Usage with screen readers

In addition to a uniform and semantic page structure, the page indexing with the help of screen readers is facilitated by meaningful alternative texts for all images and the marking of abbreviations and acronyms.
The website can be easily operated using the keyboard and the use of skip links also benefits users of screen readers. Additional information is also provided by means of ARIA.

Page title

Every website has its own page title, which reflects the content of the website. Users of screen readers can thus quickly see what to expect on the website and already have a first good point of orientation.

Headlines

The website headings are clearly and logically structured and cover all contents of the website. Thus, page areas and areas at the head and foot of the website are also provided with headings (structural navigation). Users of screen readers can thus jump from heading to heading or display a list of all headings. The page areas of the website can be reached quickly using the additional headings and give the user a good overview of how the website is structured and what information can be expected.

You can access the individual page areas with the screen reader key for the headings H2 and H3 and the page start with the key for the heading H1. You can get to the beginning of the content or navigation of the page by using the H2 heading key.

Landmarks

Furthermore, the page areas are introduced by WAI-ARIA landmarks, which inform you in which area of the website you are currently located. This makes orientation even easier for the blind and visually impaired, and the page structure is clearer.

Note to JAWS screen reader users: In JAWS version 9 and later, you can use the keyboard shortcut “Insert” [Ins] + “Control” [Ctrl] + [;] to display a list of all landmarks. You can also use the [;] key to navigate through the landmarks on the Web page. In the screen reader NVDA this would be the [d] key.
The forms on the website are enriched using WAI-ARIA to provide important information for screen readers in forms mode.

Page Structure

All pages of this portal have the same structure:

  1. Skip links to directly reach selected areas of the current page.
  2. Main navigation including Service navigation and global search on the entire website
  3. Content area with the actual content of the respective page
  4. Page footer including navigation.

Links

Links that open in a new window are marked with a corresponding note in the TITLE attribute. Screen reader users must first activate these additional functions to receive the message.