The 2021 European Kidney Forum will take place on the 18th June 2021 from 10:30 to 12:00 CEST. The MEP Group for Kidney Health and the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) look forward to the insightful discussions that will emerge from the theme “Unmet needs & challenges in access to...
The final edition of the Vascular Access Handbook For People With Kidney Disease, endorsed by EKHA, is now available on the Spanish Multidisciplinary Vascular Access Group (GEMAV) website. This Handbook, written by GEMAV in collaboration with the Spanish National Federation of Associations for the Fight Against Kidney Diseases (ALCER) and...
The latest publication of EKHA provides an in-depth overview of the elements that constitute the current challenges in kidney disease. The publication, which can be used for advocacy purposes, emphasizes the urgent need to reduce the rapidly growing burden of kidney disease worldwide. In Europe, it is estimated that 100...
A recent paper to which Prof. Raymond Vanholder, EKHA President, contributed, looked into structures, organisation, and services for the management of kidney failure across the Western European region. There has been a steady increase in kidney failure in Western Europe. This rise in burden is mainly attributable to ageing populations and...
EKHA contributed to a recent survey assessing the opinions and experiences of patients with end-stage kidney diseases (ESKD) on treatment modalities. The survey asked ESKD patients about their experience of KRT and the factors that influenced their choice of treatment. The survey provided a number of findings about ESKD patient’s access...
A recent article, led by the Nephrology Public Policy Committee (NPPC) of the European Renal Association – European Dialysis and Transplant Association (ERA-EDTA), proposes a model to promote clinical collaboration on Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) in Europe. AKI is an essential element of clinical nephrology but is often neglected. The...
In 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became a binding law in the EU and led to uncertainty in the research community. A recent study, to which the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) contributed, assesses the main principles of GDPR in relation to biomedical research. It reviews the practical...
The European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) recently contributed to a survey analysing the factors shaping nephrologists’ choices about treatment modalities for patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) across Europe. According to the survey, most European nephrologists are in favour of increasing the uptake of kidney transplantation, home dialysis and comprehensive conservative...
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the largest U.S. kidney patient organization, today joined the European Kidney Patients’ Federation (EKPF) and the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) in a new collaboration designed to expand the role of kidney patient consumers as central influencers in policy deliberations related to...
Today on World Kidney Day, The European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) would like to bring attention to the ever-growing technological gap that separates dialysis patients from their communities. In 50 years, although every aspect of life seems to have undergone substantial technological advances – phones, TVs, shopping, vacuum-cleaners, and even...
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.
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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.
