The Austrian Accessibility Act (BaFG) will come into force on June 28, 2025. We asked KI whether the law also applies to museums and cultural institutions. The clear answer is yes.
The Federal Act on Accessibility (BaFG), which implements the European Accessibility Directive (EAA), requires the accessibility of products and services, including digital offerings from museums and cultural institutions.
The law aims to improve the accessibility of products and services in order to ensure the participation of people with disabilities in social life.
For museums, this means that their digital offerings, such as websites, apps, and other types of digital content, are designed to be accessible to everyone. This includes people with disabilities such as visual or hearing impairments, motor impairments, or learning disabilities, regardless of the assistive devices they use or how they access content.
We looked around the web to see what experts recommend and what exactly to look out for.
The 4 basic parameters for the accessibility of digital content are the Perceptibility, usability, comprehensibility and robustness for all users. This is also reflected in the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), which have been established as internationally recognized guidelines for improving the accessibility of web content. To make digital content perceivable, usable, and understandable for everyone, the following elements and designs are commonly proposed:
Clear navigation: Websites and mobile apps should offer clear and easy navigation.
Alternative text descriptions: Alternative text (alt text) describes a digital image so that a screen reader or other assistive technology can interpret the image and people with disabilities can understand it.
Contrast and readability: Strong contrasts between text and background, adjustable font sizes and clear, understandable language improve readability.
Subtitles and transcripts: Subtitles for videos and transcripts for audio content help not only people with hearing impairments, but also those who are in a noisy environment or who do not have headphones.
The robustness of a website ensures that it is compatible with different browsers and assistive technologies, which should be regularly checked against current web standards.
For website creation this means:
Content: understandable – structured – contextual – relevant – alternative texts – heading hierarchy
Design & Graphics: good color contrast ratios – clear – intuitive – responsive – scalable – correct reading order
Technology: short loading times – markup (HTML tags) – skip links – keyboard usability – input assistance – error detection – consistent navigation
Know-how on digital accessibility is provided by, among others, Aid Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired The services range from awareness training to concrete consulting and training to certification with the Web Accessibility Certificate WACA.
The WACA is the first independent certificate in Europe to externally demonstrate accessibility according to the international WCAG guidelines. The certificate was established by an interdisciplinary advisory board, led by the Austrian Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which also administers the certification.
Incidentally, among the approximately 160 local museums represented in the MuseumsGuide inclusive is the Salon Stolz in Graz is the first and only museum to date whose website has been awarded the WACA.