PROGRESSIVE Drupal Distribution: Accessible by Default, Built to Scale — for the Public Sector

Key results at a glance

• 20,000+ editors working with the distribution daily across institutions
• 100,000+ pages managed across universities, ministries, and public foundations
• BITV 2.0 / WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliant out of the box — not retrofitted
• Flagship deployment: Universität Siegen — 1,200+ organisational units, 1,000+ editors, migrated from XIMS in 12 months

What makes this project special

Most platforms treat accessibility and data protection as additions — features to enable, plugins to install, audits to survive. The PROGRESSIVE Drupal Distribution takes a fundamentally different approach: accessibility and compliance are system principles, not options.

Accessible components are the default. Editors receive real-time guidance within the interface. Compliance documentation is generated automatically for audits and procurement processes. Data protection works the same way — the platform avoids third-party integrations such as external fonts or tracking scripts by design, keeping data sovereignty fully within the institution.

All AI-powered features follow the same principle: genuinely useful capabilities — RAG-based chatbot, semantic search, automated translation — deployable entirely within institutional infrastructure. No data leaves the institution unless the institution decides otherwise.

Goals

Public sector institutions — universities, government agencies, public foundations — face a convergence of digital demands: mandatory accessibility compliance, strict data protection requirements, and the need to support thousands of editors across decentralised departments. Generic content management systems rarely meet all of these requirements simultaneously, forcing institutions into costly customisation or compliance retrofits before go-live.

The goal was to build a Drupal-based distribution that makes accessibility, data sovereignty, and editorial governance available out of the box — reducing implementation risk and shortening the path to a legally compliant, auditable, and sustainable web platform.

Challenges

Public sector projects in Germany operate under binding legal constraints: BITV 2.0 (the national Web Accessibility Directive implementation), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG). Meeting all three simultaneously, while supporting complex multi-department editorial structures with granular roles and approval processes, is both technically and organisationally demanding.

Legacy migrations from platforms such as TYPO3, XIMS, and FirstSpirit add further complexity, requiring careful transition planning to avoid disrupting editorial operations for hundreds or thousands of active editors.

Approach

The distribution was built iteratively, with each production deployment feeding improvements back into the platform. Implementations follow a structured rollout: content architecture workshops, iterative design phases with accessibility testing at every stage, and phased migrations that allow old and new systems to run in parallel.

All intelligent extensions — AI chatbot, automated translation, semantic search — are designed so that institutions retain full control over their data and infrastructure, with on-premise and private cloud deployment options throughout.

Outcome

Universität Siegen — previously running a 20-year-old XIMS installation with no accessibility compliance — migrated 100,000+ pages and onboarded 1,000+ editors across 1,200+ organisational units. Departments now manage their own content independently within a governed framework, and the platform passes BITV 2.0 audits without remediation.

Across all deployments, institutions gain a platform that meets accessibility standards from day one, is fully GDPR-compliant without external dependencies, and scales from individual departmental sites to multi-site campus deployments. Procurement teams can reference existing production deployments and documented compliance — significantly reducing evaluation risk for new institutions.

Key features

• Accessibility by default: Every interface element meets BITV 2.0 / WCAG 2.1 requirements. Automated and manual testing provides real-time editorial feedback. An optional user-facing accessibility widget gives visitors additional control.
• Editorial governance at scale: Granular role and permission management supports decentralised editorial structures, approval workflows, and documented processes — designed for organisations with hundreds of editors across dozens of departments.
• Data protection without compromise: Custom cookie consent without external scripts, with optional revision-secure logging. No external fonts, no tracking scripts, no third-party data transfer by default.
• AI that stays on-premise: RAG-based chatbot running on institutional infrastructure. Semantic search with relevance ranking, autocomplete, faceted filtering, and optional AI-generated direct answers. No data transfer to third parties required.
• Automated translation with editorial control: DeepL API integration provides machine translation as an editorial starting point, with structured review and approval workflows — including support for plain language (Leichte Sprache).
• Design system on a Figma foundation: Component-based, reusable content blocks with visual configuration within institutional corporate design. 1:1 from design to code.
• Proven migration paths: Tooling for TYPO3, XIMS, and FirstSpirit platforms, enabling phased transitions without editorial downtime.
• Infrastructure-ready: CI/CD pipeline support via GitLab, Docker, and Ansible — suitable for state and university data centres. Passes security requirements for government infrastructure.