Accessibility Strengthening Act (Barrierefreiheits-Stärkungs-Gesetz BFSG)
General information
The Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG), which comes into force in Germany on June 28, 2025, is a significant step towards improving accessibility and inclusion. It aims to improve the accessibility of products and services for people with disabilities. This law is based on the EU Directive on accessibility requirements for products and services (EU Directive 2019/882), also known as the European Accessibility Act (EAA).
In the context of email marketing, the EAA means that affected companies must ensure that their digital communication tools are accessible to all users. By complying with these guidelines, companies can ensure that their email marketing campaigns meet the requirements of the EAA and thus reach a broad target group. The BFSG not only provides a legal framework, but also an opportunity to improve the customer experience and promote more diverse and inclusive communication.
Checklist
In the following, we explain in the form of an extended checklist what users need to pay attention to when creating emails and lead pages in order to ensure accessibility. Our latest templates are specifically designed for accessibility and offer numerous functions to help you ensure accessibility.
Accessibility in emails and newsletters is not only a legal requirement, but also an opportunity to make your content accessible to a wider audience. This checklist helps you to create accessible newsletters and lead pages step by step that can be easily read and understood by all recipients. Evalanche provides everything you need to create accessible newsletters and lead pages.
Our latest PowerSets provide you with templates that meet the technical requirements of accessibility. This ensures that the templates are continuously tested and optimized. Your email campaigns therefore comply with the latest accessibility standards. We focus on a continuous improvement process and regularly check the accessibility guidelines for updates. The main components of the tests include
- screen reader tests
- rendering in various email clients
- keyboard operation tests
- checking the keyboard navigation
- checking and validation of the HTML code
Thanks to these measures, you are ideally equipped to ensure barrier-free communication with your recipients.
Accessible design
Emails should be designed so that they can be easily read by screen readers and other assistive devices. This includes the use of semantically correct HTML, descriptive alt text for images and a clear, logical structure.
Text alternatives
Any visual information should be complemented by a textual alternative. This means that images, graphics and videos must be provided with appropriate descriptions.
Contrasts and font sizes
To ensure that texts are easy to read, sufficiently high contrasts between text and background should be used. The font size should also be large enough to accommodate users with visual impairments.
Simple navigation
Navigation within the email should be intuitive and simple. Use clear and understandable links and avoid complex layouts that could make navigation more difficult.
Simple language
Use simple, inclusive and respectful language that speaks to all recipients and does not exclude anyone.
Checking and testing
Before sending emails, it is important to test them for accessibility. There are various tools and software solutions that can help you check emails for accessibility.
Note for editors
As an editor, you play a crucial role in the implementation of accessible digital communication. This includes, in particular, writing simple, comprehensible texts, creating clear content with a logical structure, writing descriptive alternative texts for images and paying attention to contrasts and colors.
Recommendation for implementation
Review of existing Evalanche objects
When implementing Evalanche objects in an accessible way, attention should be paid to the following objects:
- Templates
- eMailings
- LeadPages
- Website objects such as confirmation pages
- Forms
Various tools are available on the Internet to test different aspects of accessibility. Here is a small selection:
- Google Chrome plugin for testing websites according to WCAG: silktide.com
- Online tool for testing complete websites: www.experte.com/accessibility
- Readability test: https://readable.com/
- Tool for testing the contrast: webaim.org
- Source code tests: wave.webaim.org, validator.w3.org
Web forms
For web forms, the following features must be considered from a BFSG perspective:
- simple and logical structure
- meaningful field descriptions
- avoid input errors, if necessary through inline validation
- fully operable via keyboard and readable by screen reader
- easy-to-read font, sufficient font size and sufficiently high contrast
The following types of implementation are therefore suitable for the BFSG-compliant use of web forms.
- You use the individual template for forms, taking the above points into account
- You use the SmartForms API and the SmartForms client (SmartForm_Client.zip). Using the SmartForms client ensures BFSG-compliant rendering of the forms.
Possible methods for improving accessibility
With the help of checklists, online tools, a certain amount of programming know-how and the relevant guidelines, the necessary measures to improve accessibility can also be implemented independently. Please refer to the EU directive EN 301 549 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) of the W3C consortium WCAG 2.
Alternatively, you can have the necessary adaptations made by SC-Networks. If required, please get in touch with your sales contact.
Note
The new E-Mail & LeadPage PowerSets have already been designed and implemented barrier-free by default and thus offer an easy way to ensure barrier-free communication for your company via Evalanche.