Guidelines & Legal Matters
Find out about international guidelines for digital accessibility and an overview on legal frameworks
The Web Content* Accessibility Guidelines WCAG
* as of the upcoming next WCAG version 3, the acronym stands for W3C Accessibility Guidelines
The WCAG are the undisputed authoritative guidelines in the field of digital accessibility worldwide. They are used by the vast majority of developed countries as the authoritative criteria for accessibility laws.
WCAG 2.2 the current W3C recommendation: external page https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/
How to Meet WCAG (Quick Reference)
The external page How to Meet WCAG (Quick Reference) page provides user-friendly access to the WCAG guidelines. It allows individual filters and offers direct links to other supporting documents.
Supporting documents
The WCAG standard is supplemented by a number of other documents with explanations and techniques for implementation.
- WCAG 2 Standard:
W3C Standard / recommendation - How to Meet WCAG 2:
Customizable Quick Reference - Techniques for WCAG 2:
Instructions for Developers - Understanding WCAG 2:
Detailed Reference
The origin of the WCAG: W3C WAI
The external page Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) can rightly be considered the world's authority on e-accessibility. WAI is an integral part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body responsible for the most important web standards such as HTML, XML, CSS, SVG, MathML.
We recommend the WAI's web offerings as a first point of contact with digital accessibility at all levels.
Legal foundations for digital accessibility
All legal texts and regulations listed hereafter refer directly or indirectly to the WCAG. Most at external page conformance level AA.
Switzerland
Swiss Federal Constitution / Schweizerische Bundesverfassung (BV, SR 101)
external page Art. 8 Abs. 2 BV; Art. 8 Abs. 4 BV
Disability Discrimination Act /Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz
external page BehiG, SR 151.3 & BehiV (Verordnung)
external page eCH-0059 Accessibility Standard Version 3.0
The Confederation, cantons and municipalities have undertaken to declare the standards of the eCH association binding as a rule - especially for procurements and solution developments.
Switzerland has also signed the UN CRPD (see below). In contrast to the eCH-0059 standard, this also has an impact on private sector providers.
International
United Nations:
external page UN CRPD, SR 0.109, esp. articles 9 & 21