BBG
Law - digital and accessible!
The new desktop application "Bielefelder Barrierefreie Gesetzessammlung" (BBG), developed by Bielefeld University's accessibility services (ZAB), enables digital and barrier-free access to laws. It is intuitive and uncomplicated to use right from the start:
- Open collection
- Select subject area
- Search law
The desired law will be displayed!
Are you looking for a specific paragraph or article? Use the practical search function. Do you need regular access to the BGB? Set a bookmark!
Current legal texts in the BBG
The best thing: We use the official sources of the federal states and the federal government. As soon as changes are published there, they are also directly available in the BBG.
A cooperation project with expertise
The project is a cooperation between the ZAB and the Chair of Civil Law, Civil Procedure Law, Methodology, Law of Digitalisation and Legal Tech at Bielefeld University under the direction of Prof. Dr. Marie Herberger, LL.M.
Why a desktop application?
The BBG is designed as a stand-alone desktop application that works seamlessly on laptops and desktop PCs - similar to popular programmes such as Calendar, Word or Spotify. The collection includes several hundred laws that are bundled together in one place and can be used even without internet access. No more tedious searching through loose PDFs or text documents, no forced internet connection to access the federal website, and no more searching again if the browser is accidentally closed.
When is software accessible?
To enable people with disabilities to access digital content, it must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. These four principles form the basis of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which were developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). They also form the basis for German and European legislation on digital accessibility.
- Perceivable: For people with visual impairments, a screen reader must be able to read the content aloud, while people with hearing impairments are dependent on easily legible text.
- Usable: Content must be easy to navigate. A poorly designed website where one wrong click renders everything unusable is neither usable nor robust.
- Understandable: Unclear functions, confusing selection menus or unexpected behaviour of buttons indicate that the website is not structured in an understandable way.
- Robust: A website should function stably and reliably on different devices and with different tools.
In the field of accessibility, there are numerous examples of poorly implemented websites and applications. With this project, we are going beyond purely legal fulfilment of the requirements: we are working directly with affected users to develop an application that is optimally accessible and usable for all people.