Declaration of Accessibility

You can access the individual sections of the accordion by pressing the tab key. To open or close an accordion section, please press the enter key.

Documents and in particular PDF files are generally accessible on the website. Exceptions to this rule may be documents and PDF files that have been made available to us by third parties, which represent an additional offer or whose content is also available as an HTML alternative.

A correct semantic structure has been implemented on the website. Headings are consistently used to subdivide and better structure the web pages. We have added descriptive names to web links in order to make their function understandable. Hidden text has been added to inform you when a link opens a new window or tab in your browser.

The website is equally optimized for different resolutions and provides an optimized display for mobile devices.

Alternatively, our web pages can be operated with the keyboard. To do so, use the following keys:

• To select/deselect a control field, use the space bar.
• To move forward between links, use the tab key.
• To move backward between links, use the shift key and the tab key simultaneously.
• To execute a command, select the corresponding button and press enter.

To open the offered PDF documents, a PDF reader is needed. The program can be downloaded via the Internet free of charge. Often, the web browser is able to perform this function directly.

To change the display size, press and hold the Ctrl key and move the scroll wheel on the mouse, or hold down the Ctrl key and use the plus key to zoom in or the minus key to zoom out. Alternatively, you can change the font size using the browser settings. For more explanations, check the help options of your browser.

To enable font smoothing in Windows, click the search box on the taskbar and type cleartype. Select "Adjust ClearType text" from the search results. The ClearType Text Tuner should open. In a next step select the "Turn on ClearType" checkbox to enable ClearType.

Using your own style (colours, fonts) is possible via import. When using Internet Explorer, select Tools> Internet Options> Accessibility. Then select the desired checkboxes to ignore colours, font styles or font sizes. Within the same window, you can select the checkbox "Format documents using my style sheet". Then browse for your preferred style sheet and confirm your entry by clicking OK. You will then receive a choice of colours and fonts.

You can find the full text search at the top above the red menu bar. Tips for searching:

• Umlauts (ö, ä, ü) are recognized.
• If you enter more than one search word, they will be "and"-linked.
• There is no distinction between upper and lower case.
• After a successful search you can make use of different filters to limit the results.
• To search for a coherent group of words, put expressions or names in quotation marks, e.g. "Freie Hansestadt Bremen".

Accessibility is provided for online forms in order to ensure unrestricted access to make requests, perform content searches, and carry out interactions.

We have added descriptive alternative text to all informative images (and images of text), while all purely decorative images (such as background images) are equipped with null alternative text to highlight that no alternative text is present.

Videos are generally embedded via YouTube. However, accessibility cannot be guaranteed. We strive to make this content as accessible as possible by marking it accordingly. You can use the corresponding controls of the YouTube player to show or hide existing subtitles.

We offer an RSS feed that provides you with important information on various subjects.

Different image content is displayed in the slider. These images rotate and are changed through a swipe effect. Operating the slider is possible with the keyboard.