The Barrier-free Information Technology Ordinance (BITV) 2.0 attempts to create barrier-free information technology in accordance with the Disability Equality Act (BGG). the BITV was first issued in 2002, nine years later it was replaced by BITV 2.0 and in 2019 it was amended again. The aim is to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded from the digital content of public bodies in Germany.
The regulation refers to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, which represent an international standard for the accessibility of websites. They can be divided into three levels of conformity (A, AA and AAA), which build on each other. Level A contains the basic requirements, level AA also contains the requirements with medium priority and AAA also contains additional requirements with low priority. If all criteria of the three levels are met, accessibility is very good. In Europe, level AA is specified for public bodies. Most development teams also aim for this level.
The WCAG was published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C is a committee that aims to standardize the World Wide Web.
Like the WCAG, the BITV can be structured according to the following four principles: Perceivability, Usability, Comprehensibility and Robustness. Users must be able to perceive information, so alternative texts (alt="description") are required, for example. Navigation must be operable (e.g. keyboard operability). Information and operation must be understandable. This requires, for example, a language specification (lang="de"). In addition, content must be robust enough to be interpreted by assistive technologies (e.g. compatibility with screen readers).
The accessibility of websites and web applications can be tested using the BIK BITV test. It is based on BITV 2.0 / European Standard (EN) 301 549. From February 12, 2022, version 3.2.1 of EN 301 549 will be the standard. It is mandatory for public bodies. BITV does not refer to a specific version of the EN, which means that BITV does not need to be adapted when a new version of the EN is released.
The new requirements of version 3.2.1 of EN 301 549 are reflected in six new test steps of the test. These are four requirements on the subject of "two-way voice communication" and two new requirements on "video capability". Specifically, the test steps "Alternatives to voice-based services", "Synchronicity in video telephony", "Visual display of audio activity" and "Speaker display for sign language communication" have been added to "Two-way voice communication". The steps "Subtitle adjustments" and "Spoken subtitles" have been added to the "Video capability" section.
The test produces a test report that can be published. There is also a BIK test mark. If this is to be published, a link must be provided to the test report in order to ensure the transparency of the assessment.
