Digital accessibility
and BFSG.
We bring clarity to the requirements.
We test your website for barriers and support you in making design, technology and content more accessible. Which requirements are relevant depends on your organisation and the respective offering.
Together we look at the current state and develop a clear plan for implementation. We also take into account how your editorial team creates new content and maintains the website in the long term.
Why accessibility is becoming a priority.
Many websites have grown organically over the years – and with them the barriers. Often problems were only fixed selectively, for example through adjusted contrasts or added alternative texts. A systematic look at design, technology and editorial processes, on the other hand, was often missing.
On top of this comes legal uncertainty. The Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) affects certain products and services of the private sector, for example in online retail or in the financial sector. Public bodies such as authorities and universities have been subject to corresponding requirements for longer. For other organisations, however, the classification is often more complex than blanket statements suggest.
Automated testing tools only detect some of the barriers. Whether a website can be operated sensibly with the keyboard, a screen reader conveys content understandably or subtitles adequately reproduce the spoken information additionally requires a manual assessment. That is why we combine automated tests with tests of actual operation.
Accessibility cannot be created at the push of a button.
We remove barriers where they arise: in the design, in the code and in the content. So-called overlay tools, which subsequently place additional functions over a website, do not replace this work. Depending on the implementation, they can also make operation with existing assistive tools more difficult.
A test is a sensible first step. Its report shows which barriers were found and where action is needed. What matters afterwards is implementing the results and testing the revised areas again. With TYPO3, we can take on the technical changes. With other systems, your internal development team or your service provider implements the recommendations.
The agreed requirements should also be taken into account in later changes. We support you with understandable guidelines for the editorial team and suitable testing routines.
Which legal obligations apply to your offering must be considered separately. In addition to the BFSG, other requirements may be relevant, for example for public bodies. We support the professional and technical classification and coordinate open legal questions with your legal advisers. Regardless of this, removing barriers helps more people use your website.
How we support you.
How we proceed.
We work in clear stages. This allows you to follow our progress at any time and decide together with us which steps make sense next. We document and prioritise points that cannot be solved immediately for further processing.
Assessment
We test the essential page types, components and processes. We do not look at every subpage in isolation, but search for recurring patterns and structural causes. We present the results to you in an understandable way and discuss together where the greatest need for action lies.
Prioritisation
Together we define which measures are implemented first. What matters is the effect of a barrier on actual use – not the mere number of automatically found errors. We deal with critical obstacles before smaller optimisations. We also take into account the relevant requirements and deadlines; the order of processing does not replace the removal of further identified barriers.
Implementation
First we adapt central templates and components, because improvements there often affect many pages at the same time. We then take care of special individual cases and barriers in editorial content.
Re-testing and handover
After implementation, we test the revised areas again. We also train your editorial team and agree suitable testing routines for new content and functions. This creates the basis for accessibility to be taken into account in ongoing operation as well.
Accessibility in existing websites.
We support public bodies and companies in identifying and removing barriers in their websites. The following projects show how we take technical adjustments and editorial requirements into account in practice.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions about digital accessibility.
That does not depend solely on the website, but on your company and the products or services offered through it. The BFSG can become relevant, for example, if consumers conclude contracts via the website or use certain digital services.
Separate requirements apply to public bodies. At federal level, these are in particular the Disability Equality Act and the BITV 2.0; for federal states and municipalities there are corresponding state regulations.
We support you with the professional and technical classification. Whether your offering is legally obliged in the specific case should ultimately be checked by your legal advisers.
No, automated tests alone are not sufficient for a reliable assessment. They detect, for example, certain contrast problems, missing alternative texts or formal errors in the HTML. Whether a heading is used understandably, the order remains sensible with keyboard operation or an error message actually helps, on the other hand, has to be assessed manually.
That is why we combine automated tests with manual tests using the keyboard, screen reader and magnification.
Not necessarily. Many barriers arise in reused templates and components. If these are corrected centrally, usability often improves on many pages at the same time.
However, if the technical foundation is fundamentally unsuitable or central controls are implemented incorrectly, a more comprehensive revision of the front end can be the more economical and sustainable solution. We assess this together with you after the assessment.
With large document collections, we start with an assessment. We clarify which documents are still needed, which are used particularly frequently and for which content specific requirements apply.
Making complex PDFs accessible after the fact can be laborious. It often makes more sense to provide important information directly as an accessible HTML page and to use PDFs only where the document format serves an actual purpose.
So that new content and functions create as few additional barriers as possible, accessibility should be part of regular workflows. This includes clear guidelines for the editorial team, suitable fields and hints in the TYPO3 backend as well as automated and manual tests for new components and functions.
In addition, regular spot checks can help to detect newly created barriers early. On request, we accompany these tasks as part of ongoing maintenance and further development.
Yes. The test is independent of the content management system used. Among other things, we examine operation via keyboard, screen reader and magnification as well as structure, contrasts and alternative texts. We agree the scope with you in advance. You receive understandable documentation with prioritised results and recommendations.
We implement technical adjustments ourselves for TYPO3. For other systems, we discuss the results with your internal development team or your responsible service provider and support with questions about implementation.
How accessible is your website?
Send us links to two or three representative pages of your website. We get a first impression and give you a free and non-binding initial orientation on which areas should be tested more closely. A detailed test with a report is chargeable and is carried out after a separate order.