Accessibility is essential to ensure that all people, regardless of their abilities, have easy access to online content and services. This is particularly important for people with visual and hearing impairments, motor impairments, cognitive impairments, and other specific requirements.
Why is this important?
The accessibility of websites enables companies and public institutions to reach a broader target group and not exclude anyone due to restrictions. This promotes social inclusion and can improve a company’s image by attracting potential customers.
Legal regulations and guidelines in many countries regulate the accessibility of websites. Companies that do not comply with these regulations risk legal consequences and fines.
Overall, creating accessible websites is not only an ethical obligation but also an economically sensible decision for companies and organizations.
Factors important for accessibility
Ensuring accessibility requires attention to various factors that help reduce barriers:
Simplicity: A clear layout and structure improve usability.
Contrast: Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background.
Alternative texts: Use meaningful alt texts for images and graphics.
Keyboard operability: All functions should be usable via keyboard.
Headline structure: Use a clear and consistent heading hierarchy.
Forms: Label form elements clearly for easy interaction.
Usability: Interactive elements should be recognizable and easy to use.
Video & audio content: Provide transcripts and subtitles for multimedia.
Colors: Do not rely solely on color for differentiation.
Error handling: Ensure error messages are clear and helpful.
Navigation: Keep navigation intuitive and consistent.
SEO benefits
Accessible websites tend to rank better in search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines like Google favor websites that are accessible and user-friendly, which can lead to increased traffic and website visibility.
Did you know?
Facts about website accessibility
According to a study The WebAIM Million/The WebAIM millions by the WebAIM community on WCAG conformity of websites. The study tested the accessibility of the top 1,000,000
websites in 2024. The WAVE tool was used for the test with WCAG 2.1 standards.
Accessibility problems continue
An average of 56.8 errors per homepage - Only 4.1% of homepages were error-free according to WCAG standards -
Shows continuing difficulties in implementing accessibility standards
Frequent sources of errors
81.0 % - texts with too little contrast - 54.5 % - missing alternative texts for images - 48.6 % - missing
labels for form fields - 44.0 % - empty links or links are not clearly named
Complexity of the websites
Homepage complexity increased by 11.8 % from 2023 to 2024 - Increasing complexity makes the implementation of
accessibility standards more difficult
Use of ARIA
74.6% of homepages use ARIA attributes - Incorrect implementation can affect accessibility
Industry-specific differences
Differences between industries show different accessibility problems - Requires targeted measures to improve
accessibility in certain sectors - Websites of public institutions have the fewest errors
Accessibility by TLDs and languages
Some top-level domains (TLDs) such as .gov and .edu as well as the German TLD (.de) show significantly better
accessibility with low error rates compared to the overall average - On the other hand, TLDs such as .cn, .ua and
.id have a high error rate, indicating accessibility challenges - The best languages in terms of accessibility are
English and Dutch, while Indonesian, Vietnamese and Korean have the highest error rates
