User instructions / accessibility

• What does "accessibility" mean?
• Structure of the page and navigation options
• Downloading PDF files
• Images and video files
• Font size
• Search
• Print function

What does "accessibility" mean?

Accessibility on the internet means that the contents on the internet are made available to all users, irrespective of potential physical or technical limitations.

The Federal Office for Radiation Protection ( (BfS ) aims at making the largest possible amount of its internet pages available in a barrier-free form, as stipulated in the "Regulation for the creation of barrier-free information technology" (BITV). (BfS wishes to make its contents available to as many internet users as possible so that they will find information on our work.

In case you should still find barriers on our pages, please send us an email with details of such barriers and a description of where you observed them.

to the top

Structure of the page and navigation options

The pages are structured in a uniform way. The navigation and the content are divided into separate areas.

Right at the top of the pages are hidden jump labels that allow you to jump directly to the content, main menu, or search. The page can also be navigated via the keyboard. Press the "Tab" key to jump from reference to reference and the "Enter" key to access the selected page.

At the top of each page, you will find links to the contact form as well as the table of contents, which features an overview of which topics and sub-topics are offered. You can switch to the German-language version of the website via the "Deutsch" link.

On the left-hand side, the vertical navigation in the form of a hierarchical menu will lead you through the different subject areas. To the right is the “content area” of the page, where the full texts of the selected articles are displayed.

At the bottom of each page, you will find the "Recommend page" function. Clicking on it opens a window with which you can recommend the page to other internet users – also via Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Next to it is the print function.

Below this, a content overview provides an overview of the topics of the website. At the bottom, you will find information about the imprint and data protection.

to the top

Downloading PDF files

If you wish to open the PDF files on our internet pages you need a software, e.g. "Adobe Reader". This programme is available for free on the following page:

http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/

In order to ensure accessibility, the BfS Internet editorial staff is striving to offer barrier-free versions of the published PDF documents or to publish the contents in HTML format, if possible. Some documents, however, are old files for which the original document is no longer available. These PDF files will not be revised retroactively.

to the top

Images and video files

Photographs, images and graphics that can be reasonably described by alternative texts must be provided with such alternative texts.

to the top

Font size

• You can change the font size of these internet pages in your browser.
• If you use Internet Explorer, go to menu item "View" and choose "Text size".
• In "Mozilla Firefox" you can change the font size via menu item "View", sub-menu "Font size", "Larger"/"Smaller" or via the shortcut "Ctrl" + "+" / "Ctrl" + "-".

to the top

Search

The magnifying glass in the main navigation (top right) opens a search field. You can enter one or more terms directly in the "Search term" field.
You will receive search suggestions as you type. You can then filter the list of search results:

1. Sorting of the search result by relevance or by date

2. Restriction of the search result

   1. to a specific period
   2. to a specific document type (e.g. you can search for press releases, job offers, or for simple articles)
   3. to a given focal theme.

By entering several search terms in the search text and a "+" between the search terms, you narrow down the search (AND link). You can use the "wildcard" (*) for any sequence of letters and the question mark "?" for a single letter. The tilde symbol "~" at the end of a single word supports the indistinct search.

to the top

Print function

The contents of these internet pages are optimised for printer output. If you have enabled JavaScript, you will find a button "Print this page" ("Seite drucken") at the bottom of the page. Now click on this button and the printer dialogue will open in a new window. If you have disabled JavaScript, you can access the printer dialogue via menu item "File" - "Print" (or via the shortcut "Ctrl" + "P").