European Journal of ePractice

The BIENE-Wettbewerb, the best-known accessibility contest in Germany, started in 2003, the European Year of People with Disabilities. Organised by the German social organisation Aktion Mensch (German Association for the Care of the Disabled) and the Stiftung Digitale Chancen (Digital Opportunities Foundation), the BIENE-Award is meant to honour the best barrier-free web sites in German language and to present them as excellent best practice examples. BIENE emphasizes the objectives of promoting communication, joint action and productive cooperation.

Therefore, a unique study was carried out by the promoters of the contest during 2007 in order to ensure that the evaluation procedure measures the accessibility of Web 2.0 tools as well as classical websites. From the study it became very clear that people with disabilities may especially benefit from the opportunities Web 2.0 provides - nevertheless it has to be ensured that quality standards are matched.

The BIENE competition aims at improving the quality of websites in general and thus enable people with disabilities to take part in the information society. Only those websites that match the criteria for accessibility and also fit the expectations of the users as well as of the initiators of the competition will be awarded a prize. This article refers to the methodological approach underlying the evaluation of contributions to the competition and shows how best practice examples of accessible web sites can be identified with a special focus on the identification of accessible e-services.