Accessibility

Sage Publications Online and Print Accessibility Policy: Facilitating Access

It is part of Sage’s vision and overall mission to disseminate teaching and research materials on a global scale, by combining quality and innovation and by actively responding to the needs of our customers. As such, whenever possible, Sage endeavours to make the process of obtaining accessible content simple.

Sage is committed to providing an equal opportunity for all to benefit from our products and strives to reduce barriers to delivering educational content on a timely basis to all customers.

Our platforms

Sage routinely assesses and schedules iterative enhancements to improve the accessibility of our online platforms. To request Sage platform-specific accessibility documentation (e.g., VPATs, ARCs, roadmaps) or to raise platform-related accessibility queries (e.g., using a screen reader or other assistive technology on a platform), please email us at online.accessibility@sagepub.com.

For assistance with any non-accessibility-related issues, including logging in to an account, redeeming a course code, renewing/canceling a subscription, requesting permissions or submitting a journal article, please contact Sage Customer Support at onlinesupport@sagepub.co.uk OR 1-800-818-7243.

Our support for students with a print disability

We are committed to supplying qualified students with a free copy of any book in PDF provided the student or the student’s institutional library owns or is renting the print or ebook version. We recommend that disability officers or librarians first try resourcing the file from our UK partner, RNIB Bookshare. If RNIB Bookshare cannot fulfil the request, then please contact Sage directly at our dedicated accessibility inbox, accessible@sagepub.co.uk. Please provide your full name, email address and institution of study. Personal medical data will never be requested, nor should it be provided. Please note that accessible copies are issued for use by the qualified student only.

We reply to all enquiries promptly, typically within five working days. If we do not have the PDF/e-file in-house we shall exercise reasonable efforts to have the content digitised at no cost to the requestor. Please note this service may take 2–3 weeks. We are not able to provide books in Word, HTML or XML format. PDFs obtained from Sage directly are DRM-free (no password protection or print/copy restrictions) and permit magnification by the rendering application.

Our ebooks

Sage produces all books in Epub2 and Epub3, with only a few exceptions.

Our Epub3 content incorporates MathML as well as navigational and structural tagging, indicates reading order, and is compatible with many text-to-speech and magnification tools. It is optimized for performance in the Firefox browser with the free NVDA screen reader. Epub3 files of Sage US College titles published since January 1, 2019, include IDPF-compliant accessibility metadata in addition to alternative text and long descriptions where needed.

DRM varies by product, platform, content format and distribution channel. Sage endeavours to enforce a light DRM footprint.

Sage is pleased to announce we have entered the Global Certified Accessible program and are working with Benetech toward certification of our ebook workflow.

Our ongoing efforts

Through our interdepartmental Accessibility Working Group, Sage continues to strive to improve the learning experience of all our readers. We are working on numerous projects to enhance both content and platform accessibility and to make accessibility a focal point of new workflows and product development. We are working on improved navigation, carousel access, video transcripts, audio description for videos and documenting all work in updated VPATs and product roadmaps. Platform VPATs are available on request by emailing online.accessibility@sagepub.com.

Sage is also a signatory of both the Accessible Books Consortium’s Charter for Accessible Publishing and the Publishing Accessible Action Group’s Charter to further its commitment to being a bridge to knowledge.

Our partners

Sage works closely with a wide variety of retail and library ebook vendors. For more information about our partners please visit our eBooks webpage.  Please be aware that third party vendors may apply DRM to Sage books on their platforms at their own discretion.

Sage is delighted to work closely with the AccessText Network, Bookshare, RNIB Bookshare, Accessible Book Consortium Global Book Service, and others in disseminating content for accessibility enhancement. Customers are encouraged to check with those organizations before contacting Sage. Over 8,000 Sage titles are made available through these services. 

More information

To read more about Sage’s commitment to accessibility please see the following industry article:

The Secrets of Failing Better: Accessible Publishing at Sage

This page updated May 2024