EKHA published a new infographic calling on policymakers to address rare kidney diseases in health care plans. A panel of experts from the nephrology community has identified policy actions to address the challenges that hinder the provision of targeted care for rare kidney diseases. These recommendations constitute a holistic approach...
On 9 and 10 November 2023, the Organización Nacional de Trasplantes (ONT), under the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, convened in Santander a Global Summit entitled “Towards Global Convergence in Transplantation: Sufficiency, Transparency and Oversight”. the Summit aimed to critically review the current state of donation...
In an open letter to European Union policymakers published in the wake of the 2023 European Day of Organ Donation and Transplantation, the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) underlines the urgent need to develop a renewed Action Plan on Organ Donation and Transplantation to address the shortage of donor organs...
The Société Francophone de Néphrologie Dialyse Transplantation (SFNDT, Francophone Society for Nephrology, Dialysis, and Transplantation) recently released the English-language version of its good practice guide for green dialysis, as originally published in early 2023. The publication, “Towards Green Dialysis: Good Practice Guide,” presents several best practices to map and reduce...
Writing in Nature Reviews Nephrology, EKHA President Prof. Raymond Vanholder and others recently highlighted the enduring inequities present in the fields of kidney health and kidney care. In their article, “Inequities in kidney health and kidney care”, the authors draw attention to a range of unnecessary and unfair differences in...
The healthcare sector presents a significant environmental challenge. Therefore, healthcare providers and policymakers must work together to meet the EU Green Deal targets. The two groups will need to consider ways to meet the healthcare needs of citizens, while also minimising negative environmental consequences. EKHA’s European Kidney Forum 2023 will be...
The June 2023 issue of the Clinical Kidney Journal (CKJ) features an article highlighting harmonized efforts to advance kidney replacement therapies (KRTs). Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is on track to become the fifth global cause of death by 2040. Unfortunately, factors contributing to the disease – such as insufficient...
Today, the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA), the Dutch Kidney Foundation (DKF), the European Kidney Patients’ Federation (EKPF), the European Renal Association (ERA), the European Dialysis and Transplant Nurses Association/European Renal Care Association (EDTNA/ERCA), and the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) pause to reflect on the life and passing of...
The cover of the May issue of the Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation (NDT) journal displays EKHA’s visual for the Decade of the Kidney™. The journal also includes EKHA’s article on the Decade of the Kidney™, which details the activities of EKHA at the EU level, as well as EKHA’s...
In the Health Europa Quarterly Issue 25 (May 2023), EKHA President Raymond Vanholder and General Manager Eveline Scheres highlight where further efforts are needed to improve the prevention and care of kidney diseases in the article ‘Improving care and awareness of CKD’. The article describes the main challenges in the...
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.
