Accessibility: What's changing for business websites

Websites can be difficult to use for people with disabilities: Missing alternative texts for images, cumbersome design, incomprehensible texts, videos that play automatically or insufficient colour contrasts can make visiting websites unnecessarily difficult. With the new European Accessibility Act, companies will now be required to take these circumstances into account. Recommendations from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which are summarised in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), will thus become binding. In Germany, this is regulated by the Accessibility Reinforcement Act (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz). From June next year, many companies will therefore have to fulfil higher accessibility requirements.

Companies should recognise that this is not unnecessary regulation, but an opportunity to bring their websites up to date. After all, there are almost eight million people with disabilities in Germany alone. Of these, more than three quarters are over 55 years old. This means that impairments when using websites are not just an issue for people with disabilities, but also make it easier for older users to use websites. In addition, there are people who are temporarily impaired, for example due to accidents, short-term technical difficulties or their environment.

Many of the criteria that are set for low-barrier or barrier-free websites have advantages for search engine rankings and the length of time website visitors stay on the site and ensure a better overall user experience. This in turn leads to a higher conversion rate for online shops, for example. For companies, accessible websites are therefore more than just a sign that inclusion is taken seriously: They actively support their business models. Easy-to-read texts, good contrasts and videos with subtitles are therefore not just an offer to people with disabilities - they benefit everyone and should therefore be taken seriously.

Which aspects are important for the accessibility of a website

The basis for an assessment of accessibility is ultimately the recommendations of the WCAG, which have now been incorporated into the Accessible Information Technology Ordinance (BITV 2.0) and the European Accessibility Act for public administration. This resulted in the Barrier-Free Strengthening Act (BFSG), which will come into force next year. The law can be applied to websites, apps, operating systems, self-service terminals, e-book readers and other electronically supported processes - in other words, to far more than just company websites.

Accessibility itself is currently measured using 86 criteria, which are divided into four areas:

Update or new website: What is worthwhile?

Company websites can consist of hundreds to thousands of subpages. Do they all need to be checked individually for accessibility? Fortunately, not usually. Because if a website consists of standardised modules, only the modules themselves need to be accessible. This can save a lot of work. There are also automated tools for some aspects, such as the quality of the HTML code or contrasts, which make checking easy.

Nevertheless, the changes required for an accessible or low-barrier website are substantial. For example, keyboard control is a fundamental design aspect that often cannot simply be retrofitted. The transition to an accessible website therefore requires a well thought-out roadmap.

Firstly, the relevance should be checked. Which processes on the website are actually relevant to the new law, i.e. part of a process that can be categorised as electronic commerce? Where could there be risks? This results in a complete overview of the relevant processes.

The test scope must then be defined. This involves determining which page types and modules are representative of the processes defined above, i.e. which subpages are affected and need to be checked. Testing the website for fulfilment of the requirements can be very time-consuming, as the tests can only be partially automated. In particular, keyboard control and screen reader compatibility can only be correctly assessed by means of manual tests. Narrowing down the test scope, particularly with regard to page modules that are used multiple times, is therefore crucial in order to keep the effort for the first test step within reasonable limits.

The pages are then checked in a subsequent audit. A test protocol with recommended measures rounds off the test and provides an overview of what needs to be done. This raises the question for companies as to whether it is worth revising the website at all - or whether a relaunch is not the better alternative. After all, a completely new site allows many construction sites to be tackled at once and the technical framework of the website to be made secure for the future.