The European Commission appointed on the 25th of November the new fifteen members of its Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health, which is renewed for three years. The members were selected following the related call for expression of interest to participate in the panel, addressed...
In the past decade, international leaders and health advocates have consistently fought to put Non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) on the global agenda, not only the health agenda, but on top of the priorities that must be tackled with a Whole-of-Society, “health in all policies” approach. It resulted in a UN...
Read the Health EU e-newsletter from the 10th of November here, featuring Belgian Member of the European Parliament Hilde Vautmans and Croatian Member Ivan Jakovčić, in light of the event on organ donation and transplant in the EU organised in cooperation with the Pulmonary Hypertension Association Europe (PHA Europe) in...
The European Commission has launched a database for interested scientists to register in order to contribute to the work of the European Commission’s Scientific Committees in the new 2016-2021 term. Scientists would be involved on an ad hoc basis on specific issues, as external experts, members of...
On the 26th of October during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Members adopted the ENVI Committee motion for a resolution on transfat in processed food, calling for mandatory limits on industrially-produced trans-fatty acids (TFA) to limit their intake in Europeans and help prevent risks of cardiovascular...
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...
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.
