Those responsible for a study on digital accessibility say this is a sobering result. On behalf of Aktion Mensch and Google, in cooperation with the consulting agency BITV-Consult, PIA UDG and the Pfennigparade Foundation, test subjects tested the 71 most visited online shops for their usability for people with disabilities. 56 providers failed.
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The test teams report that only 15 of the tested pages can be operated with the keyboard instead of the mouse. Compared to the previous year, in which the study was published, nothing has changed in the proportion of barrier-free online shops. It is still difficult or impossible for citizens with disabilities to order electronic equipment, clothes, food, toys, furniture or other things online.
The large target group is lost
Sophie Geiken lives with joint stiffness that limits her ability to move. The Munich native mostly uses her keyboard to browse the Internet and uses the Tab key instead of a computer mouse. In a video she shows an example of how she tested a shopping site – in this case a clothing store. “I found a red dress that I want to buy, but I can’t choose the size,” the tester explains. “The shopping cart is grayed out and can only be selected after you specify the size.” In doing so, the shop has excluded a potential customer. Geiken will have to look for another provider.
Disorientation due to missing labels or alternative text, illogical order of tab controls, too small or too thin font, lack of subtitles, no proposals in simple or easy to understand language, poor contrasts: like Sophie Geiken, many people who are involved in the digital world are slowed down by the huge obstacles they face in experiencing it in their everyday lives.
There are 13.5 million people with disabilities living in Germany, of whom 10.2 million have a recognized disability and 7.8 million have a recognized severe disability. A huge potential target group, emphasizes Jürgen Düssel, the federal government commissioner for the affairs of people with disabilities. He does not understand why many website operators do not realize this. “It is quite crazy to exclude such a large group of people,” says Düssel. After all, it is not at all the case that the social system and companies put obstacles in their way do not have purchasing power. “There is no point in creating obstacles.” Accessibility is a quality characteristic: both for a modern country and for the professionalism of a company.
AI can potentially break down many barriers
Michael Wahl, head of the Federal Monitoring Office for Information Technology Accessibility, hopes that many of the shortcomings in digital accessibility will be overcome with the help of artificial intelligence. “AI can take users on a journey, mostly chatbots that can explain graphs using purely linguistic or textual input,” says Wahl. AI can also provide additional information, such as the pattern of clothing – tailored to the needs of the person in front of the device. Meanwhile, Jürgen Dussel worries that this development may also take place without taking into account the interests of people with disabilities. “This would mean that many people would experience exclusion and this is a violation of human rights, we really have to say this clearly.”
Susanne Baumer of the Pfennigparade Foundation, who was involved in the study, also emphasizes that if a company or development team considers accessibility from the start, this does not incur any significant additional costs – as opposed to later adjustments. If you use HTML as it was originally intended, it will be barrier-free anyway. Wahl reinforces this point: “Accessibility is not rocket science, it is properly implemented HTML.”
“Any company that has not yet tackled the issue of digital accessibility should do so as soon as possible,” appeals Christina Marx of Aktion Mensch. The reason is not just the Accessibility Strengthening Act (BfSG). It is based on an EU directive on digital accessibility called the “European Accessibility Act” (EAA), which, when it enters into force on June 28, 2025, requires member states to make online commerce barrier-free. Internet users with disabilities are also a large target group that needs to be used. “61 percent of people with disabilities say they use the Internet for shopping frequently or very frequently – compared to 51 percent of people without disabilities who say so,” says Marx.
Accessibility is not a ranking factor on Google
However, accessibility is not a separate ranking criterion for discoverability on Google. The search engine giant relies on companies fulfilling their obligation to ensure barrier-free design and also that affected people know where to set their bookmarks. However, Isabel Joswig, inclusion officer at Google, says that in-house products always pass testing by vulnerable test subjects. Also represent your company Guides and Tools Available to check sites for accessibility.
The online shops examined are among the 500 most visited company websites in Germany according to web analyst SimilarWeb. 71 of them had a complete e-commerce web shop (from search to purchase completion). There were still 78 sites in 2023. In the first phase The test team checked online shops for their usability with the keyboard. Sites that met the criteria were then tested against seven additional criteria Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) World Wide Web Consortium (W3C):
- Should form fields to be filled out be clearly labeled and explained?
- Can the text size be changed?
- Are the contrasts of text and graphics high enough?
- Is multimedia content accessible to all?
- Can users pause, end or hide multimedia content?
- Are titles and captions meaningful and understandable?
- Can interactive elements (buttons or drop-down menus) be read using assistive technologies?
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