Web Accessibility Assistance
arghXiv aims to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. This statement records what has been checked, what is known to fall short, and what has not been assessed at all. It describes this site as it stands on 25 August 2026. The structural checks below are re-run mechanically against every build; the contrast figures were measured by hand against the colours the site actually uses. No formal conformance claim is made beyond the checks listed below.
What has been checked
- Contrast. In the light scheme, body text is near-black on an off-white background, measuring 15.7:1; secondary text, used for comments and subject lines, measures 6.1:1; and the accent colour used for every link measures 5.7:1 against the page background. In the dark scheme the same three measure 13.7:1, 7.5:1 and 6.5:1. All six pass the AA threshold of 4.5:1 for body text. The link colour reaches the AAA threshold of 7:1 in neither scheme, though the dark one comes closer.
- Listings. The rows on the front page, on subject listings, on author pages and in search results are marked up as ordered lists rather than as runs of styled paragraphs, so the number of items and the position of each are carried in the markup. Each of those lists carries an explicit list role, so the styling that hides the markers does not take the list semantics with it. The position of a row is also printed in the row, in the form [1].
- Names for controls. Every interactive control has an accessible name. The wordmark link is named “arghXiv home”, the search box “Search” and the field menu beside it “Field”. The search button is labelled by its visible text.
- Structure. Each page declares its language as British English, and places its content in a single main landmark, with the site header before it and the footer navigation after it. Every page has one first-level heading naming it, that heading comes before any other, and the headings below it descend without skipping a level. On an abstract page the download panel follows the title in the markup and is lifted beside it visually, so that the order a screen reader announces and the order the page is read in agree.
- Keyboard focus. Links, buttons and form controls share one visible focus indicator: a two-pixel outline in the site accent, offset from the element. It measures 5.7:1 against the page background and 5.5:1 against the header, above the 3:1 minimum for a non-text indicator, and it replaces the differing defaults the browsers would otherwise supply. The first tab stop on every page is a link that skips the header and goes to the page’s content. The search field, its menu, its button and the colour-scheme control are drawn with a border measuring 3.8:1 against the panel behind them in the light scheme and 4.1:1 in the dark one, above the same 3:1 minimum for the visual boundary of a control.
- Colour scheme. The site follows the operating system’s light or dark setting. The control in the header overrides it and remembers the choice in this browser; its third state returns to following the system. Both schemes are stated above and both were measured.
- Links that leave the site. The archive links outward in one place, on the about page. Those links open in a new tab, and say so: each carries an arrow after it and, for anyone not seeing the arrow, the words “opens in a new tab”. No other link on the site behaves this way.
- Social cards. The image a page offers when its address is shared carries a text alternative describing what the card holds. That alternative belongs to the route rather than to the entry, so it names the kinds of thing shown on the card — an identifier, a title, a subject class — and not the particular entry shown.
- Printing. An abstract page prints without the site header, the footer navigation or the paging controls, and the download panel prints below the abstract rather than beside it.
- Access. There is no account system, so no part of the archive is behind a sign-in. Every abstract, listing and policy page can be reached directly by its address.
Not assessed
- The site has not been audited by anyone outside the Institute, and has not been tested end to end with a screen reader. The checks above rest on inspection of the markup and measurement of the colours.
- The PDFs held in the archive are generated from LaTeX source and have not been assessed for accessibility. Each one’s abstract is available as HTML on its abstract page; its full text is not.
Reporting a problem
arghXiv is a personal project. It has no staffed correspondence route, and the address given on the contact page belongs to the fiction. This statement is published so that a reader can judge what has and has not been checked before relying on the site; it is not an undertaking to receive or act on reports.