PubMed Central Accessibility

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) makes every effort to ensure that the information available on our websites is accessible to all.  If you use assistive technology to access the web and experience problems using our site, please let us know by contacting NLM Customer Service at custserv@nlm.nih.gov or through the NLM Support Center or by phone at (888) FIND-NLM (346-3656) or (301) 594-5983. Please have available the URL, PMCID, or journal and article title with which you need assistance, along with a description of the problem. We will work with you to provide the information to you in an alternate format.  

Accessibility of PMC Articles

NLM’s PubMed Central (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal articles. NLM converts and stores submitted articles to the ANSI/NISO Z39.96-2015 JATS eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format, which enables long-term preservation and supports accessibility.

NLM displays articles in PMC in structured HTML that is responsive to different screen sizes and devices and compatible with assistive technologies to enable broad accessibility. The presentation of articles in PMC is consistent with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Accessible Rich Internet Applications Recommendation. We aim to be consistent with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and Section 255 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (47 U.S.C. 255), which include W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0 AA) success criteria.

NLM aims to make as much content in PMC as accessible as possible, but we are limited, in part, by the completeness of information included with article submissions. NLM also stores images, supplementary materials, and some historical articles as PDFs in PMC that may not be as accessible as article text presented in HTML. NLM continues to work with relevant communities to develop improved guidance for making more submitted content accessible to all.