Accessible websites: There is still room for improvement in Germany
From June 2025, e-commerce stores, among other things, must become barrier-free. Many operators are not yet ready.
In June 2025, the German Accessibility Reinforcement Act (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz) will come into force together with the European Accessibility Act (EAA). From this date, new products and services in the areas of computers and operating systems, self-service terminals such as ATMs and ticket machines, smartphones, televisions, e-book readers, e-commerce services and web stores, bank websites and passenger transportation services must meet the requirements of the EAA.
However, a recent study by the software evaluation platform Capterra on the digital accessibility of websites, online stores and digital services that can be booked online shows that 56 percent of German companies are not yet prepared for the European Accessibility Act – although they are aware of the importance of inclusive web design: 80 percent of the German companies surveyed give accessibility a high to very high priority, which is above the international average of 73 percent.
Accessibility generates revenue
The study also confirms the economic benefits of accessible websites: 38% of companies recorded higher turnover after implementing inclusive functions on their websites. The most frequently implemented measures include customizable text sizes (50 percent), video subtitles (49 percent) and text-to-speech functions (42 percent). At the same time, 54% of companies rely on AI-driven solutions for accessibility.
How can websites be designed so that they are truly accessible to everyone? This question is the focus of Accessibility Day on November 7, 2024, an online theme day of the enterJS enterprise JavaScript conference. The organizers iX and dpunkt.verlag have put together an online program in cooperation with accessibility expert Dr. Maria Korneeva, which is aimed at frontend, fullstack and web developers, among others. Product owners and tech leads can also gain valuable insights for their company. Both the German Accessibility Improvement Act (BFSG), which will make accessible products mandatory from mid-2025, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are explained in detail.
Over 2,700 respondents from eleven countries cite the complexity of IT or software (46%), a lack of awareness of requirements (38%) and difficulties in demonstrating added value (36%) as the biggest challenges in implementing digital accessibility. The survey was conducted among people working in e-commerce, website design or UX, IT, marketing, customer service and support or sales.
(odi)
