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Laws and standards for accessible documents

BFSG, BITV 2.0, EN 301 549, WCAG, PDF/UA: accessible PDFs come with a lot of acronyms. Here we explain in plain terms what they stand for, who they may apply to and how the rules fit together.

General overview, not legal advice. Whether and how the rules described here apply depends on the individual case.

Topics at a glance

Four starting points covering the key legal requirements and technical standards for accessible documents.

  • Laws · Authorities, universities, public bodies

    Public sector

    EU directive, BGG, BITV 2.0 and state law: which rules apply to the websites, apps and documents of public bodies.

  • Law · Businesses

    BFSG

    The Barrierefreiheits­stärkungs­gesetz implements the European Accessibility Act in Germany. It has applied since 28 June 2025 to certain products and services for consumers, for example in e-commerce and banking.

  • Technical standard · PDF

    PDF/UA

    The ISO 14289 standard describes how an accessible PDF is built: tags, reading order, alternative text, language and more. And why a validator alone is not enough.

  • Guidelines and standard

    WCAG & EN 301 549

    WCAG describe what users need. The European standard EN 301 549 applies these requirements to documents, software and other ICT products and services.

How the rules fit together

Laws define who must provide accessible content. Standards and guidelines describe what that means in practice. PDF/UA complements them as a separate technical standard specific to PDF.

  1. Legal framework

    Laws and regulations

    They set out who has accessibility obligations and for which offerings. Different rules apply to public bodies and to businesses.

    • Public bodies

      Directive (EU) 2016/2102, implemented in Germany by the BGG and BITV 2.0 (federal level) and by state law.

    • Businesses

      Directive (EU) 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act), implemented in Germany by the BFSG and its regulation (BFSGV).

  2. Standard

    EN 301 549

    The European standard for accessible information and communication technology. For public bodies it is the harmonised standard under Directive (EU) 2016/2102. Chapter 10 sets out the requirements for documents such as PDFs.

  3. Criteria

    WCAG 2.1, level AA

    EN 301 549 largely adopts the WCAG success criteria and applies them to web pages, documents and software.

  4. PDF technique · complementary

    PDF/UA (ISO 14289)

    An established technical standard specific to PDF: it describes how a PDF must be built internally so that assistive technologies can use it reliably. PDF/UA does not follow directly from WCAG but complements it. The laws mentioned do not refer to PDF/UA directly.

Simplified view. Which rules apply in a given case depends on your organisation and what you offer. How EqualDoc applies these standards when remediating documents: Standards & Compliance.

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