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Accessibility

Accessibility statement

Ve.La S.p.A., the AVM group company that manages the official website of the Venice Carnival, is committed to making its web pages accessible in accordance with applicable legislation (Italian Law no. 4 of 9 January 2004 and Directive (EU) 2016/2102, as well as, where applicable, Legislative Decree no. 82 of 27 May 2022, transposing the European Accessibility Act), ensuring digital accessibility for everyone.

This accessibility statement applies to the website carnevale.venezia.it.

We aim to comply with the WCAG 2.1 level AA guidelines and the EN 301 549 standard as broadly as possible, in order to make our content easy to perceive, use and understand, and therefore accessible.

This statement describes the current level of accessibility of the website and will be updated as we introduce further improvements. While we meet certain requirements, some known issues remain and are listed at the end of this statement.

What we have done

Over the years we have designed and maintained the Venice Carnival website with attention to accessibility, so that its content can be used by as many people as possible. Many accessibility measures are already in place and working on the site.

Accessibility measures already in place

  • the page language is declared in the code, so that screen readers pronounce content correctly (WCAG 3.1.1);
  • pages are built with semantic markup (headings, navigation areas, main content, footer);
  • alternative text on most images (WCAG 1.1.1);
  • descriptive labels (ARIA) on interactive elements, making them understandable to assistive technologies (WCAG 4.1.2);
  • form fields associated with their labels (WCAG 3.3.2);
  • a “skip to main content” link, available on the main templates (WCAG 2.4.1);
  • responsive layout and text zoom not blocked, for reading on any device and with the browser zoom (WCAG 1.4.4, 1.4.10);
  • colour contrast with no issues detected by automated analysis (WCAG 1.4.3).

Accessibility review

We carry out accessibility audits to identify and resolve issues on the site. The most recent audit was conducted in July 2026, combining automated analysis tools (based on axe-core, checking WCAG 2.1 level A and AA criteria) with manual checks on a sample of representative pages: home page, editorial content pages, the events programme and the Carnevale metropolitano archive. The audit made it possible to map the accessibility status of the site and to identify the areas requiring action, described in the list of known issues.

How we work with accessibility

We check the accessibility of the site through periodic reviews. For automated testing we use validators and dedicated tools, which we combine with manual checks of keyboard navigation and assistive technologies.

The site is designed to work with the two most recent versions of the main browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari. We are aware that, at any given time, some content may not pass all the validation tools available online.

The issues identified in the latest audit have already been taken into account and scheduled: we plan to resolve them in upcoming updates to the site, as part of our continuous improvement work.

How we improve continuously

We continuously identify and document the accessibility issues found on the site. Each one is assigned a priority based on its impact on people and the effort required to resolve it.

Issues that significantly affect the user experience are addressed as a priority; the other issues identified are planned and resolved as part of subsequent updates to the site.

How to report an accessibility problem

If you have difficulty accessing any part of the site or its content, please write to us at [email protected], describing the problem you encountered and the page concerned. We will respond to your request as quickly as possible.

We take your feedback seriously and will consider it in our work to make the site usable by everyone. For information on how your personal data is processed, please see our privacy policy.

If the response is not satisfactory, or in the absence of a reply, you can contact the Digital Ombudsman (difensore civico per il digitale), in accordance with the procedures indicated by the Agency for Digital Italy (AgID).

Compliance status

The site is partially compliant with the WCAG 2.1 level AA guidelines: most of the content is accessible, but the known issues listed below remain, for which action is already planned.

List of known issues

Below are the accessibility issues identified in the latest audit, with the relevant reference to the WCAG 2.1 guidelines and an indication of the people mainly affected. All issues correspond to cases of non-compliance and have already been taken into account.

  • Links without descriptive text — some links do not have text that can be perceived by assistive technologies (WCAG 2.4.4 and 4.1.2). This mainly affects people navigating with screen readers.
  • Inconsistent “skip to content” link — the link that allows users to skip directly to the main content is not present on all pages (WCAG 2.4.1). This affects people navigating by keyboard and with screen readers.
  • Not always consistent heading structure — some pages have more than one top-level heading (WCAG 1.3.1). This affects people who orient themselves within the page through the heading structure.
  • Page regions not always identifiable — some navigation areas do not have a unique accessible name and part of the content is not enclosed in semantic regions (WCAG 1.3.1). This affects people who use assistive technologies to move between sections.
  • Alternative text for images — some images may lack a text description (WCAG 1.1.1). This affects people navigating with screen readers.

Regarding colour contrast, automated analysis did not detect any issues; a manual check remains to be carried out on elements with a background image, which cannot be assessed automatically.

Preparation of this statement

This statement was prepared on 6 July 2026 by means of a self-assessment carried out directly by Ve.La S.p.A., with the aid of automated verification tools and manual checks. It will be updated periodically and whenever significant changes are made to the site.