Accessibility of the Europarl website

Web accessibility means making sure that people with the widest range of capabilities can easily access information and functions available on the internet.

As a public sector organisation, the European Parliament looks to ensure equal access to information for all users, with or without disabilities, regardless of the device or software they are using and the environment they are working in so that they can use the information, services and tools we provide.

The Parliament is committed to making its websites accessible and we are actively working to improve the user experience for everyone by increasing the accessibility and usability. Part of this work involves ensuring we meet the current standards for our products and content, including those listed in the EU web accessibility directive (Official Journal of the EU), which entered into force in December 2016.

The directive requires public sector organisations to apply Download the document European standard EN 301 549 to their websites and online tools. This standard is based on the latest version of the guidelines, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, conformance level AA.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines were produced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as part of the web accessibility initiative. They are intended for all web content providers, writers, developers and designers.

Accessible content should meet the four principles of web accessibility (the ‘POUR’ principles):

1. Perceivable – content should be available to at least one of the user’s senses. For example, images are described with an alternative text for visually impaired users.
2. Operable – content can be controlled by a variety of tools. For example, using the keyboard only, for people who are not able to use a mouse.
3. Understandable – use clear and simple language and predictable and consistent interfaces. This helps people with cognitive or reading disabilities.
4. Robust – the website or app should work well across different platforms, browsers and devices, including assistive technology.

This website is being optimised to apply the Download the document European standard EN 301 549 and it is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 level AA standard.

You should be able to:

• zoom in up to 300% most of the website without problems
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using assistive technology like a screen reader or a magnifier

Despite our efforts to achieve website accessibility, certain content like videos used on some pages may not yet be optimised. We constantly monitor the accessibility of our website and we continue to make improvements to the accessibility features.

Reporting your experience will help us to further improve the accessibility of our website.

Please let us know if you encounter any problems, if you need access to inaccessible information or if you find any of our features particularly useful. We will get back to you as soon as possible.