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 22 May 2026, every URL on the site is served by the modernised Eleventy templates. The last five Mobirise / AMP ticket-flow pages have been retired and now redirect to the current conference. The site achieves partial compliance: most success criteria are met, with a small number of documented limitations (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 all templates.

In June 2026 we ran a broader site-wide review: a multi-pass assessment of every page (in English, French, and German) across seven dimensions, including WCAG 2.2 Level AA accessibility, with each finding independently re-checked before it was accepted. It surfaced no critical or serious barriers. The accessibility findings, and how each was resolved or is being tracked, are recorded in the public issue tracker; the resulting improvements are reflected in §4 and the remaining items in §3.

3. Known limitations

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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
  • Site search opens as a modal dialog that holds keyboard focus (the rest of the page is set inert while it is open, so Tab cannot drift behind the overlay) and behaves as an ARIA combobox: results form a listbox moved through with the arrow keys, Enter follows the highlighted result, Escape closes
  • English text shown inside the French and German pages (the live conference programme and board-member details, which come from external sources in English) is marked lang="en" so screen readers pronounce it with the right phonetics
  • 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. All templates of the site meet the standard. The residual partial-compliance label reflects the documented limitations in §3 (embedded PDFs, translucent surfaces, generic alt text on some archive photos). Automated audits currently report zero violations, the June 2026 review found no critical or serious barriers, and the items in “manual review” have been individually verified compliant.

Statement prepared: 14 May 2026 · Last reviewed: 2 June 2026 · Next scheduled review: 14 May 2027 or upon major design change.