Accessibility Torrossa

Our mission

At Casalini Libri our mission has always been to support and further the dissemination of culture by providing increasingly advanced tools that make it easier for academic researchers and scholars worldwide to access scholarly resources. With our Torrossa web platform, we offer an added-value service to libraries and institutions for consulting digital academic texts in the humanities and social sciences, and to publishers for disseminating their scholarly output to international research communities.
A core priority for Casalini Libri is ensuring that everyone can use Torrossa for study and research. For this reason, we are committed to making Torrossa accessible to people who are blind or partially sighted, have dyslexia, or use assistive technologies.

Collaboration with Fondazione LIA

As part of the renewal of our technological infrastructure, the Casalini Libri–Erasmus–@Cult group began a collaboration in 2021 with Fondazione LIA – Libri Italiani Accessibili to address new European requirements and bring our platform into line with the European Accessibility Act, which entered into force in June 2025.
Founded in 2014 through the joint initiative of the Associazione Italiana Editori and the Unione Italiana Ciechi e Ipovedenti to make digital content accessible to all potential readers, Fondazione LIA now plays a leading role internationally in accessibility. It is a member of W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), EDRLab (European Digital Reading Laboratory) and the DAISY Consortium; it actively collaborates with EDItEUR and IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) on defining accessibility metadata standards; and it participates in major international working groups focused on research and development in standards and solutions for accessible reading.

Accessibility audits

Fondazione LIA carried out four accessibility audits of the Torrossa web platform, involving its team of experts in web accessibility and assistive technologies.
Fondazione LIA tested the main processes and activities users can perform on the website, as well as touchpoints, templates and page content. The audits assessed both the website code - reviewed from a semantic and structural perspective - and accessibility and usability with leading screen readers. This was followed by a phase of corrective actions and improvements to the platform. Fondazione LIA also conducted a specific audit of the platform’s visual layout, checking colour contrast combinations used across the site, the use of colour to convey information, and the contrast of visual information needed to identify user interface components and their states.
The audit outcomes are detailed in the technical Accessibility Conformance Report, available in English. This report describes the platform’s level of conformance for each WCAG 2.2 Level AA accessibility requirement.

Audit dates

Fondazione LIA performed a first accessibility review in February 2021, a second review in June 2021 and a third review in December 2021. The most recent review was carried out in September 2025.

The accessibility audits were carried out using:

  • automated testing with professional analysis tools;
  • manual checks of key templates and navigation flows;
  • screen-reader evaluation sessions—particularly VoiceOver on Mac and NVDA on Windows—to verify the real-world usability of content for users of assistive technologies.

These audits helped identify the platform’s strengths as well as areas for improvement, guiding ongoing updates with the aim of steadily increasing the accessibility and usability of the website.

Accessibility of the Torrossa Online Digital Bookstore

The goal of this collaboration is to align the Torrossa platform with accessibility standards, by following internationally defined requirements for making digital content, websites and reading solutions more accessible and easier to use for people with disabilities, in particular:
  • the accessibility guidelines published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), with the aim of progressively aligning with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA;
  • the most up-to-date web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and WAI-ARIA) for the user interface, with particular attention to colour contrast requirements set out in the guidelines;
  • the correct development of the web interface to enable independent navigation using assistive technologies (e.g., JAWS, NVDA, TalkBack or VoiceOver).
Torrossa features

Torrossa is a web platform providing access to a catalogue of different types of digital publications. Content can be read using an online reading solution or with certain downloadable third-party reading softwares, which may offer different levels of accessibility. For ePub and PDF publications, the “Torrossa Reader” desktop application may also be used.

Through the accessible web platform, users can browse the catalogue of available titles, search using bibliographic parameters, purchase a title (or a part of it) in PDF or ePub format, download the file or read the content directly in the browser (for PDF files), and add a title to their personal workspace.

The platform’s user interface has been developed using state-of-the-art web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and WAI-ARIA).

Available content includes different publication types, all in digital format: articles, chapters, books, issues, journals, conference proceedings and miscellanies.

For each document on the platform, the available usage options are indicated at the time of purchase:

  • download;
  • expiry date, if applicable;
  • copy/paste and printing;
  • the ability to add annotations.

Some titles can be read online free of charge, without purchase. Purchased titles can be consulted online and are available for download (subject to any limitations applied by the publisher to specific items).

PDF files can be viewed online in the browser or downloaded and read using the Torrossa Reader reading application. It is also possible to download PDFs and read them using Adobe Reader (XI and later) installed on the user’s device. Adobe Reader can be downloaded at: https://get.adobe.com/reader/.

EPub files may be viewed using the free Torrossa Reader app, installed on the user’s device (PC, laptop or mobile).

Catalogue searches can be performed using bibliographic parameters such as author, title and publisher, or as a free-text (full-text) search. The advanced search function supports numerous filters, including Library of Congress Classification and Dewey classification.

In each record detail page, the “Cite” button allows users to copy and export bibliographic information for correctly citing the resource.

The following features have been designed to be usable independently by all users:

  • browse the catalogue and navigate it using facets;
  • zoom content up to 200% while maintaining correct on-screen display;
  • refine searches using the advanced search functions;
  • add titles to the cart and complete purchase through the checkout;
  • create and manage personal title lists in the workspace;
  • access the purchase archive and download selected resources.

Notice: Some pages include references and links to websites outside the Torrossa platform that may not be fully accessible. In particular, Torrossa relies on Banca Sella for the purchase process. If you experience difficulties when completing the relevant forms, please contact Banca Sella or PayPal directly for support.

Using Torrossa with browsers and screen readers

The Torrossa Online Digital Bookstore platform is compatible with the most recent versions of the browsers and screen readers listed below:

Browser
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Edge
  • Safari
Screen reader (Windows)
  • NVDA
  • Jaws
Screen reader (iOS e MacOS)
  • Voice Over
Screen reader (Android)
  • Talk Back

Reading options

Currently, there are several ways to read content available on Torrossa:
  • PDF files:
    • download and read with Adobe Reader, or
    • download and read with the Torrossa Reader application (currently available for content from institutional sites such as access.torrossa.com and oa.torrossa.com);
    • online reading using the reader developed by Mozilla with the pdf.js software; however, this option currently has some accessibility limitations.
  • ePub files:
    • download and read with the Torrossa Reader application, our new reading solution developed by Casalini from an open-source Readium SDK, to support an accessible reading experience.

Accessibility of digital editions

As of December 2025, Torrossa hosts 1.2 million digital editions in PDF format and over 70,000 digital editions in ePub format, from 700 publishers.

The level of accessibility may vary depending on the publisher, the complexity, and the format of each publication. Our goal is to progressively extend the accessibility of the content we distribute.

Since 2022, our collaboration with Fondazione LIA has worked in this direction by fostering synergies with publishers, with the aim of supporting the native production of new, accessible content, according to each publisher’s catalogue availability.

When alternative image descriptions are provided within titles, they can be read in context using a screen reader.

DRM 

Casalini Libri uses two types of DRM: a DRM for PDF files based on Adobe Management Forms technology and usable via Adobe Reader, and the recently introduced LCP DRM, which allows both PDFs and ePub files to be read and downloaded in the Torrossa Reader application.

LCP DRM, particularly for ePub files, meets the relevant accessibility parameters. Casalini is currently working with publishers to improve the accessibility of PDF files.

Download, copy/paste and printing

Download, copy/paste and printing permissions are generally enabled for content distributed on Torrossa, except for titles where publishers or rights holders impose contractual limitations on the use of specific content.

Licenses

Terms of use are shown on the title record during checkout and in the purchase archive. For institutional licences, specific agreements are defined with institutions; in all cases, permissions are displayed on the title record. Access to licensed content may be temporary or permanent and may include all usage permissions or only some of them, depending on the content. The permissions in force are always visible for the item being used.

Document preparation

This document was drafted on 13 December 2021 and last updated on 17 December 2025.

Contact

For clarification on how to access or navigate Torrossa and its features, please send a message to accessibility@casalini.it.

Our team will respond within 5 business days of your request.

We also welcome reports or suggestions regarding accessibility at accessibility@casalini.it.

Information
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