This page and the related guidance is being revised in 2025; please consult the Statistics Explained team in case of any questions.
This page provides guidance and instructions for ensuring that Statistics Explained articles are compliant with the web accessibility rules and guidelines set out in the Web Accessibility Directive.
Alternative text
Alternative text (alt text) is descriptive text embedded in a webpage's code that explains an image's meaning or function, primarily for users who rely on screen readers, but also for search engines. Alternative text is important as it allows people with visual impairments to understand the content of images through screen readers.
Every PNG image of a graph or table that is included in a Statistics Explained article must have alternative text added to the wikitext tags, following these guidelines:
- The tag for alternative text is alt=
Example:
[[Image:Annual-number-of-transacted dwellings-Annual-average-rate-of-change-2023-and-2024(%)-v2.png|thumb|centre|700px|Figure 2: Annual number of transacted dwellings<br>''Source:'' Eurostat {{Stable link|title=|code=prc_hpi_hsna}}|alt= Vertical bar chart showing percentage annual average rate of change of annual number of transacted dwellings in 17 EU Member States. For more details please use the link to the source dataset code below the image.]]
- Alternative text should not be too detailed; it should briefly describe what is depicted in the image, without detailing individual countries or results
- This text should be included in the alternative text: “For more details please use the link to the source dataset code below the image.” (just make sure that there actually is a link to the source dataset and adapt if there are several datasets)
- Vistool graphs do not need alternative text as they have a table view option which is machine readable
Accessibility for graphs and tables
- Excel add-in
Every Statistics Explained article that includes PNG images of tables or graphs that have been created using the Excel add-in must also include the excel file with the corresponding information to enable the use of screen readers.
Ensure that a bookmark leading to the exact dataset (not the default dataset) is included in the excel file for each graph or table, written as follows:
- Bookmark:
- hlth_rs_prs2 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/bookmark/65709a40-8efe-44d7-9bcc-9898c08675bf?lang=en
- Example:Excel file with bookmarks
- Vistool
The Vistool has been developed to already include the necessary requirements for accessibility compliance.
By clicking on View table view from the chart context menu, a machine readable table version of the data is displayed.
Example:
General accessibility rules
- No reference should be made to colours or shading; reference to the graph or map is enough
- Links should not show the complete URL address, eg https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/earn_minw_esms.htm
- to prevent this, insert links like this:
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/earn_minw_esms.htm NAME OF LINK]
- leaving a space after the URL and then adding the name of the link
- Links should be clearly named and not simply be directed with vague terms, eg "here"
Example of incorrect link naming:
- The data can be found here.