External content submission for Emerald websites

Guidelines for third-party content hosted on our platforms

We are committed to providing content and services that are accessible to all, regardless of capability, technology and location.

While this is always going to be a work in progress, we have taken steps to assess and improve our current performance via an RNIB audit. Therefore, in order that we comply with our standards on accessibility, we require content that is created externally to comply with those standards, too.

PDFs

Key questions

Does this need to be a PDF?
Is it accessible?
Will it be printed?
Is it readable by people who are colour blind or require higher contrast?

Firstly, we always ask ourselves, is a PDF the best possible format for this content? If the output is intended to be printed and kept or handed out by the end user, then there’s a use case; but if not, consider whether this content would be better presented in another more accessible and flexible format.

If a PDF is required, where possible, create an accessible output. Check PDFs for accessibility using the tools built in to Acrobat Pro or Word, and ensure that at the very least they are created with searchable text – ie, accessible to screen readers (and Google) – and have a language and reading direction set, plus a meaningful title.

If your PDF is intended to be printed by users (and not professionally), please keep background colours to a minimum or create a print layer that means this content is visible on screen but not printed, to save ink (but bear in mind the question above – if you’re creating this content for screen, then why use a PDF?).

Also, ensure that the page format is set to a standard size (A4 or Letter in the US) and that each page is separate, not set up to view and print as two pages side by side (spreads).

Please watch for contrast between foreground text and background colours or images; some users will not use screen readers and will want to consume the content in its original format but may not be able to read the copy. Bear in mind colour blind users, too.

Video & animation

We have a separate video user guide covering off how to best create video for our platform.

Please submit all text in the video as a plain text file so we can include this with the video.

Infographics & graphics

Key questions

Is the medium (ie graphical presentation) adding anything?
Is the content legible for all users (eg colour blind or with contrast requirements)
Are the visual elements superfluous or confusing?

Infographics must contain useful information, and not simply be text surrounded by colours or pictures (effectively an illuminated manuscript) – the graphical element should add something, so we would advise that the first question is whether or not the graphical representation is the best format for this information.

Because information is embedded in infographics, it’s key we ensure this is available to all users. Keep in mind the contrast between text and the background colours/images, and please make sure that if delivered as a PDF, it fulfils the criteria above.

As a general rule, avoid distracting visual elements that don’t add value, and make sure the content hierarchy is clear, that copy isn’t just an afterthought, and that your data scales are not distorted by the visual representation.

As with all other content types here, please supply the copy as plain text.

Why do we need copy as plain text?

This is because we must supply screen reader accessible content to our users, which means if a PDF, video or graphic contains information that is not available elsewhere, we need to provide it.

Brand guidance