Inclusion

Accessibility

Literature belongs to everyone — our platform is built to reflect that.

Hyphen is committed to making our platform, journal, and publications accessible to all readers, including those with disabilities. We are actively working toward conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. If you encounter any barriers, please tell us — your feedback directly shapes our improvements.

What We Support

Our platform is designed to work with a range of assistive technologies and accessibility preferences:

Screen Readers

Pages are structured with semantic HTML so screen readers like NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver can navigate content clearly.

Keyboard Navigation

All interactive elements — menus, links, forms, and buttons — are fully operable by keyboard alone.

Text Resizing

Content reflows cleanly when text is scaled up to 200% without loss of readability or functionality.

Colour Contrast

Text and interface elements meet WCAG AA contrast ratios to ensure legibility for users with low vision or colour blindness.

Reduced Motion

Animations are suppressed for users who have enabled the "Reduce Motion" preference in their operating system.

Alt Text

All meaningful images include descriptive alternative text. Decorative images are marked to be ignored by assistive tools.

Print Publications

We recognise that accessibility extends beyond the screen. For the print edition of Hyphen: Connecting Literatures:

Digital editions (PDF and eBook) are available alongside every print issue and are formatted for compatibility with screen reader software.
Large-print versions of articles can be requested by writing to us.
We aim to make audio readings of selected journal pieces available on the digital platform.

Language & Reading Accessibility

As a platform dedicated to multilingual literature, we give particular attention to language accessibility:

All pages declare their primary language in the HTML, enabling correct pronunciation by screen readers.
Passages in Indian scripts and non-Latin languages are marked with appropriate language attributes.
Translations and bilingual presentations are clearly labelled so the source and target languages are always identifiable.
We avoid jargon in our editorial and platform interfaces, keeping navigation language plain and clear.

Known Limitations

We are a small, growing platform. Some areas are still being improved:

Older archived content may not yet have full alt text or semantic structure — we are working through this backlog.
Some third-party embedded content (such as video or interactive maps) may not fully meet our accessibility standards. We flag these where they appear.
Our bookshop checkout flow is undergoing accessibility review and improvements are expected in mid-2026.

Our Commitment

Accessibility is not a one-time exercise — it is an ongoing practice. We carry out accessibility reviews with each significant release of the platform, and we welcome user testing feedback from people with disabilities. We aim to respond to all accessibility-related feedback within 5 business days.

Found a barrier? Write to us at support@the-hyphen.in with the subject line "Accessibility" and describe what you encountered. We treat all accessibility reports as high priority.