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accessibility 2026
Accessibility has been law since June 2025. Treating it in 2026 as a tiresome obligation means mistaking a competitive advantage for a cost item.
one year on
the starting pointThere are deadlines you see coming and still sleep through. 28 June 2025 was one of them. A year later the grace period is definitively over and the “something's coming soon” rhetoric has run out.
For context: Germany's Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG) transposes the European Accessibility Act into German law. Until then an accessibility obligation applied only to public bodies; now it reaches the private sector for the first time. It mainly affects companies with digital products and services for consumers — online shops, banks and insurers, telecommunications, transport operators, e-book and streaming providers.
Micro-enterprises with fewer than ten employees and under two million euros in annual turnover are exempt where services are concerned. If you are unsure whether that applies to you, don't guess — have it checked legally; this text is not legal advice. The relevant technical standard is EN 301 549, which points to WCAG 2.1 at conformance level AA. Align a website with that and you are on solid ground.
what is actually on the table
requirementsAccessibility sounds abstract but means very concrete things. Every function has to work by keyboard, not only with a mouse. Images need meaningful alternative text so screen readers can read them out. Colours and contrasts have to remain legible for people with visual impairments. Videos need subtitles, audio needs transcripts. The structure has to be marked up logically through clean HTML headings and ARIA attributes.
Two points are readily overlooked even though they are basic equipment in 2026: a publicly accessible accessibility statement describing which parts of the site are accessible — ideally as a normal HTML page in the footer, next to the legal notice and privacy policy. And a feedback route through which users can report barriers. Neither is optional decoration; both are expected.
Around 15 per cent of people live with an impairment. A website that is not accessible does not exclude a fringe group. It excludes a market.
And this is exactly where the perspective flips. The same measures that open access for people with disabilities improve the experience for everyone: clearer navigation, better legibility, faster load times through clean code, more comprehensible language. Older users benefit, mobile users benefit, and Google benefits. What a screen reader can read out well, a search engine can understand well.
where ai genuinely helps
and where it doesn'tWhat frightens most site owners is the sheer quantity — hundreds of images without alt text, videos without subtitles, PDFs without an accessible structure. This is exactly where artificial intelligence comes in. Modern models analyse images and propose alt text, generate subtitles from audio tracks, transcribe recordings, detect insufficient contrast and check structures automatically. A week's work becomes a matter of hours.
But — and this but is decisive — AI is a tool, not an autopilot. An automatically generated alt text that merely describes an image without grasping its purpose in context is useless at best and misleading at worst. Speech models do not understand every accent, complex interfaces remain a hurdle, and generated subtitles contain errors.
AI does the legwork. Whether accessibility actually results is decided by the human checking the machine.
That is also the more honest position. Accessibility is not a checkbox a plugin ticks off. So-called overlay tools that promise accessibility at the push of a button usually do not solve the problems but cover them up — and often create new ones. The reliable route remains: an audit with tools such as WAVE, axe or Lighthouse, backed by real testing with keyboard and screen reader, then careful rework on structure, content and technology.
from obligation to profile
takeawayIf you still haven't acted in 2026, skip the panic and start pragmatically. An audit exposes the weak points. Then comes the clean-up: heading hierarchy, alt text, contrast, keyboard navigation, focus indicators, valid forms. In parallel, the accessibility statement and feedback route take shape. And because websites keep changing, this is not a project with an end date but an ongoing task.
The risk of doing nothing is real: warning letters, fines, in extreme cases sales bans, plus reputational damage and the loss of customer groups. But the real story is not the fear, it is the opportunity. An accessible website opens up new audiences, improves the experience for everyone, strengthens rankings and positions a brand as modern and customer-focused. At present only about a quarter of Germany's most-visited web shops are even partly accessible — take it seriously and you stand out visibly.
In the end, accessibility is that rare subject where social responsibility, legal certainty and commercial advantage all point the same way. Making a website usable for everyone is not a sacrifice but an expansion. AI takes the laborious parts off our hands. The commitment to doing it properly stays our job.
Sources
- 01Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG), in force since 28 June 2025 — transposition of the European Accessibility Act into German law.
- 02EN 301 549 / WCAG 2.1 Level AA — the relevant technical standard for digital accessibility.
- 03life-style.de (2026): “BFSG 2025 — accessibility for websites and online shops” — requirements, B2-level language, around a quarter of web shops partly accessible.
- 04inovex (2025): “Implementing website accessibility” — exemptions for micro-enterprises (under 10 employees, under €2m turnover), affected sectors.
- 05webneo.de (2026): “Accessible websites — measures with AI” — ARIA attributes, semantic HTML, AI-assisted implementation.
- 06Online Solutions Group (2026): “Accessible website — checklist” — accessibility statement, feedback route, AI-generated alt text.
- 07Marlem-Software (2025): “AI and digital accessibility — status 2025” — the potential and limits of AI with pronunciation and complex interfaces.
an audit instead of an overlay?
We test your site honestly — with tools, keyboard and screen reader — and tell you what actually needs doing.
