Accessibility Strengthening Act:
Accessibility Strengthening Act:
Accessibility Strengthening Act:
New EU-Wide Rules for Digital Publications from 2025
Digital barriers often go unnoticed — until partners or customers point them out.
The result: time pressure, costly rework, and reputational risk.
Our approach: InBetween helps you prevent barriers before they become problems. We analyze your publications, clearly document the results, and provide concrete recommendations to make your content compliant and accessible.
Digital content is part of everyday life – whether shopping online, banking, using public transport, or at work. Yet for many people with disabilities, these services remain difficult to access. In Germany alone, around 1.2 million people live with visual impairments; worldwide, the number is over one billion.
To address this, the European Union adopted the European Accessibility Act (EAA). From June 28, 2025, it It sets binding requirements for accessible products and services – meaning that any company — whether EU-based or international — must comply if they want to sell covered products or services in the European market. The aim is to ensure equal access to information for everyone – for people with disabilities, as well as for all other users.
Which areas are affected?
The law covers a wide range of industries and services, including:
- E-commerce
- Hardware and software
- Passenger transport (e.g., ticket machines, booking systems)
- Banking services
- Digital publications such as datasheets, catalogs, or brochures
The rules are especially relevant for hybrid publications – content made available to both business customers (B2B) and consumers (B2C). These must be accessible in the future.
Purely B2B publications are not yet covered. However, it is strongly recommended to take accessibility into account here as well – because as soon as content is provided directly or indirectly to consumers, the legal requirements apply.
What does accessibility mean in practice?
Accessibility means that digital content can be used by all people – regardless of physical, sensory, or cognitive limitations. The goal is to ensure that everyone has equal access to information and functionality.
Key requirements include:
- Alternative text for images so screen readers can describe content
- Subtitles and audio descriptions for videos
- Clear structure and logical reading order Compatibility with different input and control methods, such as keyboard navigation or voice control
- Sufficient color contrast and readable font sizes
For PDFs, the international PDF/UA standard (ISO 14289) defines how documents must be structured so assistive technologies can process and read them correctly.
Common issues include missing alternative text for images, icons, or buttons; tables without proper headers; weak color contrasts; or layouts that do not work on mobile devices. With PDFs, incomplete tag structures and incorrect reading order are frequent problems. These barriers not only limit usability for people with disabilities but can also create legal risks from 2025 onwards.
“We believed our PDFs were flawless — until a client exposed accessibility barriers.
That was a real wake-up call.”
Managing Director, long-standing InBetween customer
Why companies should act now?
The BFSG applies from June 28, 2025 to all new documents created after that date. Companies should therefore begin reviewing their publications and processes now.
Early action offers clear benefits:
- Ensures compliance with legal requirements
- Improves usability for all audiences
- Increases visibility, as structured content is also better recognized by search engines.
- Strengthens trust with customers and partners
- Gain a competitive edge by making product communication more impactful
The role of InBetween
Meeting these new requirements poses challenges for many organizations – especially for hybrid publications. This is where InBetween can support.
As a specialist in database publishing and automated publications, InBetween Software enables companies to create content efficiently, consistently, and in an accessible format. With InBetween software, catalogs, data sheets, price lists, or brochures can be generated directly from central data sources such as PIM systems. Accessibility standards can already be applied during the publishing process – from clear document structures to alternative text to optimized layouts for different devices.
Our experts work with you not only on the technical side, but also on the strategic level: we review existing publications, highlight areas for improvement, and provide concrete recommendations for action. This way, your publications comply with legal requirements – while at the same time improving usability for all audiences.
Do you want to make your publications accessible?
👉 Book a consultation with our InBetween team and discover the benefits:
→ Analysis of selected publications.
→ Clear documentation of results.
→ Practical recommendations for implementation.
About InBetween
InBetween Deutschland GmbH, a global leader in digital publishing solutions, has been at the forefront of product and brand professionalisation for more than 20 years. Our software automatically creates catalogs, sales folders, price lists, datasheets, and more, all based on your latest product data. This saves you significant and measurable time and costs, while increasing the quality of your output documents by reducing manual errors. Our solution offers both fully or partially automated publications, personalised for different customer segments, in a variety of output formats and languages suiting your company.
