INDUSTRY · ENERGY & UTILITIES · BFSG · EAA · WCAG 2.2

Accessible customer portals for utility companies
– Essential services make no exceptions.

Electricity, gas, water: these are not optional services, but essential utilities. Yet if you can only sign up online, the tariff calculator isn’t compatible with screen readers, and meter readings can only be submitted through an inaccessible form, then accessing these essential services becomes an obstacle course. For municipal utilities, energy suppliers and network operators, digital accessibility is therefore more than just a requirement under the BFSG – it is part of their public service mandate. IFDB ensures that your customer portals and self-service channels are verifiably accessible: tested with real users and backed by a robust certificate.

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Offshore wind farm with wind turbines at sea at sunset – renewable energy as part of the digital basic service provision under the BFSG
Two technicians in safety gear are inspecting a commercial photovoltaic system on a flat roof – accessible customer portals for energy suppliers and municipal utilities
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When the path to a contract becomes a dead end

  • Utility companies are rapidly digitalising their customer relationships – contractual agreements, tariff changes and meter readings have been handled online for some time now. It is exactly these self-service processes that present barriers which, for many people, become impossible obstacles.
  • Agreements that fall through whilst on the move.
    Multi-step online processes involving forms, confirmation stages and legitimation are vulnerable: if the labelling is unclear or there is no accessible fault guidance, the transaction is disrupted – and the customer either picks up the phone or takes their business elsewhere.
  • Rate calculators that work only visually.
    Interactive calculators and comparison tools are the flagship on every utility provider’s website. If the input criteria and results are not made accessible, the best deal remains hidden from some customers.
  • Customer portals with complex navigation.
    Viewing invoices, adjusting payments, reporting meter readings: self-service portals combine many functions. Any of these functions that are difficult to navigate push customers towards more expensive traditional channels.
  • PDF invoices and contract documents with no structure.
    Annual statements, contract confirmations, price lists – utility companies send out vast quantities of documents. Without a tagged structure, they remain practically unreadable for screen reader users.
A high-voltage pylon with power lines against a pink evening sky – digital accessibility in self-service sections and customer portals for energy suppliers and municipal utilities in accordance with the BFSG
A DUTY WITH SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY

What the BFSG and EAA mean for the utility industry

Porträtfoto von Lukas Maximilian Langer, Gründer und Leiter Audit & Zertifizierung der IFDB GmbH
Lukas Maximilian Langer

Founder | Head of Audit & Certification

Utility companies occupy a special legal position. Since 28 June 2025, their customer-facing digital services – such as contract conclusion, customer portals and self-service – have been subject to the Accessibility Strengthening Act as soon as they are provided as a service to consumers. The guidelines are WCAG 2.2 and EN 301 549.

There is also a second aspect that energy suppliers often underestimate: many municipal utilities and in-house organisations are either fully or partly publicly owned – and may therefore also fall within the scope of BITV 2.0. Anyone operating in such a context should keep an eye on both sets of regulations.

The consequences of a violation are very real: warnings from competitors and trade associations, complaints from market surveillance authorities – and a reputational risk that carries particularly heavy weight in a sector providing essential services. Anyone who promises to provide essential services can hardly afford to digitally exclude parts of the population.

OUR APPROACH FOR UTILITY COMPANIES

Four Components for Accessible Customer Relationships

No utility provider is the same as another. A local municipal utility supplying electricity, gas, water and district heating has different concerns to a start-up green energy provider with a streamlined customer portal. That is why we customize the Access Suite to your exact needs – from the initial overview right through to long-term, secure operation.

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Access Ready®

reviews your customer portals and self-service channels through in-depth audits – using real users of assistive technologies such as JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver. It is precisely the critical pathways, such as contract conclusion and rate calculators, that reveal their shortcomings only when actually used. The outcome is the IFDB certificate, which serves as reliable confirmation.

Access Doc®

handles the flood of documents in the background: annual statements, contract confirmations, price lists. Access Doc® converts these large volumes of documents to the PDF/UA standard on a scalable basis – ensuring that even the invoice in your letterbox is readable by everyone.

Access Guard®

monitors your digital processes during live operation. Tariff adjustments, new self-service features, portal updates – any change can introduce new barriers. The monitoring system detects them immediately and keeps your compliance status secure.

Access Protect®

provides you with legal protection. Once an audit has been successfully completed, we contractually assume liability – should a formal warning be issued due to a lack of accessibility, IFDB experts and partner law firms will handle the matter. This is a crucial source of support, particularly for utility companies with a high public profile.

FROM THE INITIAL ASSESSMENT TO THE CERTIFICATE

Four steps to an accessible customer portal

  • Step 01 – The free overview
    Access Score® automatically scans your portals and shows you within minutes where the most urgent action is needed. There’s no strings attached and it requires no effort from your team.
  • Step 02 – Reviewing critical paths
    Our audit team manually goes through the contract conclusion process, the tariff calculator and the customer portal, alongside users of assistive technologies. This enables us to identify barriers precisely where your customer relationship begins.
  • Step 03 – Resolve and certify
    You will receive a prioritised audit report containing specific recommendations for action. Once all non-conformities have been resolved, we will issue the IFDB certificate – your proof for customers, local authorities and regulatory institutions.
  • Step 04 – Long-term security.
    With Access Guard®, the level achieved is maintained even whilst adjustments are being made. For utility companies with a high public profile, Access Protect® complements the contractual protection against warnings.

The Access Ready® Award – awarded to pioneers of genuine digital inclusion.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about accessibility in the energy and utility industry

Generally speaking, yes. As soon as you offer customer-oriented digital services such as contract conclusion or a self-service portal, the BFSG will apply since June 2025. Public municipal utility providers may also be subject to the BITV 2.0 – so both regulations often apply.

The self-service channels: contractual agreements, tariff changes, meter readings and the customer portal. This is where the customer relationship is built – and this is where barriers cause the most damage, as they force customers back towards expensive analogue channels.

Often, yes. Interactive calculators are technically complex and are rarely designed to be accessible from the get-go. Inputs, intermediate steps and results must be understandable to screen readers – and that is precisely what we test with real users.

Annual statements and contract documents are also covered by these requirements. Access Doc® converts these large quantities of documents to the PDF/UA standard on a scalable basis – from individual documents right through to entire archives.

With the IFDB certificate from the Access Ready® audit. It documents a fully compliant testing process in accordance with WCAG 2.2 and serves as reliable proof – for regulatory and, local authorities and your customers alike.

Access Guard® ensures this. Its continuous monitoring automatically checks every adjustment and immediately reports any new barriers – ensuring that price changes and new features do not jeopardise the standard achieved.

Because essential services affect everyone. Electricity, gas and water are not optional services. A digital channel that excludes parts of the population contradicts the mandate to provide these services – and, in such a high-profile sector, poses a significant reputational risk.

With Access Protect®, you are not on your own. Once you have passed your audit, we contractually take on liability; in the event of an emergency, IFDB experts and partner law firms will handle the entire process.

Public services mean:
being there for everyone.

An accessible customer portal is the digital fulfilment of your utility service mandate – for customers who wish to sign up online, view their bills and submit their meter readings, regardless of how they utilize the web. Let’s work together to assess the current state of your digital channels.

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Accessibility in the utility industry – between the BFSG and local authority responsibilities

For energy suppliers and municipal utilities, accessibility is twice as relevant: their customer-facing self-service offerings are subject to the Accessibility Strengthening Act, and as they are often municipally owned organisations, they may also fall within the scope of the BITV 2.0. The Federal Centre of Expertise on Accessibility provides a comprehensive explanation of the specific requirements that result from this – from technical implementation to the accessibility statement. The European standard for ICT accessibility remains the authoritative technical framework in this regard.

A free initial analysis provides a reliable assessment of the current state of your digital customer channels, before a certified in-depth audit examines critical pathways – such as the contract conclusion process and the pricing calculator – in detail. And because tariffs, portals and self-service functions are constantly changing, continuous monitoring ensures that accessibility, once achieved, becomes a permanent state – for a basic service that truly lives up to its name, even in the digital environment.