Hausarzt im Zentrum Bamberg: an accessible GP website with its own theme

The previous website came from a website builder and loaded scripts from several third-party providers as soon as a page opened: for an accessibility widget, an automatic translator and appointment booking. Three requirements were fixed for the new site: the practice maintains its own texts, no data flows to third parties without a click, and the site is accessible. Concept, design and technical implementation came from us, as did hosting, updates and maintenance.

We programmed the theme specifically for the practice. The “Inselstadt” design concept turns the location into the image: the home page header shows a site plan drawn from OpenStreetMap data (freely usable map data), with a marker for the practice. The site is set in the serif face Spectral and in Atkinson Hyperlegible Next, a typeface developed for people with low vision; both are served from the site's own server. The practice edits every text in the WordPress block editor. Phone number, address and opening hours are entered once in the settings and appear from there on every page, together with a note showing how long the practice is open today.

Prescription, referral and contact requests and feedback on accessibility go through four forms built into the theme. The server puts the details straight into a PDF, encrypts it with the practice's key using AES-256 (a common, strong encryption standard) and emails it to the practice; nothing is stored, and the email itself only states the type of request and when it arrived. Spam is kept out by a maths question, a honeypot (an invisible field only machines fill in), a time trap (forms submitted too quickly count as automated) and a cap on requests per sender address – without a captcha service (a third-party picture puzzle). Online booking through arzt-direkt opens in a window on the page and loads only after a click.

The site needs no cookie banner: without a click it sets no cookies, stores nothing in the browser and loads nothing from third-party servers – measured on all 15 pages in both languages. The Google Maps map appears only once a visitor releases it with a click. Instead of a third-party widget there is a dedicated accessibility menu: three text sizes, high contrast, underlined links and animations switched off; the browser remembers the choice. The axe testing tool reports no violations on any of the 15 pages, and at a width of 320 pixels – equivalent to 400 per cent zoom – nobody has to scroll sideways. Hosting, updates and maintenance are handled by us; new theme versions install automatically, and if an update fails, the previous version is restored.