Digital accessibility: opportunities, challenges and legal requirements

Digitalisation and the associated shift of local shops for everyday needs to the internet make everyday life easier for most people. This not only applies to buying products in online shops, but also to banking transactions, holiday bookings and daily communication with friends, family and acquaintances via social networks. In such an increasingly digital world, it is therefore essential that all citizens are granted equal access to digital content and services. Sounds perfectly understandable, but it took a law for this issue to be recognised. After all, what most of us take for granted and find easy to handle is associated with major barriers for others.

And yet, especially in this day and age, it is no great challenge to make digital services equally accessible to everyone without anyone being disadvantaged. Or is it? Let's find out what digital accessibility means, who it helps and why this topic should be focussed on even more.

How do digital barriers arise?

To shed some light on this, I would like to briefly explain the human-machine dialogue. A system presents information in any form. The users perceive this representation through their senses and must cognitively recognise and understand what they perceive. A decision is then made to perform a (re)action, which in turn requires motorised interaction. This action changes the interactive system and its representation.

So where do the barriers arise? In the case of sensory impairments, such as visual or hearing impairments, motor impairments, such as declining fine motor skills or poorer reaction times, or cognitive impairments, such as reading and comprehension difficulties. These forms of perceptible impairment can affect anyone at any time. Regardless of whether another impairment has already been diagnosed. For example, an accident can lead to a broken arm, leaving the person to operate a system with one hand. Age-related limitations may include glaucoma or declining hearing and vision. This type of limitation can and will also affect many people who are currently still fit and cannot yet put themselves in this position. Disabilities can be categorised into permanent, temporary and situational restrictions, showing that anyone can be affected.

Who benefits from accessible applications?

When we think of accessibility, we first think of people with disabilities, but we also need to consider older people or those who have to live with a disability depending on the situation, such as parents with babies in their arms, sick people or people who have to work under difficult conditions, such as warehouse or construction workers who wear gloves or ear protectors.

Digital accessibility aims to make a system accessible to as large a target group as possible. Regardless of whether people live with a disability or are impaired in some other way. Accessibility is part of usability, which aims to improve the satisfaction and user-friendliness of a target group. Therefore, all people benefit from accessible applications.

What are the benefits of digital accessibility?

Digital accessibility promotes social participation by enabling people with disabilities to access information and services. This enables them to actively participate in social life and maintain their independence. This can mean the following, for example:

• Making applications for screen reader software compatible
• Magnification programmes
• Providing videos with subtitles
• Making applications operable via keyboard control

This not only increases social participation, but also automatically enlarges your target group. The Google ranking improves due to optimised websites. As accessible applications are usually better structured because they have to comply with many specifications, this has a positive effect on search engine optimisation and Google rates these applications higher, which improves their visibility on the internet. Accessible solutions are often more intuitive and user-friendly and therefore usually lead to a better user experience.

Are there also disadvantages?

Converting existing software to an accessible application can initially involve higher costs, as adjustments have to be made and employees may also need to be trained. The time required should also not be underestimated, as the development and maintenance of accessible applications does not happen overnight and accessibility tests have to be carried out. Sometimes compromises have to be made in the design in order to achieve a higher accessibility level. This can have an impact on the planned colour scheme or mean adapting or omitting aesthetic elements. Strictly speaking, however, I would say that there are no disadvantages, but rather a few hurdles that need to be overcome, but which ultimately bring more advantages.

Where does the legislation actually come from and for whom is it relevant?

In mid-2019, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) decided to oblige all EU member states to enact laws and obligations with the aim of ensuring accessibility throughout Europe.

All countries had until 28 June 2022 to transpose this requirement into national law. For Germany, this resulted in the Accessibility Reinforcement Act (BFSG). It was passed on 16 June 2021 and, after a transitional period, will now become mandatory in Germany on 28 June 2025. The EN 301 549 standard of the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz describes the procedure for ensuring that products and services are accessible in accordance with the EAA.

For websites and apps, this standard references the international standard of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, "Guidelines for accessible web content" at level AA, which has been in place since June 2018.

Companies are obliged to make websites and mobile applications, PDF files and forms, digital self-service terminals and ticket machines, as well as online courses and learning platforms accessible.

This includes not only public administration, but especially the private sector in the areas of

• Computers
• ATMs and banking services
• Online retail
• Telephones and TV sets
• Telecommunications services
• Transport

The WCAG is a collection of principles, guidelines and criteria that can be used to check websites and applications for accessibility. This collection is the basis for the German Barrier-free Information Technology Ordinance (BITV), to which the public administration of the federal government must already adhere.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are categorised into three levels:

• Level A: This is the lowest level and includes basic requirements without which use by people with disabilities would not be possible.
• Level AA: The middle level includes all requirements for the vast majority. This ensures a good level of accessibility. This level can be realised without any special effort. The EN 301 549 standard of the Accessibility Improvement Act requires level AA, which means that all requirements of A and AA must be met.
• Level AAA: This is the highest level of WCAG and includes extended requirements that can only be implemented with increased effort, but as a result offers a completely accessible application for all people.

It was adopted at the end of August 2022 within WCAG 2.2.

The most important points in brief

The Accessibility Reinforcement Act is mandatory from 28 June 2025. Products that are placed on the market after this date and services that are provided after this date must be level AA accessible.

What happens if the law is disregarded?

First of all, it must be established if a company that is subject to the BFSG does not comply with it. There will certainly be a grace period after 28 June 2025 during which companies will be reminded to comply with the required obligations. However, continued non-compliance may have the following consequences:

• As non-compliance with the law is considered an administrative offence, legal sanctions such as fines and the obligation to rectify digital content are the logical consequence. A fine of up to 100,000 euros is to be expected.
• Complaints can be filed by affected persons or interest groups if they realise that they have been disadvantaged. These types of complaints can be very time-consuming and costly for the company being sued and can result in a loss of reputation due to discrimination.
• Non-inclusive companies risk negative publicity and prejudice against people with disabilities.
• The loss of funding can also be a possible consequence, as many funding programmes and public tenders require compliance with accessibility standards.

Conclusion

Digital accessibility is by no means just a legal obligation. Rather, it is an opportunity to promote social participation and increase the reach of digital offerings. Even if there are certainly some challenges to overcome and the initial costs must not be ignored, the long-term benefits outweigh them for both users and providers of digital services. As a service provider, we can not only make a significant contribution to inclusion by complying with accessibility standards within our customer projects, but also improve the user-friendliness and visibility of digital content.

By integrating accessibility into our digital projects from the outset, we not only ensure legal compliance for the customer, but also create a positive user experience, and not just for people with disabilities. This strengthens the company's image as a responsible and future-oriented organisation and opens up new opportunities to expand the target group and grow sustainably.

With these considerations in mind, I hope you recognise the importance of digital accessibility and take the necessary steps to make your digital offerings more inclusive and accessible.

Would you like to find out more about exciting topics from the world of adesso? Then take a look at our previous blog posts.