Introduction: Why accessibility is crucial
Accessibility means digital participation for everyone, regardless of disability or impairment. In Austria, around 760,000 people live with a registered disability (8.3% of the population). Yet according to the Ministry of Social Affairs report "People with Disabilities in Austria", 25% of Austrians aged 15 to 89 are restricted in everyday activities for health reasons. For those over 74, the figure rises to 59.4%. Across Europe, that adds up to more than 100 million people.
These figures represent both a social responsibility and significant market potential. Websites that shut out 10–20% of potential users are throwing away reach, revenue and reputation.
Accessible websites reach more users, rank better in search engines and demonstrate social responsibility. An investment with a measurable ROI.
Table of Contents
Problems & Solutions
Common barriers and fixes
Added value for all users
Accessibility fundamentally improves the user experience:
- Clearer structure: Semantic HTML and logical navigation help all users
- More comprehensible content: Clear, unambiguous labelling of links and headings makes content quicker to grasp
- Stronger contrast: Better readability even in poor lighting conditions
- Flexible media consumption: Subtitles and transcripts let people watch videos in noisy or quiet environments alike
- Mobile optimisation: Touch-friendly elements work everywhere
- SEO benefits: Search engines favour structured, accessible content
Google rewards accessible websites with better visibility. Accessibility is not an optional extra; it is simply modern web development.
Legal foundations in Austria
The legal landscape has changed fundamentally. What was long treated as a "nice to have" is now a legal obligation with real consequences.
Chronology of legal developments
Disability Equality Act (BGStG)
Web Accessibility Act (WZG)
Accessibility Act (BaFG)
Decision tree: Who is affected?
Legal requirements by organisation type
For companies with 10 or more employees or turnover of at least EUR 2 million, the grace period ends on 28 June 2025. Around 70,000 companies in Austria are affected.
Enforcement and consequences
Public sector
The FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency) randomly monitors public websites and reports to the EU Commission every three years.
Complaints procedure:
- Citizens can file complaints about inaccessible government websites
- The FFG investigates and demands improvements
- Where these are ignored, further legal steps are possible
In practice, fixes are made cooperatively; the aim is improvement, not punishment.
Private sector (from 2025)
For the first time, the new monitoring body of the Social Ministry Service (an independent authority within the BMSGPK) can impose administrative fines:
| Company size | Max. fine according to §36 BaFG |
|---|---|
| Micro-enterprises (< 10 employees, < EUR 2 million) | Exempt |
| Small enterprises (10–49 employees) | up to EUR 20,000 |
| Medium-sized enterprises (50–249 employees) | up to EUR 40,000 |
| Large enterprises (≥ 250 employees) | up to EUR 80,000 |
Those affected can take complaints to the monitoring body of the Social Ministry Service. The body investigates, issues official decisions where necessary and can set fines. Important: failing to put things right can lead to repeated fines; paying once is not enough. Legal recourse is by appeal to the Federal Administrative Court.
Important: the authorities focus on cooperation. Anyone who acts proactively has nothing to fear. Ignoring the rules, however, is becoming increasingly expensive.
Added value of accessibility for companies
Accessibility is not a compliance exercise; it is a strategic investment with a measurable return.
Quantifiable advantages
Larger target audience
10–20% of Austrians have a disability, and on top of that there are older people with declining eyesight or motor skills. Accessible websites open up new customer segments.
Better UX for everyone
Clear structure, strong contrast, plain language: every user benefits. Accessibility correlates directly with general usability.
SEO optimisation
Semantic HTML, alt text and structured content are ranking factors that search engines reward. Accessibility pays off in visibility.
Business Case
According to EY Austria, accessibility holds "potential for greater participation and for new markets". Accessible online shops have been shown to increase conversion rates.
Further advantages:
- Brand & CSR: Social responsibility as a competitive advantage in employer branding
- Driver of innovation: Accessibility encourages user-centred, modern design
- Legal certainty: Prevention is cheaper than fines and retrofitting
Important aspects of web accessibility
Structure before design: Headings and semantics
Headings are not just visual decoration; they form the semantic structure that screen readers use to navigate.
Text is only styled visually (bold, 18pt) instead of being marked up as genuine <h1> or <h2> elements. To assistive technologies, the page has no structure at all.
Best Practice:
- Use the CMS's paragraph styles (Heading 1, 2, 3) instead of changing the font size by hand
- Keep the hierarchy logical: H1 → H2 → H3 (do not skip levels)
- Use semantic HTML elements for their intended purpose
Principle: structure the content before styling it. CSS can change the appearance at any time, but the semantic foundation has to be right.
Understanding screen readers
Screen readers turn on-screen content into synthetic speech or Braille output. For blind people, they are the window onto the web.
How they work:
- Capture the text and HTML structure
- Output it as sound (speech synthesis) or touch (Braille display)
- Navigate via headings, links and landmarks
For a hands-on look at how screen reader navigation works, we recommend the YouTube video "Internetseiten vorlesen lassen? Wir erklären den Screenreader!".
The upshot: everything visual must also be available as text. Icons need labels, images need alt text and buttons need meaningful descriptions.
Practical implementation
Correctly tagging language changes
Screen readers rely on language profiles to pronounce words correctly. Without a language tag, English terms in German text are read out wrongly.
Example: "Tag" is pronounced in German as "Tahg" rather than the English "tag".
Solution: use the lang attribute to flag a change of language in your HTML. Note: words that have entered everyday German, such as "Download", do not need tagging; unnecessary markup briefly throws off the screen reader's pronunciation.
Do not tag every foreign word; it makes the output clunky. Focus on whole paragraphs or key terms where comprehension would otherwise suffer.
Alternative texts for images and videos
Images without alt text are "blank spaces" to a screen reader: lost information for blind users.
Alt text best practice:
<!-- Informative image: Describes the content -->
<img src="produkt.jpg" alt="Red sports car model XYZ, side view" />
<!-- Logo: Describes the company -->
<img src="logo.svg" alt="Webconsulting GmbH Logo" />
<!-- Linked image: Describes the link destination (not the image!) -->
<a href="/kontakt">
<img src="brief-icon.svg" alt="To the contact form" />
</a>
<!-- Decorative image: Empty alt text -->
<img src="decoration.svg" alt="" />Key rule for links: if an image is the only content inside a link, its alt text must describe the purpose of the link (its destination). An envelope icon leading to the contact page should therefore have the alt text "To the contact form", not "Envelope".
Videos: subtitles for people who are hard of hearing, plus a short description or audio description for important visual content.
Make alt text a habit whenever you upload an image. Most content management systems have a field for it; use it consistently.
Colours and contrasts in corporate design
You don't have to drop your corporate colours; you just need to use them strategically.
A practical example: a company with a light-green brand colour uses it only for large headings on white. For body text, it defined a darker green: a barely noticeable difference, but full compliance.
AI support for accessible content
AI tools can help with certain accessibility tasks, but with important limitations:
Where it helps: simplifying text, researching best practice
Example prompts:
- "Name 5 common accessibility problems and their solutions"
- "Explain the WCAG success criteria for colour contrast"
- "Rewrite this technical text to make it easier to understand" (but this alone won't meet genuine Plain Language at AAA level)
AI-generated accessibility content always needs expert review. Alt text without context, automatic subtitles without correction, or HTML checks that ignore the page structure simply won't give reliable results. If you don't know the WCAG criteria, you can't meaningfully judge what the AI produces.
Improving existing websites
Already have a website? These quick wins deliver immediate improvement:
- Check the heading hierarchy: 95% of accessibility problems stem from badly structured headings. Use semantic HTML elements instead of manual formatting.
- Add alt text: 90% of websites have incomplete image descriptions. Add precise alt text to every informative image.
- Improve link text: 85% of screen reader users navigate mainly by links. Write meaningful descriptions instead of "click here".
- Improve contrast: 80% of users benefit from stronger colour contrast. Aim for at least 4.5:1 on normal text.
- Test keyboard navigation: 75% of users with motor impairments rely on the keyboard. Make sure every function is reachable via Tab and Enter.
- Label your forms: 70% of form errors come down to missing labels. Connect every input field to a meaningful label element.
- Subtitle your videos: 65% of people watch videos with the sound off. Offer subtitles or transcripts for all video content.
Detailed checklist
These basics cover 80% of the most common accessibility problems. Start with your most important pages (homepage, product pages) and work through the rest systematically.
WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 – Understanding standards
What is WCAG?
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: the international standard for accessible web content, created by the W3C.
Conformance levels:
| Feature | Level A | Level AA | Level AAA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Requirements | Basic | Medium | High |
| Legally required | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
| Practicability | Must-have | Realistic | Very extensive |
| Success criteria | ~25 | ~50 | ~80 |
| Recommendation | Minimum | Standard | Optional |
Levels A and AA together form the legally required standard in Europe. In other words, all A criteria and all AA criteria must be met.
WCAG 2.2 – What's new?
WCAG 2.2 (October 2023) adds 9 new success criteria to 2.1:
| Criterion | Level | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Focus Not Obscured | AA | Focused elements must not be overlaid by other content |
| Dragging Movements | AA | Alternative to drag-and-drop for motor impairments |
| Target Size | AA | Interactive elements at least 24×24 CSS pixels |
| Consistent Help | A | Help functions consistently positioned |
| Redundant Entry | A | Previously entered info not requested again |
| Accessible Authentication | AA | Accessible login processes (no purely visual CAPTCHAs) |
For now, the law still requires WCAG 2.1 AA, but WCAG 2.2 is likely to become mandatory in the next amendment. Our recommendation: build new projects to WCAG 2.2 from the outset.
The 4 guiding principles
WCAG is based on four fundamental principles:
- Perceivable: Information must be perceivable by users (e.g. alt texts, subtitles, sufficient contrast)
- Operable: Navigation and interaction must work for everyone (keyboard, touch, speech)
- Understandable: Content and operation must be understandable (plain language, logical structure)
- Robust: Compatibility with various technologies and assistive systems
Develop with these principles in mind and you will meet most of the criteria automatically.
Common problems and solutions
The usual suspects in Austrian website audits:
These seven problem areas account for the majority of barriers. Tackling them systematically removes more than 80% of accessibility issues.
Conclusion and recommended action
Digital accessibility in Austria has gone from a "nice to have" to a legal obligation with real consequences. From 28 June 2025, companies face administrative fines of up to EUR 80,000 for the first time.
The core message
Accessibility is not a compliance burden; it is a strategic investment:
- Greater reach: 10–20% more potential users
- Better UX: a better experience for everyone, not just for people with disabilities
- SEO benefits: structured, semantic content ranks better
- Legal certainty: acting proactively avoids fines
- Brand boost: CSR and social responsibility as a differentiator
What needs to be done now?
The Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025. There is no "transitional phase" left; barriers must be removed as quickly as possible. Don't wait to act.
Professional support
Act immediately
- Bring in experts for an accessibility audit
- Carry out a systematic inventory
- Prioritise by the severity of each barrier
Structured implementation
Remove barriers
- Make the technical fixes
- Set up content processes
- Train the team
Sustainable processes
Stay compliant long term
- Build accessibility into your development process
- Automate testing in CI/CD
- Set up regular reviews
Cultural change
Build awareness
- Treat accessibility as a core design principle
- Build it in from the very start
- Gather user feedback
Achieving WCAG compliance takes expertise and systematic quality assurance. Amateur self-checks are not enough to meet the legal requirements.
Resources
Official bodies:
Standards & Guidelines:
Tools:
- Contrast calculator: WebAIM Contrast Checker
- Accessibility Testing: axe DevTools, WAVE
- Screen readers: NVDA (Windows), JAWS, VoiceOver (macOS/iOS)
Accessibility is not a project with an end date; it is an ongoing process. But every step is a win: for your users, for your business and for a more inclusive digital society.