BFSG 2025: Accessibility Becomes Mandatory for Many Companies

As of June 28, 2025, the Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) requires many private companies to offer accessible products, services, and websites.

No one may be discriminated against because of a disability; this has long been enshrined in the Basic Law. For websites of public bodies, this has been mandatory since September 23, 2020.

What exactly does the BFSG say?

It defines accessibility requirements for products and services that are placed on the market or provided to consumers after 28.06.2025. This includes all online retail, hardware, software, but also long-distance passenger transport and banking services.

The BFSG applies to the following products that are placed on the market after 28.06.2025:

• Hardware systems including operating systems
• Self-service terminals: payment terminals, ATMs, ticket machines, check-in machines, self-service terminals for providing information
• Consumer devices with interactive computing capability used for telecommunications services or access to audiovisual media services
• E-book readers

The BFSG applies to the following services provided to consumers after 28.06.2025:

• Telecommunications services
• Elements of passenger transport services: websites, apps, electronic tickets and ticket services, provision of traffic information, interactive self-service terminals
• Banking services for consumers
• E-books and software intended for this purpose
• Services in electronic commerce

Microenterprises: Who is exempt from the Accessibility Strengthening Act and who is not?

According to Section 3(3) BFSG, microenterprises - i.e. businesses with fewer than ten employees and annual turnover of no more than 2 million euros - are exempt from the obligation to make their services accessible.

But caution: if a microenterprise offers products that fall under Section 1(2) BFSG (e.g. smartphones or ATMs), the accessibility requirements still apply.

What requirements are set out in the ordinance on the Accessibility Strengthening Act?

The accessibility requirements of the BFSGV are generally based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The ordinance stipulates that all identification, authentication, security, and payment functions within a service (including websites and online shops) must be designed to be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. In addition, information on websites and online shops must in future be provided through more than one sensory channel, in a font of appropriate size and in a suitable form, taking the usage context into account. From 2025, sufficient contrast and spacing between lines, letters, and paragraphs of text will also be required.

Further requirements that will apply to websites and online shops from 2025 include, among others:

• Alternative representations of images or other non-text content
• Text formats suitable for the user to create alternative assistive formats
• Digital information must be provided consistently and appropriately
• Support services such as help desks, call centers, or training services must provide information about their accessibility and compatibility with assistive technologies in accessible communication formats

What specific accessibility requirements apply to products?

• Flexible adjustment of the size, brightness, and contrast of visual elements
• Alternative colors when information is conveyed through color
• Alternatives to audible signals when information is conveyed through audible signals or a response is requested
• Individual control of volume and speed when using audio elements
• Alternatives to fine motor control when manual operation is mandatory
• Use of tactilely perceptible parts for manual operation
• Operating methods that do not require significant reach or great physical effort
• Product design to prevent photosensitive seizures
• Alternatives to biometric identification and control
• Sufficient time and flexible time limits for interaction

User-centered design is more accessible because it takes the needs and circumstances of all users into account.
It reduces complexity, offers customization options, and takes standards such as theWCAG, to improve accessibility and usability equally.

Recognizing the barriers of others

All people have the same needs – access, participation, information. Yet not everyone faces the same hurdles. A barrier is not necessarily related to illness or impairment. It can result from technology, language, or design. Accessibility means recognizing and removing these hurdles in order to create equal opportunities for everyone.
Accessibility is an important step toward a just society in which every person, regardless of their individual circumstances, has the opportunity to participate in digital and analog life. It is a responsibility we all share in order to foster an inclusive environment. Developing technologies and designs that are understandable and usable for everyone is not a luxury, but a necessity.

How severe limitations are and whether a software, a website, or a text is truly accessible, only the affected people themselves can ultimately say.
All the more important to include the different perspectives.
A person with full eyesight will use a screen reader differently, and probably incorrectly, than a blind person who has been trained in the use of assistive technologies for years.

Let us be aware:

They are part of our society and still experience a high degree of exclusion, not only in the digital sector.
In 2009, Germany committed itself to implementing the UN Convention. At its core, it guarantees all people with disabilities self-determination over their lives, housing, and work, as well as full inclusion in school and kindergarten, in working life, in leisure time, and in the health and social welfare system.
With advancing digitalization, digital inclusion must therefore not be neglected.

In principle, there are groups of people for whom this law is an urgent necessity. These include people with:

• physical limitations,
• cognitive limitations

When we speak of limitations, we do not mean only impairments that have existed since birth or arose due to an accident or illness, because ultimately everyone grows older and this inevitably leads to impairments due to declining eyesight or motor skills.

Demographic change and digitalization

Due to the current age structure, an increase in the number of senior citizens and a decline in the working-age population are inevitable in the future. By the mid-2030s, the number of people of retirement age (67 and older) in Germany will rise from the current 16.4 million to at least 20.0 million. This also increases the number of groups of people with cognitive and physical limitations. Barriers harm our social cohesion, but also companies themselves by excluding target groups.

A young woman without sight benefits from optimized texts and images. For her, it is an absolute necessity,
for another user a nice-to-have. In either case, it is a win-win situation.
Anyone who simplifies and designs for people with cognitive impairments in an intuitive way automatically increases overall value.
Accessibility should of course not be tied to profit maximizationit is absolutely necessary and has positive economic effects.

Another example from the transport sector:

• The elevator enablespeople with paraplegia to access public local transport.
• At the same time it makeseveryday life easier for: pregnant women, older people, families, people with a lot of luggage, cyclists, etc.

The same can be applied to a website:

• A clearly readable subtitleenablespeople with impaired or missing hearing to understand content.
• At the same time it makeseveryday life easier for older people and creates new possibilities, such as watching videos in public, better understanding of foreign languages, etc.

How many of these realities do we already know ourselves?

And how many people will be included in our design?
Accessibility is worthwhile even without a law.
It connects the product much more strongly with users and opens up new target groups.

Become accessible in 2025

At e-pixler, we are convinced: accessibility is not just a side issue. Our expertise and sensitivity for this important topic flow into every area of our work.
Whether it is the development of a new website, an application, or the optimization of existing systems – accessibility is always a central component.
Our customers value us as a reliable partner because we take a holistic view of accessibility. We do not just think about screen reader compatibility or accessible navigation. What matters to us is a digital world in which everyone can truly participate.

Take the next step together with e-pixler – toward an accessible, inclusive future,click here.

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