Accessibility statement

This statement applies to content published on the domain: ‘https://environment.ec.europa.eu"

It does not apply to other content or websites published on any of its subdomains. These websites and their content will have their own specific accessibility statement.

This website is managed by the Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission. It is designed to be used by as many people as possible, including persons with disabilities.

You should be able to:

• zoom up to 200% without problems
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using a modern screen reader and speech recognition software (on your computer or phone)

This website is designed to comply with the technical standard for websites and mobile apps, EN 301 549 v.3.2.1. This closely follows level ‘AA’ of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1.

This website is partially compliant withtechnical standard EN 301 549 v.3.2.1 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. See ‘Non-accessible content’ for more details.

The website was last tested on 20 October 2023.

This statement was reviewed on  31 October 2023.

The statement is based on a review of a representative sample of web pages by an usability and accessibility expert, using a combination of manual and automated testing.

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of the https://environment.ec.europa.eu/ website. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers:

• E-mail: ENV-EUROPAec [dot] europa [dot] eu (ENV-EUROPA[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu) 
• Feedback form: Link to feedback form 

We try to respond to feedback within 15 business days from the date of receipt of the enquiry by the responsible Commission department.

The  https://environment.ec.europa.eu/ website is designed to be compatible with the following most used assistive technologies:

• the latest version of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox,  and Apple Safari browsers;
•  in combination with the latest versions of JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver and TalkBack. 

The accessibility of the https://environment.ec.europa.eu relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:

• HTML
• WAI-ARIA
• CSS
• JavaScript

Despite our best efforts to ensure the accessibility of the European Commission website, we are aware of some limitations, which we are working to fix. Below is a description of known limitations and potential solutions. Please contact us if you encounter an issue not listed below.

Known limitations for the Directorate-General of Environment website:

• Navigation menu accessibility: Some content has not been properly coded for the best experience with a screen reader. We plan to fix this issue by March 2024. 
• Interactive maps: Interactive maps are not accessible to people with a vision impairment or users who rely on keyboard navigation. We plan to fix this issue by March 2024. 
• Feedback form – error messages: Error messages in the feedback form are not associated with the field in which the error was detected and do not clearly indicate in which field the error was detected. We plan to fix this issue over the course of 2024.
• Graphs and charts – use of colour: Some graphs and charts on the website rely on colour alone to communicate information, which is confusing for people with colour vision deficiency. In charts where labels are not visually associated with the corresponding coloured section, clicking on the labels in the legends toggles the corresponding line, bar or section on or off, which allows users to check which label belongs to which part of the chart. We plan to fix this issue over the course of 2024.
• Video captions: Some of our videos do not have captions. We are continuously working on adding them to more videos.
• Video player – keyboard accessibility: We are aware of some issues with the keyboard accessibility of our video player (when selecting the caption language from the menu, it is not possible to use the arrow keys to move between languages, this can only be done with the TAB key).
• Heading Hierarchy: Some pages do not present content in an hierarchical heading organization. We plan to fix this by March 2024.
• Sliding captcha: We are aware of the issues with the keyboard focus of the slider. We plan to fix this issue over the course of 2024. It is important to note that the sliding captcha is not accessible to deaf-blind users.