Accessibility Terms
The Massachusetts Times · Published by The Massachusetts Times Company · massachusettstimes.us/terms/accessibility · Effective October 16, 2026
In plain terms. The record is yours however you read. If you read by screen reader, braille display, magnification, voice, or switch, you are a reader here on equal footing, and our defenses will never knowingly mistake your tools for machines. A barrier is a defect: tell us and we repair it, fastest when it blocks you entirely. No one is ever asked to prove a disability to read a newspaper, no charge is ever made for access or accessible formats, and asking leaves no mark — no account, no list, no file. We measure ourselves against the W3C's accessibility guidelines and bind ourselves to the repair rather than certifying a perfection no publisher honestly has. This summary is part of the terms and binds us like any article below, and ambiguity is read in favor of the reader.
Article 1 — The Commitment
1.1. The published record of The Massachusetts Times belongs to every reader, and the Access Terms' grant — free, unconditioned, unmetered — is held by readers with disabilities on equal footing. This page is where that equal footing is made enforceable.
1.2. Accessibility here is a term of the publication, not a statement of aspiration posted to be forgotten. You may hold us to it under the Dispute Terms like any term we publish.
1.3. A record only some can read is a record with a wall in it, and our Access Terms already told you what we call a wall.
Article 2 — One Record for Everyone
2.1. Accessibility is a property of the record itself, not of a sidecar. We do not maintain a separate, lesser "accessible edition" that trails the real one — the pages everyone reads are the pages built to be read by everyone.
2.2. Where a supplementary rendering exists for anyone's convenience, it is a supplement, never the excuse. The main record remains the accessible record.
2.3. Access features are never priced. There is no charge, surcharge, or upsell anywhere on massachusettstimes.us for reading in the manner you read.
Article 3 — The Lane as Built
3.1. The record is served as real text in structured pages on the open web, readable in a standard browser — not as images of text, not behind an app, not behind an account, as the Access Terms provide.
3.2. The pages are built to work with what readers already use: browser zoom and text scaling with reflow rather than sideways scrolling, reading modes, high-contrast settings, and keyboard navigation.
3.3. Structure is kept meaningful — headings that are headings, links that say where they go — because assistive technology reads the structure, and a page that lies about its structure lies to those readers first.
Article 4 — Assistive Technology Is Reading
4.1. A screen reader, braille display, magnifier, voice-control system, or switch interface is a reader at this publication, with the full grant of the Access Terms. The tool is the reader's eyes and hands, not a machine visitor.
4.2. Our defenses never knowingly target assistive technology. The Machine Terms govern crawlers and bulk collectors; they do not reach the person reading one page at human pace through the technology they read with.
4.3. Where any defense of ours catches assistive technology by error, the error is ours and is a defect under Article 6 — report it and we repair it. A publication that makes disabled readers solve puzzles to prove their humanity has the burden exactly backwards.
Article 5 — The Measuring Stick
5.1. We build to and repair against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as currently published by the W3C, at their widely adopted conformance level.
5.2. We do not certify perfection, because no honest publisher can; the web shifts, works vary, and errors occur. What we bind ourselves to is the standard as the measure, the repair as the duty, and Article 6 as the machinery.
5.3. Where the guidelines are ambiguous as applied to a page of ours, the reading that serves the disabled reader governs.
Article 6 — A Barrier Is a Defect
6.1. Anything on massachusettstimes.us that a reader cannot reach with their assistive technology or ordinary accommodations — an unlabeled control, an image carrying meaning with no text alternative, a trap a keyboard cannot escape — is a defect, not a design choice, no matter what the surface looks like.
6.2. Report it through the publication's published contact channels, in whatever form you can send. A plain description of what blocked you is a complete report; no template, audit citation, or technical vocabulary is required.
6.3. The clock runs by gravity, as the Correction Terms' clock does: a barrier that blocks reading entirely moves to the front of all work; lesser barriers are repaired promptly. Every report receives an answer — the repair made, or the reason and what comes next.
6.4. This article is the sibling of the Access Terms' rule that a paywall appearing in error is a malfunction. A barrier is the same malfunction wearing different code, and it binds us the same way.
Article 7 — Images, Sound, and Video
7.1. Images that carry meaning carry text alternatives, written to convey what the image contributes to the work — and where a photograph is itself the journalism, described as faithfully as our craft allows.
7.2. Audio and video we produce carry transcripts or captions as part of the work.
7.3. Where embedded material from outside our walls falls short of this page, we say so where it appears and offer the substance another way on request — a shortfall we did not build is still a gap we answer for in our pages.
Article 8 — Plain Language
8.1. Clarity is an accessibility feature, and it is policy here. Every terms page of ours opens in plain terms that bind; jargon is avoided, and defined where it cannot be avoided.
8.2. We write to be understood on first reading, because a page that requires a lawyer is walled to almost everyone, and this publication does not build walls it then apologizes for.
Article 9 — Formats on Request
9.1. An accessible format of any work of ours — the text of a work in a form your technology can use — is provided on request, without charge, where we can produce it with reasonable effort.
9.2. The request is made through the publication's published contact channels, and the answer tells you what we can provide and when, or why we cannot and what we can do instead. Silence is not an answer we give.
Article 10 — No Proof, No Mark
10.1. No one is ever asked to prove a disability to read this publication, to report a barrier, or to request a format. The request is its own justification.
10.2. Asking leaves no mark. Consistent with the Data Terms, an accessibility request creates no account, joins no list, and builds no file; what must exist to complete the repair or fulfill the request exists for that purpose and no longer.
10.3. Anyone may ask on a reader's behalf — a family member, teacher, librarian, or friend — with the same standing and the same answer.
Article 11 — Beyond the Statutes
11.1. We do not litigate whether the accessibility laws reach a publication like this one. These terms reach us, by our own act, and their obligations stand whatever any court says about any statute's edge.
11.2. A dispute under this page runs as every dispute here runs: your report under Article 6 is the knock, thirty days is the cure, and after that the open courts of the Dispute Terms — never an arbitration ambush, never a gag, and never a countersuit for the asking.
Article 12 — Changes to These Terms
12.1. Any narrowing of these commitments is a material adverse change and takes effect no earlier than thirty days after we publish a dated notice, as the Terms of Use require. Silence is not notice, and continued reading is never consent.
12.2. No change reaches backward, and if The Massachusetts Times Company's business changes hands or form, these commitments travel whole to the successor under the assignment article of the Terms of Use. Equal footing is not a feature a buyer may sunset.
Article 13 — The Spine These Terms Share
13.1. These Accessibility Terms incorporate the Open Covenant and the general articles of the Terms of Use: the reader's canon, one-way severance, assignment to successors, the record of versions, and the governing law and open courts carried by the Dispute Terms.
13.2. Where these terms and any other page we publish could be read to conflict about a disabled reader's access, the reading that opens the record wider governs.
Article 14 — The Record of These Terms
14.1. The current text of these Accessibility Terms lives at massachusettstimes.us/terms/accessibility, with its effective date at the head. Prior versions and their dates are kept and published alongside it, so what every reader was owed on any given day can always be checked.
These terms are part of the Terms that govern this publication.