Accessibility

Accessibility statement

The European Initiative for Security Studies is committed to making eiss-europa.com usable to as wide an audience as possible, including people with disabilities.

1. Conformance overview

The EISS website targets WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance, aligned with the European standard EN 301 549 for ICT accessibility.

As of 14 May 2026, the 40 modernised pages of the site achieve partial compliance: most success criteria are met, with documented limitations on five legacy ticket-flow pages still served as the original Mobirise / AMP exports (see §3 Known limitations).

2. Audit results

An automated assessment was performed using axe-core 4.10.2 across 9 representative pages × 2 colour schemes (18 scans total) on 14 May 2026:

  • 0 violations
  • 568 passes
  • 22 items needing manual review — predominantly color-contrast on translucent “glass” surfaces, where axe cannot reliably compute the effective background through a backdrop-filter. We have verified these compliant in both light and dark themes.

Lighthouse 13 gives the modernised pages 100 / 100 on Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO.

Beyond automated tools, the static lint scripts/a11y_lint.py is run on each build and currently reports 0 pages with issues across the 40 modernised templates.

3. Known limitations

  1. Legacy ticket pages. The five ticket-{combo-cat,external-cat,home,member-cat,member-prompt}.html URLs are still served as the original AMP HTML exports and have not been retro-fitted to the design system. They remain reachable but do not match the contrast, focus, or keyboard guarantees of the rest of the site. Mitigation: the modernised membership and conference pages cover the same flows and are linked from all primary entry points; the ticket URLs themselves are not surfaced in the main navigation. We may retire or rewrite them in a future update.
  2. Embedded PDFs. Documents such as the 2026 conference programme are presented inline via an <object> embed. Mitigation: each embed is paired with a visible Download button and an in-line fallback link inside the <object> for browsers that cannot render PDF; the document content itself is only as accessible as the source PDF.
  3. Translucent “glass” surfaces. The sticky top nav and certain card backgrounds use backdrop-filter blur. axe cannot reliably compute the effective foreground/background contrast through a filter. Mitigation: we have manually verified that text on these surfaces meets AA in both themes, and the mobile menu drawer was switched to a fully opaque background so menu items are never overlaid on hero content.
  4. Archive conference photos. Some images in the 2019–2024 archive pages carry generic alt text inherited from the original publication. Mitigation: we tighten alt text on each archive page as we revisit it; meaningful captions and surrounding context provide the same information for screen reader users.

4. Accessibility features implemented

  • Semantic landmarks (<header>, <nav aria-label="Primary">, <main>, <footer>) and a skip-to-content link as the first focusable element on every page
  • Visible focus indicators via :focus-visible on every interactive control
  • Light and dark colour schemes both meeting WCAG AA contrast ratios for body text, links, and UI
  • Automatic dark mode via prefers-color-scheme, with a manual override that persists in localStorage
  • All animations gated on prefers-reduced-motion — when the user opts out, transitions and reveal animations are disabled
  • Resizable text reflowing cleanly at 200 % zoom and at viewports down to 320 px
  • Alt text on every meaningful image; decorative images carry alt="" to be skipped by assistive technologies
  • Descriptive link text — every link indicates its destination without relying on surrounding context (no bare “Learn more”)
  • Links in body text underlined, so colour is not the only distinguishing cue (WCAG 1.4.1)
  • Native <details> for FAQ accordions (e.g. NetSec Summer School, Euro-SWAMOS) — keyboard-accessible without JavaScript
  • Mobile navigation drawer with opaque background, aria-expanded on the toggle, focus management on close
  • Theme toggle as a real <button> with aria-label that updates with state
  • Real mailto: contact link with pre-filled subject for accessibility feedback

5. Compatibility

The site is designed to work with current versions of the major browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge) on desktop, tablet, and mobile, and with current versions of the major screen readers (VoiceOver, NVDA, JAWS, TalkBack).

JavaScript is used only for the theme toggle and mobile menu. The site is fully readable and navigable without JavaScript enabled.

6. Feedback & review

If you encounter any accessibility barrier on this site — a confusing layout, a missing label, a contrast issue, a focus you can’t see, anything at all — please tell us. We treat accessibility issues as bugs and fix them as soon as we can.

Contact contact@eiss-europa.com. We aim to acknowledge accessibility reports within 10 working days and to publish a fix or a workaround within 30 working days for issues we can reproduce.

Email accessibility feedback

This statement is reviewed at least annually, and re-assessed after any major design change. The source code and public issue tracker live on GitHub.

7. Conformance status

Partial conformance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA, aligned with EN 301 549. The 40 modernised templates of the site meet the standard; the 5 legacy ticket pages listed in §3 do not. Automated audits currently report zero violations and the items in “manual review” have been individually verified compliant.

Statement prepared: 14 May 2026 · Last reviewed: 14 May 2026 · Next scheduled review: 14 May 2027 or upon major design change.