Observatorio de Accesibilidad Web — Spain's 15-Year National Monitor of Public-Sector Digital Accessibility

Since 2010, Spain's Ministerio para la Transformación Digital y de la Función Pública, through its Secretaría General de Administración Digital, has run the Observatorio de Accesibilidad Web (OAW): an ongoing programme of automated testing of public-sector websites and apps against Royal Decree 1112/2018 (Spain's transposition of the EU Web Accessibility Directive) and the UNE-EN 301549 standard (WCAG 2.1).

The 2023 simplified-monitoring round analysed more than 1,500 public-sector websites — over 500 more than the 2021/22 round — spanning the State Administration (AGE), Autonomous Communities (CCAA), Local Entities (EELL) and the Judiciary.

Results varied sharply by administrative level: AGE sites reached 52% AA-level compliance, versus 38% for CCAA and just 12% for EELL sites. Across all sites analysed, only 26.95% reached AA level, 15.70% reached A level, and 57.35% were rated invalid — with AA compliance down 3.25 percentage points and the invalid-site share up 2.69 points compared with the previous year, according to independent accessibility-sector coverage of the official results.

Each cycle also produces an individual diagnostic report and improvement roadmap per site, plus the open-source OAW Tracker, which lets any public body request its own self-assessment. The European Commission's AccessibleEU centre cites the Observatory's 15-year continuity as a reference model for other member states, even as on-the-ground compliance continues to lag and, on some measures, to worsen.

Read the full analysis: https://accessible-eu-centre.ec.europa.eu/web-accessibility-observatory-observatorio-de-accesibilidad-web-spain_en