Accessibility Services
Accessibility Services (ZAB)
- The ZAB is the central point of contact for all issues relating to accessibility and the active participation of people with disabilities or chronic illnesses at Bielefeld University. The ZAB offers expertise
Accessibility Services (ZAB)
• on accessible and diversity-sensitive university development
• in digital accessibility
• for prospective students, students and lecturers on studying with disabilities or chronic illnesses
• for employees and managers on employment with disabilities or chronic illnesses
News
-
Start of the winter semester 2025/2026: zab.unibielefeld on Instagram
The Accessibility Services (ZAB) welcomes all students (back) to the winter semester! Just in time for the start of the new winter semester, our Instagram account is back with a new design and now bears the name: zab.unibielefeld. ...read more
-
Offers for students in the winter semester 2025/26: AccessAbility and Coffee & Talk
The peer mentoring programme "AccessAbility" for students with disabilities, chronic or mental illnesses is entering its seventh round this winter semester 2025/26. In addition, the "Coffee & Talk" event for international students will take place for the first time on 23rd October 2025 in cooperation between the Accessibility Services (ZAB) and the General Student Advisory Service (ZSB). ...read more
-
‘My hands are tied!?’ - Network meeting on refuge, migration and disability
From 18 to 19 September 2025, Flüchtlingshilfe Lippe e.V and the Nationwide Network on Flight, Migration and Disability, the Accessibility Services (ZAB) and the AG ‘Uni ohne Vorurteile’ held their annual Germany-wide network conference at Bielefeld University. Stakeholders and experts from public administration and science, counselling and welfare services, and civil society came together for two days of respectful and productive exchange on the topics of refuge and migration of people with disabilities. ...read more
ZAB - Insights
Instagram
We publish photos from the ZAB, drawings for stories on the topic of disability, text-image combinations on the topics of disability, university and barriers or Accessibility.
Furthermore, news from the ZAB, links to topics and contents of the ZAB, current news, interviews and field reports, projects, events, tips on digital accessibility.
Direkt zu InstagramZAB videos
Interviews and testimonials from people with disabilities, physical or mental limitations, explanatory videos and the presentation of the UniMaps app can be found on the subpages.
Videos der ZABField reports as comic
A different format for a change. We use imagery as a way to give visual voice to complex experiences of disability, mental or chronic illness.
Erfahrungsberichte
Accessibility
What is accessibility?
"Building and other facilities, means of transport, technical items of daily use, information processing systems, acoustic and visual sources of information and communication facilities as well as other designed areas of life are considered accessible if they can be located, accessed and used by persons with disabilities in the usual way, without any particular difficulty and, in principle, without the assistance of others. In this context, the use of disability-related aids is permissible". (§4 Disability Equality Act - BGG).
A barrier is an obstacle. If accessibility is to achieved, then the obstacles in everyday life should be minimised so that everyone, regardless of whether they have a disability or not, can have the same opportunity to live their life independently and autonomously.
In particular, the barriers and prejudices that exist in people's minds must be dismantled by challenging attitudes and actions. After all, discrimination is also a barrier.
Why is accessibility important!
Accessibility is not just a concept for people with disabilities, but for people of all ages, with and without impairments. All people benefit from accessibility.
Accessibility is mandatory for 10% of people to actively participate in life. This applies in particular to blind, visually impaired or deaf people. But many other people are also highly dependent on it.
Accessibility is necessary for 30 to 40% of people to enable active participation on a sustained basis. This applies to all people with an impairment, disability or chronic illness. This could be a matter of ensuring high contrast in the digital or built environment, or providing different ways to perceive something according to the two-senses principle.
Accessibility is something that for 100%, i.e. all people provides convenience at the very least. Because there is one thing that all people have in common: they are ageing, for example, and their physical capacity or perceptive ability is decreasing. A lift, for example, is absolutely essential for people in wheelchairs, necessary for people with mobility impairments, and convenient for everyone else, whether they have luggage, a pram or are simply having trouble getting up the stairs.