Would you like to report existing barriers to us or get information on how to achieve barrier-free accessibility? To give us feedback as well as for all other information you would like, do not hesitate to get in touch with us either by email or by phone under 040/325 77 55 55.
Barrier-free accessibility
Declaration of accessibility
This declaration of accessibility covers the website of Hamburger Verkehrsverbund GmbH, published at hvv.de.
As a public body in the meaning of Directive (EU) 2016/2102, we make every effort to make our website accessible in compliance with the provisions of the Hamburg Law on Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities (Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz), in the following referred to as HmbBGG as well as the Hamburg Barrier-free Information Technology Ordinance (BITV), (Barrierefreien Informationstechnik-Verordnung), in the following referred to as HmbBITVO.
Within the means available to us we are continually developing and improving our online presence on an ongoing basis. In this, we give high priority to making accessibility to all our contents as high as possible. In order to achieve this we are in a constant exchange of ideas with the Centre of Excellence for a Barrier-free Hamburg (Kompetenzzentrum für ein barrierefreies Hamburg).
Status of compliance with requirements
The requirements for barrier-free accessibility are set out in §1 HmbBITVO in conjunction with §§ 3 Pars. 1-4 and §4 of the Federal German BITV, which was enacted on the basis of §11 HmbBGG.
The audit of compliance with the requirements is partly based on a self-assessment carried out 2019/2020 and partly on a review carried out by service providers commissioned for this purpose. The result is that the website is partly compliant with the aforementioned requirements.
Non-accessible content
The website hvv.de consists of various different applications. These fall partly within the responsibility of HVV GmbH and partly of the transport companies affiliated to the association who present their services there and are therefore dealt with separately in the following pages.
The HVV Core Website, MeinHVV, and the Online All-year Season Ticket application form are made available by Hamburger Verkehrsverbund GmbH, which is responsible for them.
The HVV Core Website including the Online All-year Season Ticket application form and the client account MeinHVV is technically and with regard to its content temporarily not presented in a form which is barrier-free accessible due to an excessive load.
Content | Requirement | Barrier | Outlook |
Technology/ Layout / Usability | Compliance with the specifications for Category AA under the WCAG 2.1 Standard | Nevertheless, certain criteria of WCAG 2.1 AA are at the moment still not fulfilled and in some parts the decision was consciously taken not to rectify problems which were identified:
| The website technology is being continually developed with regard to accessibility and the identified deficits – within the means available – successively rectified. Currently planned measures to come closer to the criteria stipulated by WCAG 2.1 AA:
In the longer term the following are planned:
|
Videos | Alternatives for silent videos | Videos in which relevant information is not presented on the soundtrack are currently not available on any alternative medium of the same quality. | hvv.de has used the streaming platform youtube to integrate videos on hvv.de up to now. The technical options to implement an alternative medium or a full text alternative are being examined. |
Videos with a soundtrack should have subtitles. | Nearly all the videos integrated on hvv.de have subtitles/typo-inserts either directly rendered into the image or alternatively clearly delivered by a speaker via an audio track. This is the prerequisite for ensuring that the automatically generated subtitles of the youtube player employed are clearly understandable. | If videos produced in the future are designed to deliver relevant information via the audio track, it will be produced using UT – either directly rendered into the image or with the option to switch it in via the player. | |
Videos with audio description and/or a full text alternative | There are currently no videos published on hvv.de which urgently need an audio description with information on the scene being shown in order to be understandable. The videos in question also have such a high proportion of spoken text that an audio description is unsuitable or even impossible. A full text alternative is currently not available for technical reasons (see “Alternatives for silent videos”). | Depending on the design concept, the target audience and the related cost/relevance assessment, newly produced videos should in principle be made with subtitles and where appropriate, with an audio description. | |
Images | Easily understood alternative texts for images | Easily understood alternative descriptions of images are not on file for all images. | Newly integrated images provided with an easily understood alternative text and currently published images will be successively reviewed with regard to this requirement and, where appropriate, subsequently updated. |
PDFs | PDF documents must be compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA Standard | At the moment not all PDFs are fully accessible according to the WCAG 2.1 Standard. | Depending on the cost/relevance assessment and taking into account the technical options available, new PDF files should wherever possible be created in fully accessible form. Older published files will be successively updated to this standard. |
The timetable info is an external software application which is provided by Hamburger Hochbahn AG and for which they are responsible.
The timetable info with the components “enter start point – destination”, tariff optimizer/overview, Delfi information and overview of station lifts is temporarily not presented in a barrier-free accessible form technically and in terms of its contents due to an excessive user load.
Content | Requirement | Barrier | Outlook |
Technology/ Layout / Usability | Compliance with the specifications for Category AA under the WCAG 2.1 Standard | The timetable info was tested by DIAS GmbH as part of a BITV test between October 2018 and February 2019 and subsequently optimized for barrier-free accessibility. In 2020 the components “enter start point – destination”, search results, tariff optimizer/overview, Delfi information and overview of station lifts was given a repeat accessibility test. The fields demanding action generated there automatically were rectified at once. On three points the decision was consciously taken not to rectify problems which were identified:
| The timetable info is being continually developed with regard to accessibility and the identified deficits – within the means available – successively rectified. |
PDFs | PDF documents must be compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA Standard | At the moment not all PDFs which can be dynamically generated by the user in the modules Line Timetables and Bus stop information are fully accessible according to the WCAG 2.1 Standard. This is also true of the PDF files shown under the header “Real time information”. | Depending on the cost/relevance assessment and taking into account the technical options available, all PDF files to be created will be successively generated in fully accessible form. |
The Online Shop is an independent software application which is provided by Hamburger Hochbahn AG and for which they are responsible.
The Online Shop with its ordering process as well as the management of personal data and means of payment under shop.hvv.de is temporarily not presented in a fully barrier-free accessible form due to an excessive user load.
Content | Requirement | Barrier | Outlook |
Technology/ Layout/ Usability | Compliance with the specifications for Category AA under the WCAG 2.1 Standard | The result of the accessibility tests carried out was that certain criteria of WCAG 2.1 AA are still not fulfilled at the moment. These include in particular the following success criteria:
| The Online Shop technology is being continually developed with regard to accessibility and the identified deficits – within the means available – successively rectified. Currently planned measures to come closer to the criteria stipulated by WCAG 2.1 AA: Forms and tables will be successively made available in barrier-free accessible form. |
PDFs | PDF documents must be compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA Standard | PDFs which can be dynamically created by the user when buying tickets and in the “Order history in the Online Shop” are currently not fully accessible in compliance with the WCAG 2.1 AA Standard. | Depending on the cost/relevance assessment and taking into account the technical options available, all PDF files to be created will be successively generated in fully accessible form. |
The HVV Guarantee and the Contact form are independent software applications which are provided by Hamburger Verkehrsverbund GmbH and for which they are responsible.
The HVV Guarantee and the Contact form
Content | Requirement | Barrier | Outlook |
Technology/ Layout/ Usability | Compliance with the specifications for Category AA under the WCAG 2.1 Standard | Captions and error messages for individual fields of the form are in some cases currently not correctly matched by the read-aloud software (Screen Reader). | It is planned to rectify the points listed by the end of 2021. |
Compulsory fields are currently only optically indicated. This is not recognized by the read-aloud software and is afterwards given as an error message. | It is planned to rectify this barrier by the end of 2021. | ||
No read-aloud designations are currently provided for some button icons. | The fields concerned can also be used without these buttons. It is nevertheless planned to rectify this barrier by the end of 2021. |
Contact form
Content | Requirement | Barrier | Outlook |
Technology/ Layout/ Usability | Compliance with the specifications for Category AA under the WCAG 2.1 Standard | If errors occur when filling out the form the focus of the user entry is not automatically directed to the incorrect field. | It is planned to rectify the points listed by the end of 2021. |
The Online Shop for Companies is an independent software application which is provided by S-Bahn Hamburg GmbH and for which they are responsible.
The Online Shop for Companies is currently being tested for barrier-free accessibility by a service provider. The results will be published here as soon as we have them.
The client account for the HVV Card is an independent software application which is provided by Hamburger Verkehrsverbund GmbH and for which they are responsible.
The system is currently being migrated to a new service provider. For this reason, adjustments in barrier-free accessibility are no longer being made in the old system.
The questionnaire tool which was deployed temporarily and is temporarily also being used for necessary form paths, is temporarily not presented in a fully barrier-free accessible form due to an excessive user load.
The software used, LimeSurvey, is a standard product which cannot be adapted to our needs in all respects. Improvements in terms of the accessibility of the questionnaire tool will be realized with the upcoming update.
Date of issue or most recent update of the Declaration of Accessibility
This declaration was issued on 23.09.2020 and most recently reviewed on 23.09.2020.
Arbitration procedure
If you feel, after giving us feedback to the contact address stated above under “How to report barriers” that you are not satisfied with the solution suggested, you can contact the arbitration board provided according to §13 a HmbBGG. The arbitration board has the task of providing support in reaching an out-of-court resolution of disputes on the subject of barrier-free accessibility between persons with a disability and public bodies. The arbitration procedure is free of charge. There is no need to involve legal counsel.
The activities of the arbitration board, which is still being set up, are currently being carried out by the Ombudsman’s Office of the Senate Chancellery.
Contact details:
Consultation hours by phone Mondays 10 – 11 am
Tel: 040/428 23 20 57
Email