If it’s not accessible, it’s not user-centred. And, we didn’t do our job properly. Cause our government and the public sector need to serve all people. Yet collectively, we are pretty bad at that.
The German government’s accessibility monitoring body, BFIT-Bund, found that none of 7,239 checked public sector websites and apps met all accessibility criteria. They had to report that to the European Commission a few weeks ago. Even then, compliance with all accessibility criteria does not equal fully accessible, barrier-free services either.
Recognising our gaps in practical accessibility capability
Despite a decade-old accessibility practice in computer science and information technology, the awareness, capacity and capability levels in public, private and third sectors remain shockingly poor. That includes many tech companies. New EU legislation is forcing private sector companies to become compliant by summer. The problem is: It’s considered a legal task and risk management exercise. It’s rarely seen as an opportunity to serve more people better.
Since engaging with colleagues from across other German ministries and government bodies, I was taken aback by how little practical knowledge there is. All too often, the focus is on making PDF documents as accessible as possible. At the same time, commissioned public-facing services and procured internal services and tools frequently don’t meet crucial criteria for accessibility. Even people in formal accessibility officer roles lack a deeper practical understanding of how we make public offerings accessible.
Learning about accessibility together
Global Accessibility Awareness Day, or GAAD, is around the corner. On Thursday, 15 May, thousands of people around the world will get together to learn more about accessibility, upskill themselves and connect with others. I am taking an active role in this.
We will be running 2 events. With our international Gov Design community, we will run a call on ‘accessibility and inclusion’. We will hear from Hidde de Vries from the Dutch goverment about web standards, the NL DesignSystem and built-in accessibility. Priyanca De’Souza will discuss intersectionality and lived experience when we approach accessibility – from a user research perspective. My colleagues Christoph Schmidl and Marion Couesnon will report on how we built accessibility culture, structure, formats, and tools at Digital Service.
If you work for any government around the world and are interested in #accessibility, join us next week for our int’l #GovDesign #GAAD special call: We will be discussing accessibility and inclusion and will hear from @hidde.blog, @priyanca.bsky.social, and @digitalservice.bund.de colleagues. #A11y
— Martin Jordan (@martinjordan.com) May 6, 2025 at 6:36 PM
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Locally, we run an in-person evening meetup on ‘accessible for everyone’, starting at 6 pm. Danny Koppenhagen will share how Deutsche Bahn assists visually impaired travellers. Marion Couesnon and Susanne Henatschel will share how they are working on making justice services as accessible as possible, including plain language. Almost 70 people have signed up, which is great. There various other events happening at the same time. So we can see interest.
No work is perfect. There is so much we still need to learn. But vast opportunities for sharing and growing are out there. So I hope many people will make good use of GAAD, as it helps us develop better services for everyone.
For the events, we are trying to put a number of things together:
With our office manager, Bob, I am working on the first version of our accessibility empathy lab. It will be a wall with information, references and guidance. For that, I ordered some simulation glasses. David, Marion, and I are putting together a website to collect all our accessibility-related tools, guidance, and posts. That is necessary because it has become difficult to point to things. In addition, Marion, Nadine, and I will try to put a blog post together on our pizza-powered accessibility checks.
Interviewing designers
I started interviewing designers on Monday. It’s been over 6 months since I interviewed, so I had to get back into it.
By the end of this week, we have received 270 applications. People from all over the world reached out and wrote to me on LinkedIn. Many did not look at the language requirements we have. We need a designer to speak at least B2 German to work effectively in the justice space.
We decided to stick to our 4-part interview process, with me doing the second interview. We briefly considered swapping things, but I believe it works best if I talk to candidates early on.
Depending on the number of suitable applications, we might hire more than 2 designers we had in mind. Because all other designers are pretty busy, and we see more work emerging.
Investigating a design system roll-out
Access to justice is one of our biggest projects. For its front door, service.justiz.de, we have been building on the style guide of the Federal government, as the offering is financed and run by the Federal Ministry of Justice. But that is not particularly right.
We are now working in close partnership with 13 of the 16 states and 31 pilot courts. That means the new-ish umbrella brand, connecting federal, state and local government levels, is much more suitable to brand the services we are running on the evolving platform.
On Tuesday, Alisa, Marion and Tom ran an excellent roll-out workshop. They invited product managers, engineers, designers, researchers, and our ministerial partners to share information about a potential switch to the KERN Design System and gather related thoughts in all directions.
The main questions they asked us were:
- What are the most significant open questions related to adopting a new design system?
- What are the most significant related benefits and chances?
- What are the most significant associated risks?
Alisa meticulously navigated through the workshop sections. Tom gave additional context on the what and how of design systems, including the different options: creating, adapting and adopting a design system. Marion reported on the latest developments on the KERN Design System components and how they compare to our current setup.
The real work starts now – addressing everyone’s responses to the questions and working towards a roll-out across the entire justice platform workstream. It should keep everyone busy for the coming months, in addition to the ongoing development of services.
Kicking off new work
After some back and forth, we ran a second kick-off for new practical work this week. We support the umbrella brand’s roll-out with a small team and help design and advance its operations. We had been meant to help with this since December, but structural things kept us from doing it.
This is closing the loop to my meeting with the Federal Press and Information Office in week 3. That’s when we first discussed the idea of having a cross-government digital brand. Almost exactly 3 years later, I’m getting practically involved. On the way, many decisions have been made, but others have not. So, there is still much to shape and shift. It’s work I will do in a limited capacity. Transformation manager Anne and strategic designer and user researcher Lena will carry most of the work. I will be involved with 10% of my time – that’s about half a day per week. Principal transformation manager Alexander is also splitting time.
We have defined and refined objectives. We see work fairly equally distributed across strategic, tactical and operational levels. The team has an idea of what it wants to get done by August. It includes plenty of research and conceptual work while also formalising a current pilot.
I am excited about this work as it links to our Service Standard and other level projects we are involved in. It will get us close to digital service teams from across the country.
Getting new senior leadership
On Tuesday, the German parliament elected a new chancellor, Friedrich Merz. In the evening, he appointed the first-ever Federal Minister for Digitalisation and State Reform: Karsten Wildberger.
Later that night, an organisational degree was published, describing the shift of organisational responsibilities and structures.
Since today, Germany has its first-ever Federal Ministry for Digitalisation and State Reform. A decree published a few minutes ago gives it the final say in federal IT spending. That is big.
— Martin Jordan (@martinjordan.com) May 6, 2025 at 11:53 PM
The newly shaped Federal Ministry for Digitalisation and State Reform absorbs units and remits from 6 other ministries. And, most notably, it has a veto in federal IT and digital spending. Spend controls are a lever Germany has been missing dearly.
Various units from across federal government ministries move into the newly formed department, including @itzbund.bsky.social, the Federal Information Technology Centre. Source: www.bundesregierung.de/resource/blo…
— Martin Jordan (@martinjordan.com) May 6, 2025 at 11:56 PM
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When set up well, it will give the ministry an effective mechanism to ensure quality. Good things can happen on the back of it.
On Wednesday, the website of the new ministry went live. It utilised elements of the umbrella brand: the slim official header and the all-government logo in the footer.
I’m delighted about these developments and looking forward to what’s to come.
What’s next
Like this week, preparations for the salary cycle and related performance reviews will keep me busy.
I will do more last-minute preparations for Global Accessibility Awareness Day on Thursday, plus co-hosting the 2 events on the day.