The Accessibility Paradox: Can Research Articles Inspecting Accessibility Be Inaccessible?

Relevant literature focusing on the accessibility of electronic documents (e.g., PDFs) has been increasing in recent years. Despite its significance, paradoxically, scientific articles, even those related to accessibility-themed topics, often fail to provide fully accessible content, thus creating a gap between theory and practice. Therefore, we aimed to explore how PDF versions of academic articles on digital accessibility evaluation, published in the past ten years, comply with established accessibility standards. We performed a tool-based evaluation using Adobe Accessibility Checker and a manual evaluation to inspect the articles comprehensively. The results showed that none of the analyzed articles were problem-free. They, however, contained recurring, severe accessibility barriers, making it highly challenging for people who rely on screen readers to access information. Also, the evaluated data showed no discernible pattern of changes over the years.