Preamble

With its two sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen, DESY is one of the world’s leading centres for research into and using particle accelerators. The mission of the research centre focuses on unravelling the fundamental relationships between the structure and function of matter and life, in order to provide a robust knowledge base for solving the big questions and pressing challenges facing science, society and business.

As a research institution, one of the key concerns of Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY is to give the scientific community and society in general the greatest possible insight into the research that is carried out at DESY, thereby making the science widely accessible.

DESY’s web pages give employees and partners the opportunity to share knowledge, exchange information and apply for research projects. The general public can retrieve information about current scientific issues as well as science-related events. In designing DESY’s web presence, all writers and editors will ensure that their content is as accessible as possible.

Accessibility statement

DESY is a public sector body and the DESY Project Management Agency (PT.DESY) is an institution vested with public authority within the meaning the Directive (EU) 2016/2102. As such, it endeavours to make its Internet presence accessible, in accordance with the provisions of the German Act on Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (BGG) and the Regulation on the Accessibility of Information Technology (BITV 2.0).

The BITV2.0 currently (as at June 2020) refers to the Harmonised European Standard EN 301 549 as the standard to be considered when implementing accessible information technology. In the case of the web and digital documents, the standard is based on an established international standard for the accessible design of web content – the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium.

In preparing this statement, a review of the accessibility was carried out in cooperation with a company that specialises in such audits, after selecting representative web pages.

According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, compliance can only be ascertained for individual pages. A statement on the conformity of an entire website generally requires all the individual web pages belonging to a website to be reviewed. This is impractical in the case of extensive websites, such as that of DESY. However, the examination of a representative selection of pages, i.e. a selection of pages that covers as many potential accessibility barriers as possible, indicates that the website as a whole is accessible.

Status of compliance with the requirements

The sites selected for the audit were rated as being partially compliant with the requirements of BGG, BITV 2.0 and WCAG 2.1.

Non-accessible contents

The contents listed below are not (finally) accessible.

Content marked with an asterisk (*) applies to PT.DESY

• Alternative texts are not available for all images and objects.*
• Alternatives do not exist for all audio data and silent videos.*
• No audio descriptions exist for videos. The website does not, however, contain any videos that are essential in order to communicate its contents.
• Not all lists are correctly structured using HTML structural markup.
• Most input fields in forms do not contain sample text.
• In the current system, the DESY website cannot format the contents responsively for different devices.
• Not all words and sections in other languages are identified.
• The HTML syntax used by the existing version of the website does not always fulfil current standards.

DESY is continuously working to remove any remaining barriers to accessibility.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This Accessibility Statement was prepared on 23 September 2020 and reviewed and updated in September 2023.

Verification of its compliance with the requirements of BGG, BITV 2.0 and WCAG 2.1. is based on self-assessment.

Reporting accessibility issues: Feedback and contact details

Have you noticed any barriers that impair access to the content at www.desy.de? Or do you have questions about accessibility? Do you need help receiving certain contents or documents or sending certain documents to us without accessibility issues? If so, you are welcome to get in touch with us.

You can contact us by post, email or telephone:

Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
Accessibility Working Group
Notkestrasse 85
22607 Hamburg
Phone: 040 8998-3613
Email: barrierefreiheit@desy.de

Dispute settlement procedure

If no satisfactory solution has been found even after sending your feedback to the above contact, you can appeal to the Arbitration Service, pursuant to § 16 BGG. The BGG Arbitration Service is tasked with supporting out-of-court dispute resolution in conflicts associated with accessibility between people with disabilities and public sector bodies. The dispute settlement procedure is free of charge. There is no need to call upon legal counsel. Further information on the dispute settlement procedure and the options for submitting a request is available at: www.schlichtungsstelle-bgg.de.

The BGG Arbitration Service can be contacted directly at:

Schlichtungsstelle nach dem Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz bei dem Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für die Belange von Menschen mit Behinderungen

Mauerstraße 53
10117 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 18 527 2805
info@schlichtungsstelle-bgg.de