Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG): what it means for your website

Many people use the web differently from a mouse and a screen. They navigate with the keyboard, have pages read aloud or enlarge text a lot. If your checkout fails because of a missing label, you lose these customers. Since June 2025, in Germany it is also a legal matter.

This article explains who the German Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) applies to, what it requires and how to check your website. At the end it covers what Swiss companies have to do with it. The text is not a substitute for legal advice.

What the BFSG is

The Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) transposes the EU's European Accessibility Act into German law. It has applied since June 28, 2025. Every EU member state has passed its own law on it. The basic rules are the same everywhere.

The law covers certain products and services. For websites, one group matters most: e-commerce services. This means anything through which consumers conclude a contract online.

Which websites the law applies to

One question decides it: can a consumer conclude a contract on your website? Typical cases are:

• Online shops where private customers order and pay.
• Booking flows for appointments, courses, tickets or travel.
• Online sign-ups, for example for subscriptions, plans or contracts with payment.
• Banking services for consumers, which the law names specifically.

A plain company site with services, case studies and a contact form is usually not covered. Nobody concludes a contract there. Offerings for business customers only are not covered either. But if you also sell to private customers, look closely.

The exemption for micro-enterprises

Micro-enterprises that provide services are exempt from the obligations. A micro-enterprise is one that employs fewer than ten people. In addition, annual turnover or the annual balance sheet total must not exceed two million euros.

Most mid-sized companies are above this limit. For them the law applies in full as soon as they sell online to consumers. Don't assess the exemption by gut feeling, but by your figures.

What accessible means in practice

The BFSG names general requirements. A service must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. It becomes concrete through the European standard EN 301 549. For websites, it points to WCAG 2.1 at level AA.

For your website that means, for example:

• Every function can be operated with the keyboard alone.
• The focus is visible when you jump with the Tab key.
• Images with content have a meaningful alt text.
• Form fields have real labels and understandable error messages.
• Text and background have enough contrast.
• The page stays usable at 200 percent zoom.
• Headings and lists are marked up as such in the code.

The law also requires information on how your service meets the requirements. Many companies publish a dedicated accessibility page for this. It also states how users can report problems.

How to check your website

Automated tests find only part of the errors. A good process combines tools and manual work:

1. Test automatically. Tools like Lighthouse or axe show missing alt texts, weak contrast and labels.
2. Order with the keyboard. Put the mouse aside and go through the whole purchase process.
3. Listen with a screen reader. VoiceOver on the Mac or NVDA on Windows show what is read aloud.
4. Zoom. Set the browser to 200 percent and check that nothing is cut off.
5. Sort the findings. Fix first what prevents a purchase or a booking.

Overlays and accessibility plugins don't help here. They show a toolbar but don't change the code underneath. A form without a label stays without a label.

Accessibility is cheapest when it is planned from the start. In a rebuild or migration, we build the components so that they meet WCAG 2.1 AA. How such a migration works is covered in WordPress to Next.js.

What applies to companies in Switzerland

Switzerland is not an EU member. The BFSG and the European Accessibility Act do not apply there directly. The Disability Discrimination Act (BehiG) mainly obliges public bodies. Private companies are affected on the web only marginally.

It looks different if you sell online to consumers in the EU. Then the rules of the respective EU country apply for that market. A Swiss shop that delivers to Germany must therefore meet the requirements of the BFSG. Regardless of the law, accessibility pays off anyway. More people can buy from you.

Frequently asked questions