Whether an accessible website is now mandatory has become one of the most-asked — and worst-answered — questions among small businesses since mid-2025. Between panic emails from agencies and reassuring half-truths, what actually applies gets lost. Here it is, plainly: what the law demands, who it affects, and what you should really do.
Germany's Accessibility Reinforcement Act — the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, or BFSG — transposes a European directive into national law and has applied since 28 June 2025. It obliges certain providers to make their digital products and services usable for people with disabilities. That sounds like a topic for large corporations — but it expressly covers electronic commerce with consumers too, and therefore potentially your website.
The BFSG & your website: what has been mandatory since 28 June 2025
The core of the law is simpler than the abbreviation suggests: a company that offers certain services in electronic commerce to consumers must make them accessible. What's meant is the digital path along which a consumer concludes a contract — an online shop, a booking flow or an ordering process that ends on your website.
The distinction many people skip is important: not every website is automatically affected. A pure business-card site that merely informs and points to a phone call weighs differently than a shop with a cart or a portal through which consumers book and pay directly. The duty attaches to the service provided in electronic commerce — not to the mere existence of a homepage.
Who the duty affects — and who the law exempts
The BFSG addresses manufacturers, distributors and service providers in the B2C space. In the everyday reality of small businesses, the typical cases sort roughly like this:
- More likely affected: online shops with a cart and payment, booking and ticketing flows where consumers conclude a contract online, and portals with a customer account and self-service.
- Less likely at the core: pure information websites without an online contract — the classic tradesperson, practice or law-firm site that introduces, explains and leads to a call or a contact form.
- Grey area: sites with an embedded online appointment calendar or booking tool. Whether this already amounts to a „service contract in electronic commerce“ depends on the specific case — and is exactly the question a specialist lawyer should answer properly.
The law also contains a much-discussed exemption: micro-enterprises that provide services are exempt from the duty. A micro-enterprise is one that employs fewer than 10 people and has an annual turnover or balance-sheet total of no more than 2 million euros. This exemption, however, applies only to services — not to products. Many small businesses fall under the exemption on paper, but should not rely on it blindly and instead have their specific situation checked.
What „accessible“ concretely means for your website
Accessibility sounds abstract but means very tangible things. The technical benchmark follows established standards (the WCAG), which for everyday use boil down to a few clear principles. A page is accessible when it stays usable with a keyboard, a screen reader, enlarged text or limited vision:
- Sufficient contrast between text and background, so content stays legible with weak eyesight or in bright sunlight.
- Full keyboard operation — every function must be reachable without a mouse, with a visible marker showing where you currently are.
- Alternative text for images, so screen readers can describe what's on show.
- Labelled form fields with clear error messages instead of a bare red border.
- Clean structure built from real headings and semantic HTML that assistive tools can navigate.
- Scalable, responsive layout that doesn't fall apart at 200% zoom or on a phone.
The good news: almost all of this is a hallmark of a well-built website anyway. Contrast, clear structure, usable forms and mobile strength aren't special equipment for auditors — they're what makes any site better, faster and clearer for every visitor. Accessibility and solid craft point in the same direction surprisingly often.
An accessible page is rarely a bespoke build. Usually it's simply a cleanly built page that shuts nobody out — not even the older audience that will later call from a phone.From our Manufaktur projects
What small businesses should sensibly do now
The honest advice: no knee-jerk action, but no looking away either. First, settle the basic question — do consumers conclude a contract online on your site, or does your site inform and lead to a call? Second, check whether you fall under the micro-enterprise exemption. And third, treat accessibility as a quality feature regardless of the pure compliance question: anyone commissioning a new site today should design accessibility in from the start rather than retrofit it expensively later.
This is exactly where much is decided at build time. A site laid out from the outset for clean structure, good contrast, usable forms and mobile speed meets the central accessibility principles almost as a by-product — and gives away no enquiries from people who would otherwise bounce.
We build websites for small businesses at a fixed package price, and from the ground up we prioritise structure, contrast, keyboard operability and mobile speed — the building blocks that make a site accessible and convincing. How the model works, why it stays predictable and typically goes live in seven days instead of the €4,000–12,000 of a classic agency, is explained on the Website Manufaktur overview.
Note: this article reflects the state of generally known information and is not legal advice. Whether and to what extent the BFSG applies to your specific case should be clarified with a lawyer specialised in IT and consumer law.
