Accessibility

Accessibility is not optional

The federal brand system meets at least WCAG 2.1 level AA, in line with the Belgian Accessibility Decree and EU directive 2016/2102. Where feasible, we aim for AAA.

Contrast

Contrast between text and background is enforced at the token level, not at the component level. Specifically:

• Body text (color.text.default on color.background.default): contrast ratio ≥ 7:1 (AAA).
• Secondary text (color.text.muted): ≥ 4.5:1 (AA).
• Text on coloured backgrounds (buttons, banners): the pipeline rejects combinations that do not meet AA — a merge blocker in CI.

Keyboard navigation and focus

Every interactive element has a visible focus indicator (color.border.focus with at least 2 px border width). Tab order follows reading order.

Multilingualism and script support

The specifications explicitly require Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek, Japanese and Chinese support. Typography tokens define a fallback stack per script:

• font.family.primary for Latin, Cyrillic and Greek (Inter)
• font.family.arabic for Arabic (Noto Sans Arabic)
• font.family.cjk for Japanese and Chinese (Noto Sans CJK)

The render pipeline automatically chooses the right stack based on the lang attribute.

Validation

WCAG checks run automatically in CI. A new or changed token that breaks the contrast rule blocks the merge until it complies or is explicitly marked as an exception by the Chancellery.