Accessibility becomes mandatory (again): Amazon.com senses growth

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Blind translator Susanne Buchner-Sabathy used to think that accessibility was essential for a specific group, but useful for a much larger group. She has since come to the conclusion that “accessibility is essential for everyone”. At the ISPA Forum 2025 in Vienna, the consultant for accessible websites also provided an example: “An email that is displayed with white text on a white background wouldn't do anything for me personally.” After all, a screen reader or a Braille display can handle it. “But if I reply to you (white on white), you might think I'm planting you. But my accessibility requirements are met, just not yours.”

The reason for the event organized by the Austrian provider association ISPA (Internet Service Providers Austria) is that from 28 June 2025, administrative penalties will be imposed if certain products and services are not accessible. Just like in Germany. The legal obligation has been in place for a long time; discrimination based on disability has been prohibited in Austria since 2019 and in Germany since 2006.

Until now, however, those affected have first had to go through a conciliation procedure to claim compensation in the event of an unsatisfactory outcome. This is time-consuming and is therefore rarely used. From the end of June, administrative authorities will be able to impose fines. There are still no direct requirements for individual providers to make their products or services accessible.

The EU legislator, whose directive is implemented by national laws, hopes that the combination of the stick (administrative fines) and the carrot (opportunity for growth) will lead to better inclusion. At the ISPA Forum, Shadi Abou-Zahra, who has been the Principal Accessibility Standards and Policy Manager at Amazon.com since 2021, was among those who took the latter line: “15-20 percent of the population has a disability. And, quite honestly, we would like to have them as customers. We don't just have to reach them, they have to love what we offer.” Web developers therefore need to understand the accessibility standards as a minimum. “That's not the goal, it's a compromise.”

“Checklists are not enough”

It is not compliance with standards or norms that is legally required, but accessibility as such. Those who comply with standards or harmonized norms benefit from presumed conformity, but the presumption could be rebutted. “The problems don't stop just because something is digital,” said Abou-Zahra, “You have to engage with those affected; find out what they want, what they need. It's not enough to work through checklists.” The man himself worked for the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative from 2003 to 2021.

At the ISPA Forum, Abou-Zahra mentioned several Amazon offerings that go beyond accessibility standards. Simple remote controls, for example, as “complex remote controls with hundreds of thousands of buttons are a issue for people with learning disabilities”. Or optional overlays with the most important information on Amazon Prime in the center of the screen. Because “some customers have eyesight that fits, but a limited field of vision. Distributing the content on the screen doesn't help.” In streaming devices, Amazon installs wireless couplers for hearing aids with BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), which bridge significantly longer distances than the BLE standard allows.

Dialogue Boost is a relatively new, AI-supported service for Amazon Prime Videos. It separates the speech contained in a movie from background noise, amplifies it, and then mixes it back together with the general soundtrack. The result is film dialog that is easier to understand. In the Kindle e-book reader, the line currently being read can be highlighted in color: “A lot of people like to use this. We don't think there are that many people with reading difficulties.”

Wheelchair users and people of short stature can choose to deposit items in a low compartment for deliveries to Amazon's lockers. The Amazon Navigation Assistant allows access to important areas of the online store's webpages with three buttons “instead of 200 tab entries”. And Amazon's packaging is now not only easier to open, but also has eight tactile dots on printed QR codes. This allows blind people to find the QR code and then scan it with their cell phone.

But it doesn't always have to be AI or packaging design. Even simple measures outside the WCAG criteria for accessibility bring us closer to them. Buchner-Sabathy pointed out that alternative texts for graphic files that are used purely for embellishment may not be necessary. Reading these old texts is a waste of time for blind people. In addition, mandatory fields should come first in forms, and not at the end when everything else has already been filled in. After all, if a user does not want to accept a condition, they can skip the rest of the input. While sighted people can simply “scan” the form for such conditions, blind people have to go from one field to the next.

“EU regulation better than US lawsuits”

In the USA, accessibility has been legally binding for many years. However, this has also led to so-called drive-by lawsuits, i.e., costly lawsuits from people who never intended to use the specific, perhaps non-accessible service. “Europe has learned from this and interposed an authority,” said Abou-Zahra, praising the implementation in the EU. Austria does not have the kind of fee-based warnings that are widespread in Germany.

Everyone agreed that the law itself would not solve the problems. “The law will be a small impetus, one of many steps,” emphasized Buchner-Sabathy, “It is important to recognize that accessibility is an opportunity.” Lena Öllinger, who is deaf-blind and an Ambassador of Inclusion at the consulting firm myAbility, agreed. According to Eurostat, 30 percent of the population and around 20 percent of the working-age population are disabled; there is considerable “barrier-free turnover” – not only from those affected, who, once acquired, are very loyal customers, but also from their environment.

For example, Bank Austria offers banking advice in sign language, which has also spread among hearing relatives. Clickaway studies have also shown that non-accessible websites are abandoned earlier than accessible ones, as the latter are more intuitive to use. Implementing the law will still take time, says Öllinger: “It's a cultural change. But you have to start with it.”

“I studied at the Vienna University of Technology and love solving technical problems,” said Abou-Zahra, who is a wheelchair user himself. “But it's about acceptance. What we are actually doing here is social change. And that takes time, it's very difficult. We are also fighting myths here.”

Further transition periods, new ÖBB ticket machines

There is a transitional period until mid-2030 for existing service contracts and for services that were already established with legally used products before the law came into force. The same applies to non-barrier-free self-service terminals; in Germany they may be operated for 15 years from the date of commissioning, in Austria for 20 years, but until mid-2040 at the latest.

A replacement program is underway at the Austrian Federal Railways. The new machines have particularly large screens that adapt to the eye level of the respective customer. The card reader and cash acceptor are positioned at a height that everyone can reach, and all elements are tactile.

• The ISPA provides 13 basic tips for accessible websites that help to implement the four principles of perceptible, operable, understandable and robust.
• The German Accessibility Reinforcement Act
• The Austrian Accessibility Act

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