Accessibility compliance
What an accessibility audit costs in Germany
Price ranges for EAA, BITV, and WCAG 2.1 AA audits. What the audit checks, what remediation typically adds, and why the EAA deadline changes your timeline.
TL;DR
- A focused WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility audit of a website (automated scan plus expert manual review of key user flows) costs €2,500 to €6,000.
- A full EAA or BITV 2.0 compliance audit with written conformance statement and remediation roadmap runs €6,000 to €18,000, depending on site size and component complexity.
- Remediation (fixing what the audit finds) costs €5,000 to €25,000 depending on how many issues exist and whether the site was built with accessibility in mind.
- The European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires most B2B digital products and services sold to consumers to meet WCAG 2.1 AA from June 2025. Enforcement in Germany begins under BITV 2.0 immediately for public sector and phased for private sector.
- See how we include accessibility compliance in website projects and what a standalone audit covers.
What an accessibility audit actually checks
An automated scan finds about <em>30 percent</em> of accessibility issues. The rest need expert review.
Many companies run a free automated accessibility tool (axe, Lighthouse, WAVE) and believe their site is compliant if the tool reports no critical errors. Automated tools find approximately 20 to 30 percent of WCAG issues. The rest require manual testing: keyboard navigation through complex UI components, screen reader testing on real assistive technology, colour contrast checking under different visual conditions, and cognitive accessibility review of form error handling and instructions.
**An expert accessibility audit uses both automated tools and manual expert review.** A qualified auditor checks keyboard operability, ARIA implementation correctness, form label associations, error identification and suggestion, focus management in modals and dynamic content, colour contrast ratios, text alternatives for non-text content, and captioning for video content. The audit produces a conformance statement (what passes, what fails, what is partially conformant) and a remediation prioritisation.
BITV 2.0 (Germany) and WCAG 2.1 AA (European standard under EAA) align closely but are not identical. For public sector bodies in Germany, BITV 2.0 has been required since 2019. For private sector B2B and B2C digital products sold to consumers, the EAA applies from June 2025. If your site was built without accessibility in mind, budget for both the audit and significant remediation work.
Cost by audit scope
What accessibility audits cost in Germany, 2026.
| Audit scope | Typical price range | Timeline | What is covered | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automated scan and report | €500 to €2,000 | 3 to 5 days | Automated tool scan across all pages, issue classification, basic report. No manual testing. | Quick baseline before commissioning a full audit; not sufficient for compliance evidence |
| Focused WCAG 2.1 AA audit | €2,500 to €6,000 | 2 to 4 weeks | Automated scan plus expert manual review of five to ten key user flows, written issue list with WCAG criterion references, remediation priority order | B2B sites wanting a credible compliance baseline; new sites built with accessibility in mind |
| Full EAA / BITV 2.0 compliance audit | €6,000 to €18,000 | 4 to 8 weeks | Full automated and manual audit of all templates and component types, conformance statement, remediation roadmap, assistive technology testing (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver) | Companies needing a formal conformance statement for regulatory purposes, tender requirements, or client due diligence |
| Ongoing accessibility monitoring | €800 to €2,000/mo | Continuous | Monthly automated scan, quarterly manual spot-check of changed pages, conformance statement maintenance, accessibility support for development team | Companies with active content programmes or frequent site changes where new pages may introduce regressions |
What drives the cost
Four factors that move an accessibility audit quote.
01
Number of distinct page templates and components
Accessibility must be verified at the component level, not just the page level. A site with five distinct page templates and twenty reusable components takes less time to audit than one with fifteen templates and fifty components. If your site was built in a component-based framework (React, Vue, Next.js), an inventory of all interactive components before the audit helps scope it accurately.
02
Dynamic content and complex UI patterns
Modals, accordions, date pickers, carousels, drag-and-drop interfaces, autocomplete fields, and custom dropdown menus all require specific ARIA implementation and keyboard handling. Each complex component needs manual testing on multiple assistive technologies. Sites with simple, static content cost less to audit than those with rich interactive components. Custom-built components with no established accessibility patterns take longest.
03
Multilingual content
Each language version of a site must be audited separately because accessibility issues can be language-specific: missing language attributes on elements, wrong reading direction for RTL languages, language-specific form validation error messages. A German and English site takes roughly 1.5 times longer to audit than the same site in a single language.
04
Remediation scope
Audit and remediation are separate work items. A site built without accessibility in mind often has 40 to 80 issues across colour contrast, keyboard traps, missing labels, and incorrect ARIA. Fixing these requires developer time: anywhere from a week (well-structured codebase, few components) to several months (legacy codebase, custom components, no design system). Ask for a remediation estimate separately from the audit.
Common questions
What companies ask when scoping an accessibility audit in Germany.
How much does an accessibility audit cost in Germany?
A focused WCAG 2.1 AA expert audit of a website costs €2,500 to €6,000. A full EAA or BITV 2.0 compliance audit with a conformance statement costs €6,000 to €18,000. An automated scan alone costs €500 to €2,000 but does not constitute compliance evidence. Remediation (fixing what the audit finds) is a separate cost, typically €5,000 to €25,000 depending on the volume and severity of findings.
Is the EAA (European Accessibility Act) mandatory for my company?
The EAA applies to B2C digital products and services sold in the EU from June 2025. This includes websites, mobile apps, ecommerce stores, and digital self-service portals where the end user is a consumer. Pure B2B software used only by business employees is out of scope for EAA (but may still have internal accessibility requirements). Public sector websites have been required to meet BITV 2.0 in Germany since 2019. If you sell to consumers online, assume EAA applies.
What is the difference between WCAG 2.1 AA, BITV 2.0, and EN 301 549?
WCAG 2.1 AA is the W3C international standard for web accessibility, defining 50 success criteria across four principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust). BITV 2.0 is the German implementation for public sector bodies, aligned to EN 301 549. EN 301 549 is the European technical standard for ICT accessibility that the EAA references. In practice, meeting WCAG 2.1 AA is the core requirement under all three frameworks. They differ in documentation requirements and scope definitions.
Can I pass an accessibility audit with automated tools only?
No. Automated tools identify approximately 20 to 30 percent of WCAG issues. Critical failures like keyboard traps, incorrect ARIA roles, missing focus management in dialogs, and poor screen reader announcement quality are not detectable by automated tools. A compliance statement requires evidence of manual expert testing. Clients presenting automated-only reports to regulators or enterprise buyers will not meet due diligence requirements.
What happens if my site fails the EAA audit?
Non-compliance with the EAA can lead to enforcement action by national accessibility authorities, exclusion from public sector tenders (which often require accessibility compliance statements), and complaints from users with disabilities. Remediation is the path: fix the highest-risk issues first (typically colour contrast, keyboard navigation, and form labelling), get a conformance statement updated, and work through remaining issues in a prioritised backlog.
How we handle accessibility at SomeTech.work
We build accessibility in from the <em>design phase</em>, not as a post-launch audit.
On website projects, accessibility is not a separate line item. We build to WCAG 2.1 AA as a baseline on every site we deliver: correct heading hierarchy, keyboard operable components, labelled form fields, sufficient colour contrast, screen reader tested interactive patterns. **Sites built to accessibility standards from the start cost less to audit and nothing to remediate.** The EAA deadline is not a reason to retrofit: it is a reason to build it right the first time.
For standalone accessibility audits on existing sites, we use a combination of automated scanning and manual expert review on NVDA (Windows) and VoiceOver (macOS/iOS). We produce a written conformance statement, a prioritised issue list, and a remediation brief your development team can action. See our website and strategy services for scope and how to request an audit.
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