Accessibility Statement

What this statement covers

This statement applies to the website published at ergopharm.net, including the product register, the individual monograph datasheets and their printable product information pages, the institutional sections on quality, manufacturing, serialisation and export, the newsroom, the contact and pack-verification forms, and these legal pages. It does not cover the printed package leaflet supplied inside each carton, the carton artwork itself, or documents exchanged privately with distributors and regulatory bodies under contract — those are governed by the requirements of the country of supply.

The standard we work to

We design and build against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA. In Europe, the harmonised standard EN 301 549 sets the accessibility requirements for ICT products and services and, for web content, references WCAG — so building to WCAG 2.2 AA is how we work towards those requirements. Naming the standard is a statement about how the site is built. It is not a declaration that an independent body has assessed it.

Measures taken, area by area

Document structure

Pages are built from semantic HTML: real headings in descending order, ordered and unordered lists, description lists for paired data such as monograph particulars, and data tables with proper header cells rather than layout tables.

Landmarks

Every page uses the standard landmark elements — header, nav, main and footer — so assistive technology can move between the regions of the page instead of reading it as one undifferentiated block. The primary navigation carries an accessible name.

Keyboard operation

Every link, button, tab strip and form control is reachable and operable with the keyboard alone. There are no mouse-only controls and no keyboard traps: what you can reach with the Tab key you can also leave with it.

Visible focus

Focus is always visible. The violet focus ring is defined once, globally, and is never suppressed — we do not remove outlines for cosmetic reasons anywhere on the site.

Decorative graphics

The GS1 DataMatrix marks, the reference cross and the SVG scenes carry no information that is not also written in text, and are hidden from assistive technology with aria-hidden so they are not announced as noise.

Meaningful images

The carton renders on the register and the datasheets are meaningful content and carry descriptive alternative text naming the product, its strength and what the image shows.

Colour contrast

The palette — navy ink and near-black text on white and on the pale board tint — is chosen to meet the WCAG AA contrast ratio for body text, with the violet accent reserved for markers and focus rather than for small text on coloured ground.

Colour is never the only cue

Information carried by colour is always carried in words as well. A failed or expired pack verification says so in plain language; the red is only reinforcement. The same rule applies to prescription-only marks and contraindication notices.

Motion

All animation on the site — the fill line, the scan beam, the export and serialisation scenes — is wrapped in a prefers-reduced-motion media query. A visitor whose system asks for reduced motion gets a completely static site. Nothing flashes, auto-plays, scrolls by itself or moves without you asking.

Responsive layout and zoom

The layout reflows down to a 320 px viewport with no horizontal scrolling. Text can be zoomed to 200% without loss of content or function; wide material such as data tables scrolls within its own container rather than forcing the whole page sideways. Nothing is locked to portrait or landscape orientation.

Forms

Every field in the contact form and the pack-verification form is a real form control inside a form element, with a label programmatically tied to it. Errors are returned as text, next to the form, and the values you typed are not discarded.

Time limits and interruptions

There are no session time limits on any public page, no CAPTCHA, no pop-ups, no interstitials and no newsletter overlay. Nothing interrupts reading.

Cookies and consent walls

The public site sets no cookies on visitors, carries no analytics, no advertising and no third-party embeds, so there is no cookie banner to dismiss and no consent wall between you and the content.

Printable product information

The printable product information beside each monograph is an ordinary HTML page laid out in SmPC section order that prints or saves to PDF from the browser. It is not a scanned document, so it remains fully readable by assistive technology, selectable, searchable and zoomable.

Page language

The language of the page is declared in the markup, so screen readers pronounce the content with the correct voice and rules.

How this has been assessed

The measures above were verified by our own team during development: keyboard-only navigation of every page and interactive component, checking focus order and focus visibility, inspection of the rendered markup for heading order and landmarks, contrast checks against the AA thresholds, and layout checks from 320 px upward and at 200% text zoom. This is a self-assessment. It has not been reviewed or confirmed by an independent auditor, and no conformance report has been issued for this site.

Known limitations, stated plainly

• No independent audit. The site has not undergone a formal third-party accessibility audit or user testing with disabled participants, so we say we aim to meet WCAG 2.2 level AA rather than claiming certified conformance.
• No skip-to-content link yet. Keyboard and screen-reader users must currently pass through the header navigation on each page, or use landmark navigation, to reach the main content. A skip link is on our list to add.
• Not tested with every assistive technology. We cannot claim verified behaviour across every combination of screen reader, browser and operating system. If a particular combination fails for you, tell us — that is the most useful report we can receive.
• The content is technical by nature. Monographs are written in the vocabulary of regulated pharmaceutical manufacture and clinical particulars. Simplifying that text would make it less accurate, so we provide plain-language routes alongside it rather than replacing it.
• Tab strips need JavaScript. Section and datasheet content is grouped into tab strips; with scripting disabled, panels other than the first cannot be reached. The printable product information page presents the whole monograph as one continuous document and needs no scripting.
• The header is sticky. At very high zoom on a short window the fixed header consumes vertical space. Reducing the window height or zooming the page rather than only the text mitigates it; a fuller fix is pending.
• Pack verification depends on printed matter. The verification code must be read from a physical carton. For anyone who cannot read the printed code, our quality contact will carry out the check on your behalf.
• Third-party and legacy material. Where a document originated outside our own publishing chain, we cannot guarantee it meets the same standard; ask us and we will supply the content in an accessible form.

Where the language is technical

Two routes exist for readers who need the same information in plainer terms. The glossary reduces every recurring technical term used across this site — ALCOA+, aseptic processing, GTIN, serialisation and the rest — to a single plain sentence, and the frequently asked questions answer the common practical points without the standards vocabulary. For patients, the authoritative plain-language document is the package leaflet supplied inside every carton, in the language of the country of supply; this website is addressed to healthcare professionals, licensed distributors, importers and regulatory bodies and is not a substitute for that leaflet or for medical advice. If neither route works for you, our medical information contact will answer in writing.

Reporting an accessibility problem

1. 01

   Write to us

   Email info@ergopharm.net with "Accessibility" in the subject line. A report in any form is welcome — you do not need to know the technical name of the problem, and you do not need to fill in a form to tell us about a form.

2. 02

   Tell us where it happened

   The address of the page, or a description of it (for example, the datasheet for a particular monograph, or the pack-verification form), and what you were trying to do at the time.

3. 03

   Tell us what happened

   What you expected, what actually happened, and — if you know it — the browser, operating system and any assistive technology you were using, with versions. A screenshot or a short recording helps but is never required.

4. 04

   We acknowledge within five working days

   You will receive a human reply confirming we have the report and, where we can, an immediate alternative way to get the information you were after.

5. 05

   We assess within twenty working days

   Within twenty working days of acknowledgement we will tell you what we found: either that it is fixed, or what the fix is and when it is scheduled. If a fix will take longer, we say so and give a date rather than leaving it open.

6. 06

   We supply the content another way in the meantime

   If something on this site is unusable for you, we will send the same information by email in a format that works for you — plain text, accessible HTML, or read out and confirmed in writing — while the underlying problem is being fixed. There is no charge for this.

If our response is not good enough

If you are not satisfied with how we handled a report, reply to the same thread and ask for it to be escalated; it will be reviewed by someone who was not involved in the original answer, and you will get a written outcome. We would rather hear that we got it wrong than have you leave without the information. Reports about accessibility are treated as feedback about the site, not as complaints about a product — for a suspected product quality defect or falsified pack write to quality@ergopharm.net, and for a suspected adverse reaction write to pv@ergopharm.net, in each case as quickly as you can.