Beth Richard2
The IDS Bulletin has been in continuous publication since 1968 and, during this time, it has been published in several formats, from printed paperback to its current offering of PDF and HTML. Digital publishing has the potential to greatly increase inclusion for people with disabilities. For example, readers can transform the text size and line spacing or listen to the content.
Digital has long been the dominant scholarly journal format; in 2024, it generated over eight times more revenue for UK publishers than print (Publishers Association 2025). But when digital content is not created with accessibility in mind, it can result in significant barriers to accessing knowledge. Much attention has focused on open access in scholarly publishing, i.e. allowing readers to freely access and download information without barriers. In recent years, much more focus has been brought to accessibility, i.e. designing and creating digital content in a way that can be universally accessed by everyone, including people with disabilities. Scholarly publishing has an important role to play in making knowledge available to all on an equitable basis, at the point of publication.
The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) has long been an advocate of open access publishing. Since production and publication of the IDS Bulletin was brought back in-house in 2016, each issue has been freely available to download and to re-use under Creative Commons licence; similarly, IDS’ series publications and eBooks are published open access and are freely downloadable from the IDS OpenDocs repository.3
IDS’ values and vision for a more equitable world, together with the disability-inclusive development team’s work on disability inclusion, further spurred on the Institute’s commitment to accessible publishing. In 2020, colleagues at IDS formed an Accessible Communications Group, which has since led initiatives to increase the accessibility of IDS’ communications in all forms, from publishing to online and in-person events, to social media channels and the website.
The developments in the publishing work of IDS have been wide, adapting workflows to embed accessibility from the authoring stage through to publication. One of the most significant achievements is the inclusion of image descriptions (alt text) in IDS series publications, IDS eBooks, and the IDS Bulletin, offering a text alternative to visual content. IDS works with authors and copy editors to write and edit meaningful descriptions that offer an equitable reading experience. The PDFs of these publications are tagged for navigation, as are the IDS Bulletin HTML articles and IDS Policy Briefings. Colour combinations that may not be suitable for readers with low vision were identified and discounted, and the team works with designers to produce high-contrast images that work in colour and in monochrome.
Building on this work, and ahead of the European Accessibility Act deadline in June 2025, IDS began a project to make its eBook back-catalogue available in accessible PDF and Electronic Publication (EPUB) formats. More information about IDS’ eBook accessibility can be found in the IDS website Accessibility Statement.4
The PDF format remains prevalent in scholarly publishing. A fixed layout by nature, PDFs can be difficult to read and navigate on small screens, and there are limited opportunities for the reader to adjust the content to suit their reading needs. However, they are preferred by many readers, and it is possible to make them accessible by conforming to the ISO standard PDF/UA (User Accessibility)5 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).6
HTML and eXtensible Markup Language (XML) have the potential to be very accessible, again by applying the WCAG principles to make the content Perceivable, Operable, Usable, and Robust. Readers can increase the font size, navigate through the heading structure, use magnification, listen to the content using read‑aloud software, and make a range of other adaptations.
The reflowable EPUB 3 format offers users extra advantages. It can be downloaded like a PDF and read offline with e-reader software or read in a browser; users can bookmark, highlight, and make notes; the content can be personalised such as background colour, font choice, or spacing; and the file retains PDF and print journal features such as page numbers.
For the first time, this issue of the IDS Bulletin is being published in both accessible online PDF and reflowable EPUB 3 formats. It is a milestone for the IDS Bulletin team, which has been progressively increasing the accessibility of the journal over the past few years. Although publishing accessible content is important for every issue, it is essential to walk the talk when publishing a journal issue about disability inclusion. It will offer all readers the flexibility to access the IDS Bulletin in the way that best suits them, learn from the valuable research published by the authors, and use it for impact towards a more equitable and sustainable world.
1 This issue of the IDS Bulletin was supported by UK aid under its flagship Disability Inclusive Development (DID) programme. The DID programme was delivered through two separate programmes. The eight-year consortium intervention, Disability Inclusive Development Inclusive Futures (Inclusive Futures) programme, led by Sightsavers and the International Disability Alliance, ran from August 2018 to March 2026. It has reached more than 19 million people and generated almost 300 learning and evidence resources to inform policy and practice on disability-inclusive development. The evaluation programme, the Programme for Evidence to Inform Disability Action (PENDA), was delivered by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The opinions expressed are the authors’ own and do not reflect the views of the funders.
2 Beth Richard, Product Manager for Content Accessibility, Elsevier and former Senior Publishing Editor, Institute of Development Studies.
4 IDS website Accessibility Statement.
5 ISO standard PDF/UA (User Accessibility).
6 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The European Accessibility Act and forthcoming Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II update (April 2026) both reference conformance to WCAG 2.1 AA.
Publishers Association (2025) Publishing in 2024 (accessed 5 February 2026)
© 2026 The Authors. IDS Bulletin © Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2026.153 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited and any modifications or adaptations are indicated.
The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton, BN1 9RE, UK. This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 57 No. 1 March 2026 ‘Building Disability-Inclusive Futures’; the Introduction is also recommended reading.