Accessibility
Our accessibility commitment
We work to ensure that all investors can access our products and services to help them reach their financial goals.
Vanguard's mission is to take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success. With diversity and inclusiveness among our core values, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities can access our products and services.
As part of this commitment, we maintain an Accessibility Office, which includes a dedicated team of accessibility professionals that continually reviews and suggests accessibility enhancements for our websites and apps.
Web accessibility
Vanguard believes that all people should have equal access to online information and functionality. We have adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Levels A and AA for web and mobile.
Browser access with a screen reader
A screen reader is a type of assistive technology that reads content out loud. It tends to be optimized to work with a specific browser. For the best online Vanguard experience, the following combinations are recommended:
JAWS
Job Access With Speech and Chrome
NVDA
NonVisual Desktop Access and Chrome
VO
VoiceOver and Safari
Other browsers and assistive technology software may work, at least in part, with our website, but you may not have the best user experience if you decide to use other combinations.
Keyboard access
To navigate using the keyboard, press Tab, Shift + Tab, and (for some components) Arrow. Controls can be activated using either Space or Enter.
Low-vision support
Your web browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox, etc.) can help support your view of most web pages including page zoom, font size and color changes, and accessing reader mode. More accessibility settings are available on your operating system.
Zoom your browser window
You can activate the zooming capabilities of your web browser with these keys:
- Make everything larger using CTRL and + (on a Mac, CMD and +).
- Make everything smaller using CTRL and – (on a Mac, CMD and –).
- Press the window resize icon to maximize the window size.
Adjust browser text size and color
- In Edge, go to Settings, choose Appearance, and in the Fonts section change the font size to large or very large.
- In Firefox, go to Open menu, then go to Options, Language and Appearance, then to Font & Colors.
- In Chrome, open the Customize and Control Google Chrome menu, go to Settings, and then to Appearance.
- In Safari, open the Safari menu and go to Preferences to change the text size.
Use general mobile settings
Most mobile devices have accessibility settings that allow you to change font size, increase contrast, customize the zoom function, and more:
- On an Apple device, open Settings and Accessibility.
- On an Android device, open Settings and Accessibility.
Consider additional software
Software is available that not only magnifies the screen but also allows the user to choose special fonts, read aloud the entire screen content or just a selection, echo typing or mouse movements, and adjust cursor, pointer, and focus elements. Some software comes with a camera to look at your documents and magnify or read the content.
Other accessible alternatives
Accessible document formats
Large-print and screen-reader-friendly PDF formats are available for personal account statements, certain tax forms, and the privacy policy notice. The large-print version provides documents in 16- to 18-point font, which significantly increases the number of pages. The screen-reader-friendly version provides documents compatible with common screen-reader software. To access these formats:
1
Log in to your Vanguard account.
2
Select My Accounts, then select Profile & Account Settings.
3
Look for Mail preferences section, then select Delivery settings.
4
Select Customize Mailing Preferences.
5
Click Select an accessible document format.
6
Choose large-print or screen-reader-friendly format.
Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS)
Telecommunications relay service calls allow people with speech or hearing limitations to use the telephone system to call Vanguard using a text telephone (TTY) or other Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD). Typed messages are relayed as voice messages by the operator; voice replies are converted to text.
Use your TTY or dial 711 (in the U.S.) to be automatically connected to a relay service operator. To use a relay service, you must initiate the call to Vanguard. If you wish to communicate with Vanguard through TDD, call 1-800-749-7273 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Eastern time. Outside these hours, you will receive a message that provides our hours of operation and asks that you leave your name and TDD phone number so we can return your call.
Access to relay services via 711 is not available for the internet-based forms of TRS (VRS and IP Relay). However, users of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) do have this access.
Contact us
We have a formal process for responding to accessibility-related requests on a case-by-case basis. Contact us by email at accessibility@vanguard.com.
Include the following information:
- Web page address/URL.
- Directions on how to get to the page.
- Specific accessibility problems you have encountered.
- Browser name and version.
- Operating system (desktop or mobile).
