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Good practice Imported

FFG Monitoringstelle des Bundes — Austria's Multi-Year Digital Accessibility Monitoring with Disability-Led Testing

Austria · Vienna · See the Austria profile · See the Vienna profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 24% 92/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Austria's federal monitoring body cut the share of public websites failing over half of WCAG criteria from 51% (2020/21) to 9% (2024) — while reporting honestly that not one audited site was ever fully conformant. Disability organisations help select and test the sample.

51 %
Websites failing >50% of WCAG criteria, 2020/21 (2020/21)
39 %
Websites failing >50% of WCAG criteria, 2022 (2022)
13 %
Websites failing >50% of WCAG criteria, 2023 (2023)
9 %
Websites failing >50% of WCAG criteria, 2024 (2024)
0 %
Websites fully WCAG-conformant, all periods
23 checks (390 pages)
In-depth website checks, 2024 (2024)
57 %
Accessibility-statement publication rate, 2024 (2024)
FFG Monitoringstelle des Bundes — Austria's Multi-Year Digital Accessibility Monitoring with Disability-Led Testing

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft (FFG) — Monitoringstelle des Bundes
Period
2022–2024
Keywords
digital accessibility, e-government, disability inclusion, standards and compliance, monitoring

Context

Austria's Web-Zugänglichkeits-Gesetz transposes EU Directive 2016/2102, and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) runs the federal monitoring body (Monitoringstelle des Bundes) that checks whether public sector websites and mobile applications meet EN 301 549 / WCAG, submitting reports to the European Commission.

Activities

In the 2024 period the FFG carried out 23 in-depth website checks (390 pages), 343 simplified website checks (~4,800 pages) and 15 in-depth app checks (230 screens). Disability organisations, including BIZEPS and blind/visually impaired testers, take part in selecting the monitoring sample and in the testing itself.

Results

The share of audited websites fulfilling less than 50% of applicable WCAG criteria fell from 51% (2020/21) to 39% (2022), 13% (2023) and 9% (2024); the average number of unfulfilled criteria per site fell from 25 to 20. Yet not a single audited website was fully conformant in 2022, 2023 or 2024 (0% each period), and accessibility-statement publication stagnated between 51-57%.

Conclusions

The nine most persistently failed criteria across all three periods point to stable design and development habits rather than one-off defects; the sample is small (23 in-depth checks in 2024) and the improvement is measured against a low bar, so a 9% failure rate on that threshold coexists with a 0% full-conformance rate.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft (FFG) — Monitoringstelle des Bundes, BIZEPS and other disability advocacy bodies

Conditions for success

  • Disability organisations involved in selecting the monitoring sample and conducting tests, not merely consulted after the fact
  • Statutory, permanently funded function with reports to the European Commission every three years

Common failure modes

  • 0% of audited websites were fully WCAG-conformant in every period despite the improving trend
  • Accessibility-statement publication stagnated at 51-57%, meaning over four in ten public bodies still do not publish the required declaration

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Data sources

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