More than half of Belgian government websites have no accessibility statement

Written by Roel Van Gils on 5 April 2024 (Average reading time: 2 minutes)

In March 2024, Eleven Ways conducted its first ever study to check the presence of mandatory accessibility statements on Belgian government websites. Read the results here.

Methodology

This study was carried out independently and on our own initiative. It was conducted using an internally developed application and artificial intelligence. The results retrieved through AI were subjected to sample checking and minimal manual correction, resulting in a margin of error on the figures obtained of less than 3%.

A total of 1,697 websites were checked, including federal, municipal and regional websites.

Results

Our study shows that 53.4% of websites tested today do not have an accessibility statement. Such a statement should explain in detail and clearly the extent to which the website meets the preset standards.

Having an accessibility statement is required by law for all government websites.

Federal: Wet van 19 juli 2018 inzake toegankelijkheid van de websites en mobiele applicaties van overheidsinstanties.
Flanders: Administrative Decree of December 7, 2018.
Brussels Capital Region: ordinance of October 4, 2018 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of regional public authorities and municipalities
German-speaking community: Decree of October 15, 2018 on the non-public and public electronic communications of the public authorities of the German-speaking region
Walloon Region: Decree of May 2, 2019 on the accessibility of public authorities' websites and mobile applications
Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles: Decree of May 3, 2019 on the accessibility of public authorities' websites and mobile applications
Commission communautaire française (COCOF): Decree of May 9, 2019 on the accessibility of websites and mobile applications of public institutions of the French Community Commission

Accessibility Status

Of the websites tested with an accessibility statement, 2.3% indicate full compliance with accessibility guidelines, while 39.1% partially comply.
11.4% indicate non-compliance.
Interestingly, 54% of the websites make no statement on accessibility statues.

By Policy Domain

	Complies completely	Complies partially	Does not comply	Unknown.
Federal	1.9%	43.3%	5.2%	49.6%
Municipal	2.6%	47.2%	4.8%	45.4%
Flemish Region	0%	17,3%	0%	82.7%
Brussels-Capital Region	5%	23.3%	1.7%	70%
German-speaking Community	0%	0%	0%	100%
Walloon Region / French-speaking Community	4.9%	28.8%	8%	58.3%

Other figures

The study further revealed that 41.6% of websites have a statement that was updated more than two years ago. In addition, 18.3% of websites do not mention dates.

It further shows that only 64% of websites mention where citizens with disabilities can go with questions or complaints. This too is a violation of what the legislature requires.

Conclusion

Our study on accessibility statements on Belgian government websites shows that more than half of these websites do not have a valid, mandatory accessibility statement. In a future study, we will try to identify the root cause of this.

Latest articles

Accessibility Statement Generator

An accessibility audit has been completed, and the next question is: “What exactly needs to be included in the accessibility statement?” For specialists who run checks every day, that may feel routine, but drafting a statement is something many people still struggle with.
Multi-level navigation: the challenge of identifying parent sections for screen readers

Many guides show you how to build an accessible navigation menu, but they overlook the "you are here" complexity. How do we translate an "active parent" visual highlight into something a screen reader user actually understands?