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Brussels Governance Monitor

Accessibility

Brussels Governance Monitor is committed to making its content accessible to the widest possible audience, in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA.

Conformance status

This website aims for conformance with the WCAG 2.2 Level AA standard. An internal audit was carried out on 24 March 2026 covering the specific 2.2 criteria (Focus Not Obscured, Focus Appearance, Target Size, Consistent Help, Accessible Authentication). Actual contrast verification and screen reader testing remain to be completed.

Measures taken

  • Semantic structure: HTML5 elements (header, main, nav, article, section, fieldset, legend), consistent heading hierarchy, breadcrumbs with Schema.org markup
  • Keyboard navigation: skip-to-content link, keyboard navigation in dropdown menus (arrow keys, Escape, Home, End), focus trap in the search box and mobile menu
  • Accessible forms: associated labels (htmlFor), fieldset/legend for groups, error and success messages announced to screen readers (role="status", role="alert", aria-live), honeypot fields hidden (aria-hidden, tabIndex -1)
  • Contrast: colour palette in oklch verified for a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 on all text. « High contrast » mode available (7:1 ratio, WCAG AAA)
  • Media and motion: respects the « prefers-reduced-motion » preference, no automatic animations
  • Language: dynamic lang attribute on each page (fr/nl/en/de). Built-in voice reader with language detection (fr-BE, nl-BE, en-GB, de-DE)
  • Print: dedicated stylesheet with visible URLs, removal of interactive elements, page margins, section pagination. « Print » button in the accessibility toolbar
  • Dark mode: full dark theme via CSS variable inversion. Automatic detection of system preference (prefers-color-scheme). Manual toggle saved in localStorage
  • Text size: scaling from 85% to 150% via the accessibility toolbar (rem-based, compatible with browser zoom)
  • Dyslexia font: OpenDyslexic option available, loaded on demand only
  • Interactive components: aria-expanded, aria-controls and aria-pressed on all expandable elements (metrics, sources, filters, commitments). Search with combobox/listbox role. Rating stars with role="radiogroup"
  • External links: « opens in a new tab » indication accessible to screen readers (hidden sr-only text)

Accessibility toolbar

A fixed button at the bottom right of the screen (universal accessibility icon) opens a panel with all comfort settings:

  • Dark / light mode — instant toggle, remembered between visits
  • High contrast — increases the contrast ratio to 7:1 (WCAG AAA)
  • Dyslexia font — replaces the font with OpenDyslexic
  • Text size — A-/A+ (from 85% to 150%), with reset
  • Read aloud — text-to-speech of the main content (Web Speech API, 4 languages)
  • Print — triggers the browser's native print dialog

Technologies used

HTML5, CSS (Tailwind CSS v4, oklch variables), JavaScript (React 19/Next.js 16), ARIA 1.2, Schema.org (JSON-LD), Web Speech API.

Linguistic accessibility

The main content of the site is available in four languages: French, Dutch, English and German. The lang attribute is set dynamically on each page. The weekly digest (BGM Weekly Digest) is available in over 80 languages, because Brussels has 184 nationalities and governance concerns everyone. Automatic translations are labelled as such.

Plain language

BGM uses accessible language and avoids institutional jargon. Each domain card includes an « In brief » summary in easy-read format. Full adaptation to Easy Read and Understand (FALC) is being considered for key content.

Known limitations

  • Search result excerpts are rendered in HTML via Pagefind with styled <mark> tags, but the « highlight » semantics are not announced by all screen readers
  • The weekly digest uses a separate layout with lang="en" on the <html> element (Next.js limitation for nested layouts). Multilingual content is correctly marked up via a lang attribute on the inner container
  • Exact contrast ratios in dark mode require verification under real-world conditions (oklch colours cannot be statically converted)
  • Text-to-speech quality depends on the user's browser and operating system
  • The accessibility button (fixed bottom-right) may partially obscure a keyboard-focused element near the bottom of the page (WCAG 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured). Content remains accessible by scrolling

This website aims for WCAG 2.2 Level AA conformance, the standard on which the AnySurfer label is based. AnySurfer certification has not yet been sought.

Feedback

If you encounter an accessibility barrier on this site, please use the feedback form or contact us at contact@brusselsgovernance.be. We commit to responding within 15 working days.

This statement was last updated on 24 March 2026.