2026-01-29 –, Session Room
In the public sector, digital accessibility is not just a compliance task - it is a cornerstone of trust and inclusive service. Over the past two years, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has pursued a structured, continuous accessibility journey across its Drupal-based website, driven by the European Commission’s Web Accessibility Directive and Digital strategy, which support a broader push for inclusive digital public services across the EU. EMA combined automated monitoring with manual testing by accessibility specialists to identify, prioritise, and address accessibility issues systematically, turning each website improvement into an opportunity for inclusion.
In this session, EMA will share how it embedded accessibility into its release cycles — making each monthly deployment an opportunity for incremental improvement (e.g. keyboard navigation, screen reader support, colour contrast enhancements, consistent behaviour). Beyond technical, we will explore how organisational awareness was built: translating web accessibility guidelines into guidance and requirements and making accessibility a shared responsibility across UX, design, development and content creation.
Attendees will gain practical insights and approaches to embed accessibility into their websites. This session is intended to spark collaboration and learning across agencies and teams, helping others elevate accessibility from a ‘checklist’ to an intrinsic part of their work.
Takeaways:
• Approaches to prioritising and tracking accessibility work
• How to integrate mixed-mode testing (automated + manual) into regular release pipelines
• Techniques for fostering accessibility awareness across teams
• Lessons, pitfalls, and plans for next steps toward accessibility maturity
Intended audience:
Digital leaders, accessibility champions, designers, developers, UX and editorial teams.
Estela has worked at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for over a decade, providing strategic guidance and hands-on support to enhance the user experience, accessibility, and search visibility of the agency’s Drupal-based website.
Collaborating closely with developers, UX teams, and content editors, she ensures accessibility is embedded early in design, development, and editorial workflows, with a focus on meaningful content structure, semantics, and usability for people using assistive technologies.
She also contributes to enhancing open-source components shared across European institutions, supporting EMA and other europa.eu websites in delivering more inclusive digital public services.