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...
On the 18th of August, the UK Government unveiled its Action Plan on childhood obesity for the next 10 years, in light of the worrying preoccupying situation with nearly a third of children aged 2-15 overweight or obese in the UK. The strategy is structured around a two-fold aim: 1....
Through the use of the “right to alert” provided in the French reform law on the modernization of the healthcare system introduced by French Health Minister Marisol Touraine on the 26th of January 2016, the French Collectif Interassociatif sur la Santé (CISS), representing 44 patients associations in France, has asked...
Taking stock of the successful results of the new presumed consent scheme for organ donation implemented in Wales, doctors in the UK are calling on the Government to switch to an opt-out organ donation system as well. During a meeting at the British Medical Association on the 22nd of June,...
The Welsh have benefited from an increase in organ donations during the first six months (December 2015-June 2016) after the introduction of a new scheme for organ donation in the country, under which people are deemed to consent to organ donation unless they opt-out. The Welsh Government has announced that 60...
The Belgian Government has selected 16 pilot projects on integrated healthcare for people with chronic diseases in Belgium to be state supported, announced the Health Ministry on the 16th of June. The initiative follows a call for related projects launched by the Government...
On the 13th of June, a voluntary agreement (‘the Balanced Food Covenant’) was endorsed by the Belgian Health Ministry, the food industry federation Fevia and the federation for trade and services Comeos, to reduce the calories intake in food in the country before the end of 2017. The measure includes...
On the 12th of July, the European Parliament held a debate on transfats in food with European Commission representatives, and discussed a draft motion for resolution co-signed by eight MEPs from all political groups (MEP Renate Sommer (EPP, Germany); MEP Daciana Octavia Sârbu (S&D, Romania), MEP Nikolay Barekov (ECR), MEP...
While Slovakia took over the EU Council Presidency on the 1st of July for the next six months until the 31st of December 2016, the Slovak Health Minister Tomáš Drucker presented the Slovakian Presidency priorities in the health field to the European Parliament ENVI Committee on the 12th of July....
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.
