Websites need to be accessible? Mine too? Really now?
You have probably already read it in one or two articles: an EU directive on accessibility is being implemented. In Germany, this is being done via the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (Accessibility Reinforcement Act), in Austria via the Barrierefreiheitsgesetz (Accessibility Act). In this article, we would like to explain whether this new law also applies to your website or app and what accessibility actually means in the case of websites and eCommerce applications.
Is your company also affected by the Accessibility Act?
Let’s start with the exceptions. Micro-enterprises (=companies with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover of less than 2 million euros) are exempt from the obligations. Also exempt are services that are not aimed at consumers, i.e. everything from the B2B services sector.
Micro-enterprises (= companies with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover of less than 2 million euros) are exempt from the obligations.
So if you are still reading this blog article, it probably means that the above exceptions do not apply to your company. So what happens next? Which websites or services are subject to the Accessibility Act?
As the implementation of an EU directive, it is not surprising that the directive is intended to regulate a whole range of different services. The overall aim of the directive is to make it easier for people with disabilities to lead a self-determined life. In other words, they should be able to participate in social life without the help of third parties as far as possible. The directive therefore also addresses requirements for devices such as smartphones, eBook readers, ATMs and other self-service terminals. In this blog article, however, I would like to focus on the requirements for websites and apps. Manufacturers of smartphones and ATMs (hopefully) have a legal and compliance department and are therefore not necessarily reliant on information from articles such as this one.
If you look at the areas other than physical devices and terminals to which the directive is intended to apply, the term “e-commerce services” stands out. All other services included in the scope concern quite precisely specified sectors such as “audiovisual media services” (e.g. video streaming platforms), “passenger transport services” or “banking services”. So what are “e-commerce services” supposed to be? Of course, it is obvious that this includes all online stores. However, the term needs to be broadened to include all processes that are carried out in preparation for a business transaction, e.g. catalog orders, online table reservations for restaurants or making appointments for personal training at the gym via an app or a website.
And what does accessibility actually mean?
The various requirements for accessibility are specified in the Austrian law in a series of annexes. The requirements listed there become a little easier to understand if you remember the purpose of the law : people with disabilities should be able to use the website/app without assistance if possible.
If you now consider how “normal” websites are experienced and operated, you usually have the following elements:
- Text (requires: visual acuity)
- Images (requires: visual acuity)
- Videos (requires: sight and hearing)
- Audio content (requires: hearing ability)
- Buttons/menus/drop-downs/etc. that need to be clicked or tapped (requires precise and coordinated movement or hand/eye coordination)
If a website or app is to be made accessible, this means that it should be usable even if one of the required skills is not available, or only to a very limited extent.
For blind or severely visually impaired people, there have long been “screen readers” that read out the text displayed on the website with an artificial voice (today, of course, we call it AI!). But these screen readers have major problems when designers want to use wild layouts or text blocks displayed as bitmap graphics. It is therefore important that the displayed texts are shown in a logical order and are coherent in terms of content.
However, it doesn’t have to be complete blindness to cause major difficulties for users. For some people, the fonts used are simply too small to read. You can usually enlarge the display in the browser. Of course, it is all the nicer if the layout of the page is not completely destroyed as a result, but the website adapts to the desired display size. Many web frameworks already support this by automatically adapting to the display for smartphones or tablets.
Even if the font size problem is solved, the next difficulty quickly lurks: the choice of color. Yes, dark gray on dark blue may look very elegant, but for some people such low contrasts are simply indistinguishable. It would therefore be ideal if the CSS used could be replaced by a version with higher contrasts.
Finally, there is one more restriction for creative designers: Please. Uses. None. Strobe effects! Most users are just annoyed by them, but others have serious neurological problems as a result. A wider population is aware of the potential effects from a no doubt authentic travelogue from Japan.
From these recommendations for an accessible presentation of text, you can probably already derive the strategies for the implementation of other content: a (missing) sensory channel should be replaced or at least compensated for by another sensory channel.
Although a screen reader can read out text, it fails when it comes to images and graphics. Therefore, these should always be provided with meaningful ALT tags so that the screen reader can also read out the image description from the ALT tag.
Videos usually require both visual and hearing capabilities. In order to be able to use videos on accessible websites, they should therefore have subtitles so that they can also be viewed by people without hearing ability. For users without sight, video content should also be available in text form.
Why should you also invest a little brainpower in the controls of a website? Not every user can move their fingers as precisely as a brain surgeon and even hit the 2×2 pixel “close” icon on a Google ad on the first try. Some users may not even have fingers (anymore) or cannot control their movements sufficiently due to illnesses such as Parkinson’s disease. They have to make do with enlarged keyboards and use them to jump from one element to the next. This makes it all the more important that all elements for operating the website can actually be reached via the keyboard and that the sequence is logical and comprehensible.
Are there any international standards?
Good that you asked! Guidelines for accessible design have existed for some time in the form of the European standard EN 301549. This standard in turn refers to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines(WCAG) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the standardization organization of the web. Version WCAG 2.1 is widely used. This was replaced by WCAG 2.2 in December 2024, although the differences between versions 2.1 and 2.2 are quite manageable.
Many web frameworks, CMS, store systems or themes state that they are WCAG 2.1 compatible or can be configured in such a way that the finished application then meets the requirements of WCAG (perceptibility, usability, comprehensibility, robustness).
OK, and when does it have to be ready?
All new systems within the scope of the directive, including the above-mentioned “e-commerce services” that are introduced from June 28, 2025, must be implemented in an accessible manner. Companies such as advertising agencies or software manufacturers that create corresponding systems and websites for their customers must therefore adapt their offering so that only accessible versions of their products are sold from the deadline. There is a five-year transition period for existing systems, but accessibility must be established earlier if there are “significant changes” to the systems. In similar cases, courts have considered the addition of a new payment method or a new product category in the online store to be a “significant change”, for example. In this respect, it is advisable not to wait until the end of the transition period to implement the issue. In addition, the legal opinion is sometimes held that the transitional period does not apply to websites anyway, as they are not “products” within the meaning of the Directive. If the systems would have to change fundamentally due to the implementation of accessibility or the change would represent a disproportionate burden for the company, this can lead to exemptions from implementation. However, such exemptions must be well argued and documented according to a list of criteria, as non-compliance must be reported to the competent authorities.
All new systems within the scope of the directive, including the above-mentioned “e-commerce services”, which are introduced from 28.06.2025, must be implemented in an accessible manner. There is a five-year transition period for existing systems.
And if websites, systems, etc. are not adapted?
Violations of the provisions of the accessibility laws are administrative offenses that can be punished with a fine of up to 80,000 euros. However, it can be assumed that this level of penalty will only be imposed for massive and repeated violations. As the law has not yet come into force, there are no official proceedings or even judicial decisions. It is therefore difficult to predict which of the provisions the authorities will pay particular attention to. This is a parallel to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), where it also took some time after the law came into force for legally binding fines to show what the authorities’ views were on various issues. Whether non-implementation of accessibility requirements will also lead to lawsuits from competitors for unfair competition or from affected persons for damages will also only be seen in the future.
Information obligations in the Accessibility Act
The similarity to the GDPR goes even further. Information on the implementation of accessibility requirements should be provided in an easily understandable, transparent and structured manner. This also applies in the event that the website is not accessible due to exemptions, transitional provisions or similar. The easiest way to do this is probably with a link in the footer of the website, i.e. in addition to the links to the legal notice, data protection information, terms and conditions, etc. that are normally included here.
The law itself mentions the document for the General Terms and Conditions (GTC) as a possible place for the information obligations. However, this route should not be chosen, as all customers with existing contracts must be informed of any changes to the GTCs. It is therefore better to publish the information on accessibility in a separate document or website.
Control from outside
Checking a website for data protection-compliant consent or lawful processing of personal data requires experience, but no particular extensive technical knowledge. Since websites and online stores are usually public, such checks can in principle be carried out by any external person. Therefore, the risk of finding unlawful websites is much higher than with an internal process where not everything may have been implemented in an exemplary manner. The same applies to accessibility implementation. If you want to minimize the risk of incomplete accessibility, please contact us for an independent analysis.
