelines
related to the visual content. We identified important features
concerning the processing of images and the characteristics of
the visual and the retrieval options of visual content offered by
the publishers. The evaluation shows that the actual practices
of textual image description in highly cited biomedical
journals do not follow general guidelines on accessibility.
The images within the articles analyzed lack alternative descriptions
or have uninformative descriptions, even in the case
of journals claiming to follow an accessibility policy. Consequently,
the visual information of scientific articles is not
accessible to people with severe visual disabilities.
Instructions on image submission are heterogeneous and a
declaration of accessibility guidelines was only found in two
thirds of the sample of journals, with one third not explicitly
following any accessibility policy, although they are required
to by law.