Prof. Vanholder and the EKHA Secretariat participated in the event “15 million hearts, 15 million lives” on the 19th of October in the European Parliament. Hosted by Mrs Annie Schreijer-Pierik - member of the MEP group for kidney health - the event marked the launch of a
In the scope of the campaign led by PHA Europe to improve Organ Donation and Transplantation across the EU, EKHA contributed to the event "Improving organ donation and transplant across the EU: A cross-condition campaign" held on the 18th of October in the European Parliament in Brussels,...
While one of the priorities of the upcoming Maltese EU Council Presidency in the health field will be childhood obesity, the country will work to review the EU Child Obesity Plan 2015-2020 to assess the state of play and accelerate actions needed. The Maltese Presidency will also propose to EU...
On the 18th of October, EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis shared a message on organ donation to mark the European Organ Donation Day. Referring to organ donation as a “gift of hope”, he reminded of his experience with the first even heart transplant operation in the Baltic States, as a cardio-surgeon in...
Following the issuance by the UK Government of its Childhood Obesity Action Plan in August, Ireland published in late September an Obesity Policy and Action Plan for 2016-2025. Titled “a Healthy Weight for Ireland”, the strategy builds on ‘Ten Steps Forward’ that will be taken in order...
On the occasion of European Organ Donation Day, the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) supports the Call to Action to improve Organ Donation and Transplantation across the EU. Endorsed by a wide variety of other concerned patient groups, health advocacy organisations and academics, EU Member States are called...
In the scope of the informal meeting of health ministers held in Bratislava on 3rd and 4th October under the Slovak Presidency, Maltese health Minister Chris Fearne noted that Malta believed the European Union needs to adopt a long-term plan to deal with the composition of processed foods, with the...
Brussels, 27 September 2016. Today, nearly 40 childrens’ rights, family, consumer, public health, alcohol control, and medical organisations launched a joint call to Members of the European Parliament for ambitious action to free Europe’s children, youth and parents from aggressive marketing of products harmful to health and future well-being. Europe...
On Tuesday 13th September, the Dutch Parliament in a vote of 75 to 74 approved a draft bill by the democratic party (D66) for an opt-out system for organ donation. The Dutch Kidney Foundation along with patient organisations and other health foundations welcomed the vote. Tom Oostrom (director Dutch Kidney Foundation):...
With the aim to update and continue the Action Plan for implementation of the European Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases 2012–2016, the World Health Organisation adopted during its Regional Committee meeting on 12-15th September in Copenhagen its new Action Plan on non-communicable diseases for...
European Kidney Health Alliance
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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.
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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.
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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.
