As a new Google study shows, the accessibility of websites and online shops is still poor – and not just in Germany. However, in two years at the latest, there will be a binding law calling for inclusion and barrier-free use.
In many respects, the issue of accessibility and the participation of disabled people is still theoretical at best and is seen by many companies as a senseless luxury. But in two years at the latest, all companies with at least ten employees must ensure that their products and services are digitally accessible. That is when the EU directive on digital accessibility (European Accessibility Act – EAA) comes into force.
In Germany, the directive is implemented by the Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG). This results in an obligation for private companies to check their products and services for digital accessibility and to adapt them to the legal requirements. This applies above all to e-commerce, because across Germany 7.8 million people have a recognized severe disability, including 351,000 people who are blind or have a visual impairment.
And on the one hand, they benefit from improved participation through online trade, but on the other hand, they often fail again due to the lack of accessibility. Because only a quarter of the most visited web shops in Germany are at least partially barrier-free, three out of four shops are not at all. This is the result of a study that has now been presented, which Aktion Mensch and Google carried out with the support of BITV Consult and the Pfennigparade Foundation with expert advice from the Federal Monitoring Agency for Accessibility of Information Technology (BFIT-Bund).
Christina Marx, a spokeswoman for Aktion Mensch, explains that people with disabilities make above-average use of the Internet and also represent a particularly relevant target group: “With our study, we want to encourage companies to remove the digital barriers that still exist and thus make an important contribution to a to provide inclusive society.”
Even if not everyone with disabilities naturally has the same needs in this regard, a simple rule of thumb is: Accessibility on the Internet is essential for ten percent of the population (people with a recognized severe disability), necessary for at least 30 percent (people with minor disabilities) and for 100 percent helpful.
Poor keyboard usability is the most common barrier
78 trendy online shops were examined. 61 pages could not be operated with the keyboard alone. This often represents an insurmountable hurdle for the visually impaired. It is also problematic for people with visual impairments if the background and text colors do not clearly differ from each other. Banners, which in case of doubt only represent an annoyance for people without disabilities, mean that the website can no longer be used for people with visual impairments since the content can no longer be closed. This group also includes many cookie banners, known to have to be clicked individually on almost all pages as part of consent management.
In addition, the testers with visual impairments encountered the challenge of suboptimal contrasting colors on many of the websites examined: If the colors of the texts and backgrounds do not stand out strongly enough from each other, it is difficult or impossible for them to read these texts. And just 12 of the 78 online shops examined enable barrier-free navigation, the study found. At least 15 portals allowed users to easily change the text size, for example with a finger gesture on a smartphone (“pinch-to-zoom”) in order to make the website easier to read. On 12 of 17 websites, interactive controls ("hamburger menus") are also correctly labeled in the ordering process, their respective status (e.g. the preselected size for clothing) is read out correctly and the user can easily change the selection. Only here was it possible for the testers to successfully navigate through the entire purchase process.
Best practice examples and recommendations for action
In summary, it can be said that successful inclusion works differently. But they also exist, the rays of hope and best practice examples in the area of inclusion in e-commerce. With a tool like Wave, those responsible developers can get an initial overview of existing barriers on their own websites. The report also recommends using a "screen reader" such as Google Talkback on Android or Apple Voiceover on iOS to see how well or poorly the website is being navigated using voice or keyboard (i.e. without a mouse and touchscreen). Last but not least, it is important to involve people with disabilities and to research their needs.
Incidentally, accessibility is on the one hand an issue for people with disabilities, but on the other hand, it also shows that a systematically conceived website is also intuitive and easy to use for non-disabled people. "And don't worry: creating accessibility is not that complicated. The main thing is to just get started,” explains Isabelle Joswig, inclusion officer at Google Germany.
It is already clear that online trading must be barrier-free in two years, as we mentioned at the beginning. Michael Wahl from the BFIT-Bund explains: “Digital accessibility is a task with great impact on the future, both for those involved in business and associations and for public authorities. In Germany, we are currently on the threshold of necessary professionalization.”
However, digital accessibility needs significantly more experts with and without disabilities in order to implement digital accessibility in appropriate quality. It is already clear that the study on digital participation should not remain a one-shot. The participants explained when the results were presented that they were planning a repeat in the coming year.