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2025-06-17•9 min read•navable Team•
BFSG ChecklistWCAG 2.1 GuidelinesAccessible WebsitesDigital Accessibility

BFSG Checklist: Optimize Your Website for Accessibility according to WCAG 2.1 (2025)

The BFSG Checklist (Accessibility Strengthening Act Checklist) based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 contains points that help companies and organizations ensure their digital content and web offerings comply with the requirements of the Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG). This checklist helps you optimize your digital presence and ensure it is accessible to all users.

1. Optimize Perceivability

✔ The dual-channel principle for multidimensional perception: Ensure all content is perceivable through two channels (visual and auditory).

✔ Flexible orientation of your website content: Ensure content is not restricted to a specific display orientation like portrait or landscape, unless a specific orientation is essential.

✔ Enable reflow for adaptable display on various screen sizes: Ensure content is presented without loss of information on narrow views.

✔ Increase contrast for better readability: Ensure sufficient color combinations are used for both text and non-text content. Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background to guarantee readability for people with visual impairments.

✔ Alternative texts (Alt texts) for non-text content to support screen readers: Ensure all non-text content (like images and videos) has appropriate text alternatives. These should allow the content to be converted into other formats like large print, Braille, speech output, symbols, or simplified language, so visually impaired users can fully grasp the information.

✔ Customizable text size, text spacing, and time duration for individual needs: Allow users to adjust text size, line height, and character/word spacing according to their needs.

✔ Media control for individual needs: Provide controls for time-based media, such as pausing or adjusting speed.

✔ Subtitles for videos for accessible use: Provide subtitles for videos.

2. Improve Operability

✔ Ensure keyboard control for full accessibility: All important functions should be reachable without a mouse. Allow full operation with the keyboard.

✔ Sufficient time to consume content for flexible use (e.g. Pop-up, Video): Ensure users have enough time to read and use content by making time limits flexible or offering adjustable options.

✔ User-friendly navigation for all user groups: Ensure intuitive and easily understandable navigation.

✔ Focus and interactions: Ensure all interactive elements, like forms or links, are clearly visible and respond to key presses.

✔ User-friendly content design: Avoid flashing or flickering content.

✔ Alternatives for complex gestures: Provide alternatives for complex gestures to enable simpler input methods, as well as alternative control options for motion-sensitive functions.

✔ Various input modalities: Allow simultaneous use of mouse, keyboard, and touch inputs.

✔ Undo pointer actions to prevent errors: Ensure accidentally executed inputs can be easily undone.

✔ Reduction of animations: Give users the option to disable motion animations triggered by interactions to support people with motion sensitivity.

✔ Flexibility with character key shortcuts: Offer users the option to disable, change, or configure character key shortcuts so that at least two keystrokes are required.

✔ Detection of status messages: Ensure status changes are reliably detected and displayed by assistive technologies.

✔ Avoidance of timeouts: Inform users promptly about upcoming timeouts and allow them to continue the session without data loss.

3. Increase Understandability

✔ Use simple language: Use clear, understandable terms accessible to laypeople.

✔ Explanations for technical terms: Provide explanations for technical terms and abbreviations.

✔ Appropriate labels: Use identical designations for visible labels and accessible names.

✔ Readable structure: Use headings, paragraphs, and lists to clearly structure information.

✔ Ensure accessibility of content: Ensure additional content activated by hover or focus is permanently accessible and does not disappear automatically.

✔ Make input purpose clear: Use programmatic detection mechanisms to provide automatic autofill assistance.

✔ Clearly define the purpose of content: Ensure the purpose of content is clearly recognizable to enable easy personalization.

✔ Error prevention and correction assistance: Help users avoid errors and provide clear, understandable error messages that allow for easy correction.

4. Ensure Robustness

✔ Compatibility with browsers and assistive technologies: Your website should be compatible with all common browsers, devices, and assistive technologies.

✔ Use of standards: Use common web standards and ensure HTML, CSS, and other web technologies are implemented correctly and accessibly.

✔ Error-free display: Regularly check the display of your website on various devices and screen sizes to ensure no errors occur.

5. Additional Requirements for Specific User Groups

✔ Accessible documents: Ensure non-web-based documents (e.g., PDFs, Word documents) are also accessible by providing text alternatives, correct formatting, and structuring for them.

✔ Forms: Forms should be designed to be usable by people with disabilities. This includes clear labels, input instructions, and understandable error messages.

6. Conduct Regular Tests and Audits

✔ Accessibility check: Regularly conduct tests and audits to ensure your website meets BFSG requirements. This can be done through manual testing as well as using automated tools.

✔ Collect user feedback: There should be a way for users to provide feedback on the website's accessibility to ensure continuous improvements.

Why is the BFSG checklist important for your website? The BFSG Checklist (Accessibility Strengthening Act Checklist) ensures that your website meets both the legal requirements for accessibility and the needs of people with disabilities. The requirements apply to both public sector bodies and private companies that must make their digital content accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. With this checklist, you can take the accessibility of your digital content to the next level.

By adhering to the BFSG checklist based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, you protect yourself from legal warnings and penalties related to the Accessibility Strengthening Act. Start today and offer a user-friendly and accessible website for everyone!

You can view the detailed WCAG 2.1 on the official website of the German Federal Government. It contains a complete overview of all requirements you should consider when designing your website accessibly.

Further information can be found here:

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