Speaker's information
Rainer WALLBRUCH graduated from the University of Bochum where he got his MSc in Psychology. He works at the Research Institute Technology for the Disabled (FTB) in Germany. He has a special interest in the field of AAC-projects (alternative and augmentative communication) developing activities in training, consulting service, management and co-ordination of projects. He works also on projects related to e-accessibility. He has been involved in several European R & D activities.
Information sur l'auteur
Rainer WALLBRUCH est diplômé en psychologie de l'université de Bochum. Il travaille à l'Institut de Recherche pour les personnes handicapées (FTB) en Allemagne. Il s'intéresse particulièrement aux systèmes d'aide à la communication, développe des activité de formation et de conseil et coordonne des projets. Il travaille aussi sur les problèmes d'accessibilité numérique et a été impliqué dans plusieurs projets européens.
Short paper
The Ordinance on the Creation of Barrier-Free Information
One of them is the Ordinance on the Creation of Barrier-Free Information or Barrierefreie Informationstechnik Verordnung (BITV). It defines § 1 Scope, § 2 Groups of people with disabilities to be included, § 3 Applicable standards, § 4 Periods for the implementation of the standards, §5 Evaluation of Effectiveness, § 6 Entry into Force. In § 3, Applicable standards, the BITV distinguishes between 2 priorities (I and II) and refers to an appendix of the ordinance where the conditions and requirements to fulfil priority I and II are defined. Priority I as a basic requirement removes significant barriers is mandatory for all public internet pages (of the scope), priority II which simplifies access is mandatory only for central navigation sites. The requirements and checkpoints of BITV are defined in an annex that to the greatest possible extend are a transfer of WCAG 1.0 guidelines and checkpoints from W3C/WAI . The transfer leads to a very high correlation between WCAG 1.0 and BITV. This annex will be subject to technical revisions, without the need to change the text of the ordinance itself. Due to the close correlation of BITV with WCAG 1.0 from a German point of view the transition from WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0 is a very critical issue. All WCAG1.0-checkpoints of WAI-priority 1 ("must") and 2 ("should") are listed under the BITV priority level I as being mandatory and all WCAG1.0-checkpoints of WAI-priority 3 ("may") are listed under the BITV priority level II as mandatory for central sites. This means basically: every public internet page has to reach WAI conformance level AA and in addition to this every public central navigation page should reach WAI conformance level AAA.
Implementation by the states in Germany
The "Act on Equal Opportunities for Disabled" and the BITV following this act are not directly related to the state legislation. However the states consider the federal government and transfer solutions in the area of their responsibility. In fact they started to create own acts on equal opportunities for disabled at the state level and in some cases including the level of municipalities. After enactment of BGG and BITV the states followed with similar acts (Landesgleichstellungsgesetze, LGG) and decrees.
The Alliance for barrierfree Information Technology in Germany (Aktionsbündnis für barrierefrei Informationstechnik, AbI)
In order to support the implementation of barrier free web sites the "Alliance for barrier free Information Technology" (Aktionsbündnis barrierefreie Informationstechnik - AbI) has been established with support of the federal government (BMGS). The members of the project consortium are BAGH (umbrella of German user organisations), FTB as a technical centre of excellence and Web-for-All as a user centre of excellence. In order to form the alliance the consortium has invited relevant existing initiatives to join forces for the further development of accessible web in Germany. NGOs accepting BITV as the baseline, with sound knowledge and significant work in this area are invited to sign up as partners. The project started at 01.09.2002. The AbI work follows three basic action lines:
- Creation of networking
- Support towards implementation of barrier free websites
- Support towards users and their organisations
German award for barrier free websites: BIENE-Award
BIENE stands for "Barrierefreies Internet eröffnet neue Einsichten" (Barrierfree internet opens up new understanding). Two awards have been launched until now, in 2003 and 2004. The Award includes private and commercial sector. Awards are given in several categories:
- E-Commerce
- E-Government
- Media
- Culture and society
- Science and research
