Accessibility statement

Accessibility statement

Europeana is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Web Accessibility Directive (EU).

This accessibility statement applies to

and to the content displayed on these URLs. Please note that only the English version of these terms should be considered legally valid. We take no legal responsibility for any differences or discrepancies created in the translations of these terms.

These websites are run by the non-profit organisation Europeana Foundation who is responsible for its user experience, accessibility, and editorial content. The collection of cultural heritage items that can be searched and browsed in https://www.europeana.eu is shared with us, Europeana Foundation, by over 4,000 European cultural institutions with the aim to increase the visibility of their collections.

Development

https://www.europeana.eu, launched March 2020, is developed using Contentful, a software as a service (SaaS) content management system (CMS) provider that allows us to combine editorially controlled pages with our EDM modelled cultural heritage objects. For the front end, the application depends on CSS and JavaScript enabled. It uses the Vue.js/Nuxt JavaScript framework. The code can be found on Github.
https://apis.europeana.eu is technically a page in the https://www.europeana.eu application and is part of the same codebase and CMS instance.

https://www.dataspace-culturalheritage.eu, launched February 2026, is developed using the same Contentful CMS as https://www.europeana.eu. For the front end, the application depends on CSS and JavaScript enabled. It uses the Vue/Nuxt JavaScript framework. The code can be found on Github.

https://pro.europeana.eu uses BOLT CMS, an OpenSource content management system with a community of developers supporting it, and is developed, maintained and owned by Ontwerpwerk.

The content of the websites has been designed to be universally accessible by users across as many devices as possible, and is developed to meet the accessibility standards outlined in this statement.

We support the latest versions of the following browsers: Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Microsoft Edge.

Compliance with accessibility standards

We continuously work on identifying and improving the accessibility issues on the website. Our websites are partially compliant with WCAG 2.1 conformance level AA, due to the non-compliances and exceptions listed below:

Non-compliance for https://www.europeana.eu:

  • Media resources, such as images, videos, audio, 3D models or PDFs, might not be accessible. (WCAG 2.1: 1.1.1, 1.2.1-1.2.5)
  • Not all iframes used on the website have a title attribute. (WCAG 2.1: 4.1.2)
  • On cards that link to item pages and in the item metadata table, when text is in a different language than the interface, this is not always specified. (WCAG 2.1: 3.1.2)
  • The so-called Masonry layout on search results and gallery pages (for the ‘grid’ and ‘mosaic’ views) might not be accessible. (WCAG 2.1: 2.4.3). The focus order might be confusing. There is the possibility of switching the layout to list view, which does not have the focus order issue.
  • On many pages, there are buttons to like and add items to a gallery. In the ‘grid’ and ‘mosaic’ views, the buttons only show on mouseover and non-hover devices, but are not keyboard accessible. (WCAG 2.1: 1.4.13). The user can switch to the ‘list’ view or navigate to the specific item page where these buttons are accessible.
  • The form on the ‘Share your collections’ page is not fully accessible due to text not having enough contrast, and the CAPTCHA is not accessible for all users.
  • Drag and drop items in a user gallery is not keyboard accessible (WCAG 2.5.7)

Exceptions for https://www.europeana.eu:

  • Item media resources might not be accessible. (WCAG 2.1: 1.1.1, 1.2.1-1.2.5). As this is aggregated content, Europeana does not have full control over the items. We take an advisory role here. We share knowledge, produce case studies and participate in projects with our data partners, aiming to improve the accessibility of the media resources. Item data might be considered an exception under the Web Accessibility Directive due to it being third-party content (1.4.e), reproductions of items in heritage collections (1.4.f), archival content (1.4.h), or pre-recorded time-based media (1.4.b)

Non-compliance for https://www.dataspace-culturalheritage.eu:

  • Media resources, such as images, videos, audio, 3D models or PDFs, might not be accessible. (WCAG 2.1: 1.1.1, 1.2.1-1.2.5)
  • Some text and buttons overflow their container and become unreadable or unusable at 200% text zoom (WCAG 1.4.4).

Non-compliance for https://pro.europeana.eu:

  • Media resources, such as images, videos or PDFs, might not be accessible. (WCAG 2.1: 1.1.1, 1.2.1-1.2.5)
  • The element’s background colour on some images can not be determined due to background images. (WCAG 2.1: 1.4.3)
  • There are some issues with the website's responsiveness and behaviour on mobile devices or when pages are zoomed in.
  • On some pages, there are issues in the HTML structure: incorrect heading structure, missing or incorrect aria attributes or roles, and incorrect usage of HTML lists.
  • Some <frame> or <iframe> elements do not have a title
  • Some links do not have a discernible name

Our commitment

Europeana Foundation is committed to making the website and content increasingly accessible. We target WCAG 2.1 AA compliance for accessibility. Accessibility is one of the key topics safeguarded by the internal Diversity and Inclusion cross-team.

Our efforts

Europeana’s websites are under active development. We follow best practices for accessibility and test on an ongoing basis.

For https://www.europeana.eu:

  • While developing, we run automated tests using the testing tool Axe.
  • When developing new features, we run tests in the browser using testing tools such as Axe, WAVE and/or Lighthouse.
  • Additionally, we run manual tests, such as zooming and keyboard-only navigation.
  • We use a colour contrast analyser to determine accessible colour combinations.
  • On a regular basis, we test features using a screen reader (MacOS Voice Over) and voice recognition software (MacOS Voice Control).
  • An accessibility expert conducted an extensive review of the website in May 2020.
  • We researched making the website more accessible to a visually diverse audience in Spring 2022.
  • We write alt-text for at least the hero image of each editorial piece we produce, and where possible, we provide alt-text for all images of an editorial piece. Our alt-text is written following best practices for alt-text creation.

For https://www.dataspace-culturalheritage.eu:

  • When developing new features, we run tests in the browser using testing tools such as Axe, WAVE and/or Lighthouse.
  • Additionally, we run manual tests, such as zooming and keyboard-only navigation.
  • We use a colour contrast analyser to determine accessible colour combinations.
  • On a regular basis, we test features using a screen reader (MacOS Voice Over) and voice recognition software (MacOS Voice Control).

For https://pro.europeana.eu:

  • We periodically run accessibility testing on the most commonly visited sections of https://pro.europeana.eu using the Lighthouse and Axe accessibility tools.
  • Newly developed features are tested against Lighthouse's accessibility tool.
  • For colour, we use the colour contrast analyzer to ensure WCAG 2.0 level AA's required contrast ratios

A better experience of our websites

There are a number of customisation options for your browser and device that could help you use the archives and other websites more effectively. For example, your browser will have some accessibility features.

Explore Google Chrome accessibility features Explore Firefox accessibility features Explore Microsoft Edge accessibility features. Explore third-party accessibility extensions for Google Chrome.

About this statement

This statement was prepared on 13 January 2021. The statement was last updated on 17 February 2026.

We welcome your comments

There may be accessibility issues on the site that we are unaware of. If you would like to share feedback with us or request further information, please email info@europeana.eu.

Enforcement Procedure

In the case of unsatisfactory responses to any feedback or request sent, please email info@europeana.eu.