Portuguese municipalities fail digital accessibility standards

A study by DEMARCA, utilizing data from the Portuguese Web Accessibility Observatory, reveals significant failures in digital accessibility among Portuguese municipalities. Out of 47,903 municipal web pages evaluated, only 7.4% (3,547 pages) meet the Level AA standard of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), which is the minimum requirement under Portuguese law.

The lack of compliance affects 44,356 pages, creating barriers for individuals with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive impairments. Notably, 249 municipalities do not have a single page that meets the required Level AA standard. In the Alto Minho region, seven out of nine evaluated municipalities failed to provide any compliant pages.