ACCIONA becomes the first IBEX35 company with an AENOR-certified accessible website

The company obtains AENOR certification (Spanish Standard UNE 139803), highlighting ACCIONA’s commitment to assisting the integration of disabled persons.

ACCIONA’s corporate website has obtained AENOR certification (Spanish Standard UNE 139803) to "AA" standard, making it the IBEX 35’s first AENOR-certified accessible site.

The website has been developed in accordance with Accessibility Guidelines laid down by the permanent working group Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - aimed at providing access to all persons - to AA standard, removing many of the access barriers for physically or mentally disabled persons.

The main steps taken to ensure web access for all include the following: indicating text length, so that fonts can be scaled, allowing users to use the browser to vary size; enhancing design, navigation and interactivity enabling content to be displayed more efficiently and allowing a more coherent navigation throughout the web, with the same structural basis for each page; offering keyboard shortcuts for access to navigation options, or with links at the foot of each page; placing subtitles on videos and providing images of alternative texts, which helps people with impaired sight or hearing to understand them.

The accessibility certificate was presented at an event attended by, among others, AENOR’s Communication Manager, Jesús Gómez-Salomé and ACCIONA’s Area General Manager of Marketing & Corporate Responsibility, Juan Ramón Silva, who accepted the certificate on behalf of the company.

ACCIONA presented its new corporate website last year; it was developed by the specialist firm Tanta and featured a cutting-edge design and a thoroughly global feel in line with the company’s corporate strategy. Within ACCIONA’s commitment to sustainable development, accessibility was a priority issue when it came to designing the new web, with the aim of making access as easy as possible for persons with a physical or mental disability or with impaired sight or hearing.

ACCIONA is one of Spain´s leading corporations, with operations in infrastructure, energy, water and services in more than thirty countries. Its claim "Pioneers in Sustainable Development" reflects its commitment to achieve sustainable development in all of its business areas, contributing to economic growth, social progress and environmental balance. ACCIONA, leader of its sector in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, posted sales of 12.6 billion euros in 2008.

AENOR (Asociación Española de Normalización y Certificación) is the organisation responsible for developing the regulations regarding standardisation in Spain. It is also the country’s leading certification body, in terms of both number of companies certified and acceptance and recognition by all of Spain’s economic agents. At year-end 2008, AENOR had issued 50,895 certificates, 23,057 of which were for Quality Management Systems (according to the ISO 9001 international standard) and 5,323 for Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14001). The remainder went to certification of products and services and to other fields. AENOR is present in eleven countries (Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Portugal, Italy, Poland and Bulgaria) and has issued certificates in more than sixty countries the world over.