What does the Accessibility Reinforcement Act mean for HR departments?

On 28 June 2025, the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG) will come into force in Germany. This will make the rules of the EU Accessibility Directive (European Accessibility Act, EAA) binding. Exactly six years after it was published. Will what takes a long time finally work out? Hopefully – but many companies are lagging behind developments.

According to information from the Federal Statistical Office, just under eight per cent of the population in Germany were living with a severe disability at the end of 2023. That’s 9.3 million people. They face daily challenges that many people without disabilities do not even recognise as such. This applies not only to the physical world, but also to the internet – justification enough for the EU to draft the EAA. The wheels of legislation grind slowly, but now the time has come: the directive is being implemented in Germany.

The most important takeaways for HR departments

The Accessibility Reinforcement Act (BFSG) will be binding in Germany from 28 June 2025.
It enables people with disabilities to participate more effectively – including in the labour market, as it makes employers’ careers pages more accessible.
The adjustment will make employers more attractive and increase the pool of skilled labour.
The digital visibility of the company also increases thanks to the accessible design of the career pages.

Explanation: What is the Accessibility Reinforcement Act?

The Accessibility Reinforcement Act aims to reduce digital barriers and thus enable people with disabilities to participate better in life. This applies to social life, but also to jobs.

The law takes a holistic approach to this:

People with disabilities should have equal digital access to products and services. This applies, for example, to shops, communication service providers and financial institutions, but also to career pages on company websites.
The law contains standardised rules for accessibility, which also apply throughout the EU, so that not every company has to puzzle together its own solution. The advantage for companies is that they can offer their services and products more easily throughout the EU.
The standardised EU-wide requirements pour water on the blazing bureaucratic fire and make it easier for companies to comply with the regulations.

You will therefore have to deal with the implementation of the law, but in retrospect it also makes many things less complicated. Important to know: The requirements apply to all companies, the only exception being micro-enterprises – i.e. those with fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total of no more than ten million euros.

What happens in the event of violations of the Accessibility Reinforcement Act

If you are caught violating the Accessibility Reinforcement Act, you will be fined. If the offence continues, the website may even be shut down.

There are various ways in which non-compliance with the law can be detected: On the one hand, the market surveillance authorities will set up a reporting and monitoring system. On the other hand, infringements are considered anti-competitive, meaning that competitors or organisations and associations that are recognised under the Disability Discrimination Act can also issue a warning to the company for a fee. It is therefore best not to offer a target!

Advantages of the Accessibility Improvement Act for companies

There are also more appealing reasons for complying with the Accessibility Reinforcement Act than just the fear of punishment:

Employer attractiveness: You improve the public image of your company – keyword employer branding. Many skilled workers prefer to apply to responsible companies that are open, inclusive and modern rather than those that seem old-fashioned and lag behind when it comes to new developments.
Larger pool of skilled labour: Enable easy access to the application process for people who did not have it before and increase your own selection of skilled workers. This allows you to fill vacancies more quickly.
Optimised usability: Accessibility is not only good for people with disabilities. The improved clarity and the possibility of intuitive use make visiting the website more pleasant for everyone.

The latter also has an impact on search engine rankings: according to a study from September 2024, Google rewards accessible websites. For 39 per cent of the companies surveyed, the adaptation led to an improved ranking position. Compliance with the Accessibility Improvement Act therefore has an SEO effect.

Another plus point: 39 per cent of the companies surveyed also stated that their content had been shared more frequently on social media since their websites became accessible.

8 tips for making the HR page accessible

If you design your online careers site and don’t address the issue of accessibility, you probably don’t even realise what barriers are preventing other people from accessing an application site.

These points are the most important:

Operation via the keyboard: Ensure that the entire page can be easily controlled using the keyboard alone and without using the mouse.
Visible keyboard focus: Without a visible keyboard focus, many people with disabilities cannot recognise where they are on the page and which element they have selected.
Strong contrasts: Light grey text on a white background, for example, may look pretty. However, it is difficult to read even for people with normal vision. People with impaired vision can hardly recognise it.
Suitable font sizes: The font must be large enough or be adjustable in size so that it is easy to read for people with impaired vision.
Subtitles: Make it possible for deaf people to read along with the sentences in videos.
Image descriptions: Create descriptions of your images on the page for people who can see little or nothing. This way, they don’t lose the added value that the illustrations offer.
Intuitive navigation: Make sure that the tab order is logical and enables easy navigation. A simple structure also enables compatibility with screen readers.
Minimise pop-ups: Avoid displaying banners or cookie information that partially obscure the website and cannot be closed easily.

If interested parties can easily read all the information texts and record image and video content, they can decide in favour of or against an application. In order for them to be able to submit their application, you need to enable intuitive navigation through the application form – without using a mouse.

Short-term implementation of the Accessibility Improvement Act

And what does that look like in practice? As part of the study ‘Inclusion in HR marketing and recruiting’, Prof Dr Christoph Beck from Koblenz University of Applied Sciences and his team tested 196 public sector career websites between November 2024 and February 2025.

The result: 38 of them met 95 per cent of the accessibility requirements and 12 met 100 per cent. “There are no critical errors in the process on these career websites. They are therefore very well geared towards the needs of people with disabilities,” comments Prof Beck. However, 67 per cent of the institutions scored below 67 per cent and therefore still have some way to go before the end of June.

Conclusion: Accessibility Reinforcement Act is a must with benefits

Time is of the essence if you have not yet started adapting your career pages: The Accessibility Reinforcement Act will apply from 28 June 2025. Even if some companies are groaning under the requirements of the directive, the Accessibility Reinforcement Act brings with it many positive aspects.

These apply not only to people with disabilities, for whom new opportunities are opened up, but also to the companies themselves: They are tapping into new groups of skilled workers that they previously had no access to. They also improve both their digital visibility and their image.