Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions about digital accessibility
From the legal foundations of the BFSG through technical WCAG details to costs and project workflow: here you find well-founded answers to the questions we are asked most frequently.
In short and in plain language
On this page you will find questions and answers about web accessibility. Accessible means: all people can use a site.
The questions are sorted by topic. One topic is the BFSG. The BFSG is a German law. It says: many online offers must be accessible.
Other topics are technical matters, costs and process. There are also questions on shops, training and the long term.
Your question is not listed? Then ask us your own question. In a free first talk we give you a first answer.
Legal Questions About the BFSG
- What is the Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG)? The BFSG transposes EU Directive 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act) into German law and, since June 28, 2025, requires businesses to make certain digital products and services…
- Is my company affected by the BFSG? If you sell or offer services online to consumers (B2C), for example through an online shop or a booking flow, you are usually affected: the BFSG covers services in electronic…
- What penalties apply for BFSG violations? The competent market surveillance authorities can impose fines of up to 100,000 euros (BFSG, Section 37). Before it comes to that, however, authorities usually first request that…
- Are there transition periods for existing websites? Only to a limited extent: the BFSG provides a transition rule (Section 38 BFSG). Products that a service provider already lawfully used for its service before June 28, 2025 may…
- Does my newsletter need to be accessible? A purely promotional marketing newsletter does not directly fall under the BFSG. Transactional emails are different: order confirmations, shipping notifications, invoices or…
- Do I need formal certification? No, the BFSG prescribes no state certification or official approval. There is no government seal you must present to authorities. What matters is that you can document conformance…
Technical Questions About WCAG and Accessibility
- What are the WCAG and which version applies? The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the internationally authoritative standard for accessible web content, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). They…
- What does WCAG 2.2 AA conformance mean? WCAG defines success criteria at three conformance levels: A (basic), AA (the recommended standard) and AAA (the highest level, often not achievable for all content). Conformance…
- Are automated accessibility tools sufficient? No. Automated testing is an important building block, but not a complete proof. Not all WCAG conformance failures can be detected automatically (WebAIM Million 2026). Tools like…
- What is the difference between ARIA and semantic HTML? Semantic HTML conveys meaning directly through native elements: a button is a button to the screen reader, a nav is navigation, an h2 is a second-level heading. These elements…
- Does accessibility work with JavaScript frameworks? Yes, accessible development is possible with React, Vue, Angular and Svelte. A framework is neither an obstacle nor an automatic solution, what matters is the implementation…
- What are accessibility overlays and why don't they work? Accessibility overlays are JavaScript widgets embedded via a code snippet that promise to make a website accessible automatically and retroactively, often combined with a control…
Questions About Costs and Project Workflow
- What does an accessibility audit cost? Cost depends on scope, more precisely on the number of distinct page types and the complexity of interactions, not on the total number of URLs. We test one representative example…
- How long does accessible optimization take? A project runs through three phases: audit, remediation and re-audit. How long each phase takes depends mainly on the number of page types, the complexity of interactions and the…
- Is retroactive optimization cheaper than a relaunch? In most cases yes. Targeted retroactive optimization is usually significantly cheaper than a complete relaunch, because layout, design and content are preserved and only the…
- Do you offer ongoing maintenance contracts? Yes. Accessibility is not a one-time state: every new piece of content, every plugin update and every design change can introduce new barriers. That is precisely why we offer…
- Can we do the remediation internally? Yes, this is possible and often economical. Your own development team can implement the fixes itself, since it knows the codebase best. Our audit report is designed exactly for…
- How are costs calculated: fixed price or time-based? Audits are billed as a fixed price, based on the scope defined together beforehand. Since the test scope is clearly delimitable in advance, there are no surprises here, you know…
Questions About Specific Website Types
- Which shop platforms can you optimize for accessibility? We work across platforms, including Shopware Community Edition, CMS-based shops, custom solutions built on modern JavaScript frameworks and headless commerce architectures. WCAG…
- Do product images also need accessible descriptions? Yes. Informative product images need meaningful alt texts that describe the product and purchase-relevant features, such as color, material or variant. A good alt text conveys…
- How accessible are CMS default themes? This varies widely, and you should not rely on the claim that a theme is accessible across the board. Even well-meaning themes frequently show basic defects in practice: missing…
- Can third-party plugins and widgets cause barriers? Yes, and they are a frequent and awkward source of problems, because they partly escape your direct control. Cookie banners, chat widgets, social media embeds, review widgets and…
- What about PDFs and downloadable documents? PDFs that are part of your service, such as invoices, contract documents, manuals or downloadable forms, should be accessible too. The decisive format here is tagged PDF with…
- Does my intranet need to be accessible? From the BFSG's perspective not directly: the law addresses products and services for consumers, so purely internal systems like an employee intranet do not fall within its scope…
Questions About Training and Team Building
- What prior knowledge do training participants need? It depends on the format. Developer training requires solid basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Designer training benefits from experience with common design tools…
- Do training sessions take place on-site or remotely? Both are possible. Remote training via video conference uses screen sharing, collaborative code editors and live exercises and covers the same content as in-person formats. They…
- How lasting are the training effects? Sustainability does not arise in the seminar room but through application in daily work. Pure knowledge transfer fizzles out if it does not carry over into concrete workflows…
- Can different roles be trained together? Yes, in parts it is even explicitly sensible. For the fundamentals, the WCAG overview, the four principles and the understanding of why accessibility matters, all roles benefit…
- Do you offer individual coaching for developers? Yes. Besides group training we offer individual coaching, which is particularly suited to small teams or to the focused deepening of individual developers. The big advantage: we…
- Do participants receive training materials? Yes. Every participant receives accompanying documentation, practical checklists and compact reference cards that serve as a reference work in daily work. It is precisely these…
Questions About Long-term Accessibility Strategy
- How will the accessibility landscape change in coming years? The standards keep evolving, but not abruptly. The W3C is working on WCAG 3.0 with a new conformance model: the current draft sets a single conformance threshold, complemented by…
- How do we permanently integrate accessibility into our development processes? The key is to anchor accessibility as a fixed part of the process, not as an afterthought. Three measures contribute substantially to this. First, training for all relevant roles…
- Is accessibility worthwhile for websites with little traffic? Yes, for several reasons. The most important is legal: the obligation under the BFSG is not measured by visitor numbers but by the type and provider of the service. A rarely…
- What happens if we are only partially conformant? Partial conformance is the normal case in reality, especially with large, grown websites, and it is considerably better than inaction. What is decisive is how you handle it…
- How do we measure progress of our accessibility efforts? Progress should be measured with several complementary metrics, since a single number can be misleading. We recommend three: the WCAG conformance degree (proportion of success…
- Can we use accessibility as a marketing advantage? Yes, though with measure and the necessary honesty. Accessibility reaches a relevant and often underestimated audience: people with permanent or situational impairments as well as…
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