As part of the pluri-annual framework of the European Commission in health (Third Health programme), the European Commission issued its annual work plan for 2017 to guide its work over the year. With the 2017 plan, the European Commission has set a priority on addressing disease risk factors including unhealthy...
Member of the European Parliament Mr Brando Benifei (Italy, S&D group) recently joined the MEP Group for Kidney Health. Mr Benifei is a member of the parliamentary committee on employment and social affairs. He is an advocate for better health in Europe and greater patient empowerment and has in this...
In its capacity as member of the ECDA and having been elected by the Board of the Alliance, EKHA takes over as of January 2017 the Secretariat of the ECDA – a rotating Presidency - from the European Society of Cardiology for the coming two years. During this time, Professor Vanholder...
The French 2017 budget law foresees the expansion of the national telemedicine pilot project, launched two years ago to develop telemedicine as a means to improve the follow up of patients after hospital discharge. As of 2017, priority will be set on telesurveillance of patients with chronic diseases and especially...
On the 1st of January 2017, Malta’s term at the helm of the Council of the EU started for a six month period until the end of June 2017, taking over from Slovakia. Malta participated to the setting of the trio Presidency (The Netherlands and Slovakia) programme, defining the...
The European Chronic Diseases Alliance, which EKHA is a member of, co-organized the conference “the European Response to Chronic Diseases - the Role of Civil Society” on the 12nd and 13th of December in Brussels, in partnership...
EKHA sends to each of you its best wishes for the New Year! May 2017 be filled with health and joy. We look forward to continuing working together towards our shared goal of improving policies to address CKD in Europe and reduce the burden of the condition on patients’ lives.
While the system for organ donation in France is based on presumed consent, new rules which entered into force as of the 1st of January 2017 amend the 1976 legislation on organ donation and set an online national refusal register allowing citizens to opt out by registering during their...
Belgian Health Minister Maggie De Block announced on the 21st of November that the Belgian National Insurance Institute Inami decided to reduce the healthcare fees for living organ donors. As of Spring 2017, living organ donors will not have to pay the non-refundable part of the healthcare costs linked with...
European Commission Executive Agency CHAFEA organized a conference on nutrition and physical activities focusing on how the EU contributes to public health priorities including obesity between the 30th November and 2nd December in Budapest. The meeting aimed to share the results of the projects co-financed by the European Commission under...
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.
