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Guideline for accessible IT

All people are equal. This is formulated in a legally binding way in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany (Articles 2 and 3). The special requirements of people with disabilities require a prudent IT design. This derives from the universal obligation for the GWDG to make offers, both services and information services accessible to the best of their ability. This applies in particular to all in-house developments and adaptations in the field of software by GWDG employees and contractors. When using products from commercial software companies, the GWDG ensures maximum accessibility.

We comply with the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, which in relation to websites are based on both the Barrierefreie-Informationstechnik-Verordnung (BITV) 2.0 in Germany and the EU standard 301 549 in its currently valid form, as well as the information provided by the software companies whose products are used by the GWDG and their customers. Furthermore, the obligation of the Ministry of Social Affairs of Lower Saxony applies.

The digital offerings of the GWDG should meet the following requirements according to the specifications of the named regulations:

  • Perceptible: Information should be perceivable via two senses (seeing and hearing). The layout should be intuitive grasped, clear and clearly arranged. There are clearly perceptible color contrasts between text, element and background.
  • Operable: The operation of the application is straightforward. It can be operated by both the mouse and the keyboard. It has buttons of appropriate size and sufficient distance. The user knows which action is triggered when he clicks on a button or a link.
  • Understandable: The same facts are identified in a uniform manner. Content is brought to the point and texts are structured by meaningful subheadings.
  • Robust: The source code is written/checked according to the recommendations of W3C WCAG 2.1. Device-independent responsive design is used. HTML is created according to recommendations WCAG 2.1 Level AA to recommendations. Attention is paid to the implementation of multilingualism (German/English), (open) interfaces as well as the machine readability of data and content are taken into account.

Related processes and roles will in future be anchored as a separate process in the quality management of the GWDG.

The following documents apply and support the implementation:

(State: 11.11.2020, Version 1.0)

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