WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the largest U.S. kidney patient organization, today joined the European Kidney Patients’ Federation (EKPF) and the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) in a new collaboration designed to expand the role of kidney patient consumers as central influencers in policy deliberations related to...
Today on World Kidney Day, The European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) would like to bring attention to the ever-growing technological gap that separates dialysis patients from their communities. In 50 years, although every aspect of life seems to have undergone substantial technological advances – phones, TVs, shopping, vacuum-cleaners, and even...
EKHA is looking for a creative Communication and Media Intern to join its team, as of April 2021. The Intern will be working alongside the Secretariat to build up EKHA’s internal and external communication strategy, with the aim to empower the voices of kidney patients in Europe. The intern will be...
EKHA is looking for a motivated Public Affairs Intern to join EKHA’s team, as of April 2021. The Intern will be working alongside the Secretariat to build a Public Affairs work plan, further develop a supportive network of stakeholders involved in kidney health, enhance advocacy activities, and manage EKHA’s external communications. We...
Today, on 26th February 2021, EKHA launched a call to action calling on EU leaders to improve CKD prevention, treatment and care in the aftermath of COVID-19. This call to action, which has been endorsed by 89 stakeholders, urges policy makers to include four key recommendations in future EU policies...
Today, the 26th February 2021, EKHA, together with the European Kidney Patients’ Federation (EKPF) met with EU Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides to discuss the unmet needs and challenges around Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in Europe. During this meeting, EKHA & EKPF discussed the growing and alarming burden of CKD and...
We are pleased to announce that the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) has become a member of EKHA’s Board of Directors, as of the 21st February 2021. ISN is a global professional association dedicated to advancing kidney health worldwide. According to EKHA President Raymond Vanholder: “ISN is a major player...
The new article by Prof. Vanholder, EKHA’s President, and Prof. Lameire, former EKHA's Chairman brings to attention the high burden of COVID-19 for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), who have a high risk to develop severe COVID-19 symptoms and mortality. The article presents EKHA’s recommendations in CKD care, which...
EKHA’s recent study uses data from the ERA-EDTA Registry to estimate the rates of dialysis, kidney transplantation, and comprehensive conservative management (i.e. planned holistic care rather than kidney replacement therapy) for patients with kidney failure in Europe. The results from 33 countries show substantial variations across European countries in the prevalence...
EKHA recently published an article showcasing the psychological impact of mass disasters on health care workers, particularly in nephrology wards. It has been observed that during mass disasters, the number of patients with kidney problems drastically increases. For instance, although COVID-19 was first believed to only affect respiratory tracts, it is...
European Kidney Health Alliance
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out via contact form.
