Digitally accessible, or soon left behind?

The countdown is on: on June 28, 2025, the German Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) takes effect. But reality shows that many online shops are not ready yet. The new Accessibility Study 2025 makes it clear: the digital shopping world is still full of avoidable barriers.

According to the new accessibility study by Aktion Mensch, Google, Stiftung Pfennigparade and UDG, only one fifth of the most visited German online shops meet the legal minimum requirements for accessibility. The most common gaps are working keyboard operability and compatibility with screen readers. With the deadline approaching, demand for resources to implement the most essential optimizations is expected to rise over the coming months, predicts André Roitzsch, CEO of SHOPMACHER. Online retailers should keep five measures in particular in mind to meet the requirements of the BFSG.

The BFSG is the German implementation of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and requires digital sales platforms to comply with the internationally recognized WCAG AA criteria. Violations can be penalized with fines under Section 37 BFSG. Even so, no immediate wave of inspections should be expected from June 29 onward, simply because lawmakers have not yet created the structures needed for comprehensive enforcement.

But experience shows that affected users are increasingly willing to enforce their rights collectively. So growing pressure and higher resource requirements to implement the BFSG rules should be expected, even without a formal wave of warning notices.

In B2B in particular, the mistaken assumption is widespread that the law does not apply because platforms are "not public". But that is half the truth at best. B2B platforms usually have publicly accessible pages too, and those must be accessible by the deadline at the latest. On top of that, registered users with legitimate claims could invoke legal compliance as well. Retailers who stay inactive here risk unnecessary reputational damage, and potential trouble.

Accessibility is not a bureaucratic burden, it is a functional upgrade. When you design your platform so that people with impairments can use it intuitively, you usually improve the experience for everyone else too. A checkout with more generous touch targets helps on a moving bus just as much as optimized contrast helps in bright sunlight. So the requirements of the BFSG do not lead into a complexity trap. They lead to better conversion rates.

Many retailers block themselves with an all-or-nothing attitude. Out of concern about complex technical requirements, accessibility often gets postponed, even though first progress would be achievable with little effort. Even simple measures such as well-maintained ALT text, structured headings or clear link wording noticeably improve accessibility. This can often be done editorially and without deep technical know-how, by interns or working students. Anyone who ignores the low-hanging fruit gives away easily achievable improvements. Anyone who uses it moves forward faster.

The hope that the next shop software update or a new accessibility plugin will somehow solve the topic persists stubbornly. It is true that many vendors are currently working on more accessible themes, UI components or modules, and that is progress. But no update in the world makes a digital offering compliant automatically. The same goes for automated accessibility scanners and AI-based testing tools. They can deliver valuable hints, for example on whether problems are more technical or editorial in nature. But they only detect surface-level weaknesses. In the end, what counts is what is truly usable. And that is judged not by algorithms but by people. To detect unclear content structures, faulty focus handling or missing semantic markup logic, a manual review is indispensable.

The first step for every retailer is a solid assessment of where things stand: which requirements are already met, which are not, which measures are feasible in the short term, and which need a longer roadmap. Anyone who has this overview can prioritize with good reason, communicate transparently to the outside, and build up resources internally in a targeted way. Because as André Roitzsch puts it: "What many are missing is neither budget nor technology, but a clear plan."