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鈥淭he promise of digitalisation was that it would make life easier,鈥� says Dante G枚bbels. 鈥淚nstead, many websites throw up digital barriers.鈥� The 28-year-old researcher analyzed thousands of Dutch websites and found that companies, in particular, are lagging far behind in making their services accessible. G枚bbels conducted the research together with Henk de Vries and Robert van Wessel of Rotterdam School of Management, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam.

G枚bbels is currently pursuing a PhD on the Brainport region鈥檚 innovation ecosystem under the supervision of Marcel Bogers and Arjan Markus from the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences. His research focuses on how socio-economic background shapes the careers of technically trained graduates.

鈥淟ooking at who gets left out of systems that are supposedly accessible to everyone may be the common thread running through my research, he responds when asked how the two studies relate to each other.

Dead-end links and hard-to-read text

Dutch websites have an average of 53.6 accessibility errors on their homepages (compared with 23.6 on government sites), according to . The figures are based on automated checks, which cannot detect every accessibility issue. 鈥淪o the real results may well be even worse,鈥� he says.

In any case, the most common problems are too little contrast between text and background (making text hard to read), missing alternative text for images (so screen readers have nothing to read aloud), links and buttons that lead nowhere, and unclear forms.

The issue is becoming more urgent as more services move entirely online. Phone numbers and email addresses are disappearing from websites, replaced by chatbots and forms. Need to change your energy contract? You have to do it online. Want to return an item to an online retailer? Head to the customer portal. Trying to contact your provider鈥檚 customer service department? First you'll have to navigate a maze of menus and chatbots. 鈥淎nd then just hope they call you back,鈥� says G枚bbels. 鈥淚f you don't fit in with the average population, you quickly run into problems.鈥�

Getting stuck because of language, disability or a slow connection

Accessibility is about much more than supporting people who are blind or visually impaired, G枚bbels stresses. It also affects people with dyslexia or a lower level of education who get stuck on complicated language, older people who struggle with small type, people with a temporary impairment such as a broken arm, or users with a slow internet connection in rural areas.

鈥淎ltogether, more than 2.3 million Dutch people living independently at home with a disability would benefit if a website or mobile application took digital accessibility into account. More than half of them are over 65 years of age,鈥� G枚bbels says, referring to a by the Dutch Ministry of Home Affairs from 2019.

International standard

The problem is far from unique to the Netherlands. As many as 96.8 percent of the million most popular websites worldwide do not comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), according to by the American non-profit WebAIM, an internationally recognised accessibility standard. For his research into Dutch websites, G枚bbels used the relevant section of this dataset.

The latest version of the WCAG guidelines is 2.2, but G枚bbels based his research on the older WCAG 2.0. That is a conscious choice for large-scale comparability, following the annual WebAIM study of the million most popular websites worldwide, which uses the same measurement basis. Newer versions increasingly contain elements that require human assessment. Which is fine for an in-depth audit of a single site, but difficult when you want to automatically measure and compare things at scale.

Ignorance, not unwillingness

Remarkably, the lack of accessibility is not so much due to unwillingness as to ignorance. 鈥淎wareness of the WCAG standard needs to increase,鈥� G枚bbels emphasizes. 鈥淲ebsite builders and decision makers at companies often have little experience with it. That is more common than them deliberately ignoring it.鈥�

The research identifies several causes for the poor application of the WCAG standard. First: many companies simply do not know the guidelines exist, let alone what the benefits are for their organization. Second: those who do know the standard often find it complicated and technical. It is also far from always clear which things are mandatory.

As a busy web developer, try telling the difference between a 鈥渞ecommendation,鈥� a 鈥減roposed recommendation,鈥� and a 鈥渃andidate recommendation.鈥� A clear translation into concrete tasks (for example, 鈥渕ake sure all forms can be used via the keyboard鈥� or 鈥渕ake sure the contrast is at least X:1鈥�) is often lacking.

Sometimes it is also unclear which version of the guidelines is being discussed and how it differs from the previous one. The translation is often poor, and examples of required code are in some cases outdated.

Canada and the UK lead the way

Moreover, sanctions are lacking. Although the European Accessibility Act has required certain private companies to make their websites more accessible since June 2025, enforcement is minimal. Of government websites and apps, 61 percent already comply with current legislation, a major improvement from 39.6 percent at the beginning of 2024. Full accessibility (status A according to the government鈥檚 own ) still lags far behind: only 9 percent fully meet the accessibility requirements.

The researchers also examined countries with stronger accessibility records. Canada and the United Kingdom emerged as clear front-runners. Since 2019, Canada has had the Accessible Canada Act, with hefty fines for companies that do not take it seriously: up to 250,000 Canadian dollars. The country also invests in information and practical tools, such as freely accessible web components for developers.

In the UK, the Equality Act has prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability since 2010, including online. Although there have been no court cases, the threat of legal action has already had an effect. Several organizations improved their websites after interventions by advocacy groups.

Solutions

The researchers are calling for a three-pronged approach. First, raise awareness. 鈥淔or example, the Chamber of Commerce could send information to all registered companies about web accessibility and WCAG, explaining the rules and statistics on the impact of inaccessible websites,鈥� G枚bbels suggests.

Then there is the role of education and training. IT students should be taught by default how to apply the WCAG standard. And there should be more targeted courses for professionals. 鈥淭he government could organise webinars to train web developers,鈥� says G枚bbels. 鈥淎nd in Canada there is already a  with ready-made accessible components. We should have something like that in Dutch too.鈥�

Third, and according to G枚bbels, crucial, is enforcement. 鈥淟egislation alone does not work. It has to be accompanied by sanctions and support for organizations to improve digital accessibility.鈥� He points out that the risk of a lawsuit is now too low to compel companies to act.

'Curb Cut Effect'

As Europe鈥檚 population ages, the number of people who struggle with digital services is expected to grow. By 2050, an estimated 30 percent of the EU population will be aged 65 or older. At the same time, more and more services are being offered exclusively online, making digital accessibility increasingly urgent.

There are also reasons to be optimistic. The study concludes that designing for accessibility often produces innovations that benefit a much wider group of users. In the digital world, this is reflected, among other things, in subtitles (originally intended for deaf people), screen readers and speech recognition.

There is even a term for this phenomenon: the 鈥榗urb cut effect鈥�. Lowering curbs was initially done to accommodate wheelchair users, but it quickly also proved hugely useful for people with prams, suitcases or shopping trolleys. G枚bbels: 鈥淚f you design for people with disabilities, you often make something that works better for everyone.鈥�