ZEW Website Received the 2006 BIENE Award

The Internet presence of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) received the 2006 BIENE Award ("Barrierefreies Internet eröffnet neue Einsichten") for barrier-free Internet access, awarded by Aktion Mensch and Stiftung Digitale Chancen. The prize honours excellent barrier-free websites.

Among 350 institutions, the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and blindwerk – neue medien (www.blindwerk.de) were able to qualify for the finale with their jointly created ZEW website (www.zew.de). The award was presented by an international jury at a ceremony in Berlin. Thomas Kohl, ZEW’s Director of Business and Administration, Yvonne Bräutigam, project leader at ZEW, as well as Jan Entzminger, holder of the agency blindwerk – neue medien, gladly accepted the award. In the finale of the competition, a total of 19 Internet services received the award.

The BIENE Award (BIENE stands for "Barrierefreies Internet eröffnet neue Einsichten" - Barrier-free Internet opens new insights) of Action Mensch and Stiftung Digitale Chance honours the best barrier-free websites. It is the main goal of barrier-free accessibility to grant all users full access to the content of a website. This is the reason barrier-free services are easier to operate, irrespective of whether the user is a handicapped person, a newcomer to the World Wide Web or just someone wanting to browse the Internet in a quick and user-friendly way.  This year, Aktion Mensch and Stiftung Digitale Chancen awarded the pioneers of this development for the fourth time.

"The jury was spoiled for choice," Iris Cornelssen, BIENE project leader at Aktion Mensch, throws in enthusiastically, "The quality of services has never been as high as this year." All award winners were able to prove that accessibility means more than just working through check lists. The prize-winning services impressed with clean programming allied with innovative ideas and unconventional solutions.

Since the creation of the ZEW Internet presence in 1993, the website has been subject to many different changes including several relaunches, one of them in 2000 and the last one this year. The barrier-free access to the website has been a major point of interest for ZEW since 2005. Therefore, the relaunch in Mai 2006 mainly focussed on accessibility. The barrier-free realisation of the layout set by ZEW was carried out by blindwerk - neue medien, Rhodt unter der Rietburg in the Southern Palatinate. ZEW internally cared for the barrier-free final trimming as well as the supervision.

Being awarded the 2006 BIENE Award is a recognition of ZEW's efforts in favour of accessibility and also an incentive to continue on this way in the coming years.

Contact

Yvonne Bräutigam, Phone: +49(0)621/1235-322, E-mail: yvonne.braeutigam@zew.de