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Our commitment
Accessibility is part of how we judge our own work, not a feature added at the end. We treat the European Accessibility Act and the German Federal Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) as a floor, not a ceiling, and we aim for the standard set by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at conformance level AA.
This page is itself a working document. We update it as the website evolves and as we learn from people who use this site every day.
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§ 02
Standards we work to
Our internal target for this website is:
- WCAG 2.2 AA conformance, evaluated by category (perceivable, operable, understandable, robust).
- EN 301 549 — the European harmonised standard referenced by the European Accessibility Act and the BFSG.
- Compatibility with current versions of the major desktop and mobile browsers, and with the assistive technologies most commonly used in the European Union.
- Sustained text contrast meeting AA thresholds against our institutional palette, verified for both body and display typography.
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§ 03
Practices in place
Concrete practices currently in place across this website include:
- Semantic HTML throughout, with appropriate landmark regions and headings.
- Keyboard reachability for every interactive element, including the language switcher, mobile menu and contact form, with visible focus indicators.
- Descriptive alternative text for meaningful images and aria-hidden treatment for purely decorative graphics.
- Form labels associated programmatically with their inputs, with field-level validation messages exposed to assistive technologies.
- A site rendered in ten languages with the correct lang attribute on the document, supporting screen readers and switching tools.
- Respect for prefers-reduced-motion: animations that move content are disabled when the operating system requests reduced motion.
- Sufficient text-contrast ratios across our ivory and ink palette, validated against WCAG AA for body copy and large display headings.
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§ 04
Known limitations
We document known limitations as we identify them, alongside the steps we are taking to resolve each one:
- The Cloudflare Turnstile widget on the contact form is provided by a third party. We have configured it in interaction-only mode to minimise visual disruption; it remains operable by keyboard and screen reader, and we monitor any changes the provider makes.
- Some long-form sections use generous decorative spacing for institutional voice; on very small viewports this may require additional scrolling. Content remains fully reachable.
- PDF documents linked from this site, where present, are not yet guaranteed to meet PDF/UA. We are migrating to accessible alternatives or HTML equivalents.
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§ 05
Assistive technology
We test against current versions of NVDA and JAWS on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS and iOS, and TalkBack on Android, in conjunction with the latest versions of Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Edge. If you encounter a barrier specific to a configuration we have not covered, please tell us — we will treat it as an issue to fix.
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§ 06
Feedback and reporting a barrier
If something on this website does not work for you — content you cannot read, an element you cannot reach with your keyboard or your screen reader, an error message that is not exposed to assistive technology — please tell us.
Write to [email protected] with the subject line "Accessibility". Please describe what you tried to do, what happened, and the browser, operating system and assistive technology you used. We aim to acknowledge accessibility reports within five working days and to set out a remediation plan within twenty working days, without prejudice to your statutory rights.
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§ 07
Enforcement
If you are not satisfied with the response from us, you may contact the German federal body for accessible information technology (Bundesfachstelle Barrierefreiheit) and, where applicable, lodge a complaint with the competent monitoring authority under the BFSG.
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