Editorial Board
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24 July 2026
Digital accessibility statistics 2026: what 6,599 Europeans told us
New digital accessibility statistics from a 6,599-person survey across five European countries reveal why 68% of users abandon a purchase.
Introduction
This Privacy Notice aims to clearly and transparently explain which personal data we collect when you visit our website, why we collect it, how we use it, and what Your rights are.
We process your personal data in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and applicable national data protection laws. We are committed to ensuring that all processing activities are carried out in accordance with the principles of lawfulness, fairness, transparency, data minimization, integrity, and confidentiality.
Specifically, in this notice you will find information about:
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which data we collect about you and for what purposes;
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the legal bases on which we process such data;
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who we may share your data with;
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how long we retain your data;
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your rights and how to exercise them.
While we sometimes need Your data for example, to respond to your requests or improve our website), we do so with respect, care and only when truly necessary.
Our Privacy Promises
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We deeply value your privacy, and for this reason, we guarantee that:
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We treat your data as if it were our own.
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We use your data only for the purposes outlined in this notice.
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We retain your data only for as long as strictly necessary.
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We do not share your data with third parties without a valid legal basis or your explicit consent.
1. Who Processes Your Personal Data
The Data Controller — that is, the entity that determines the purposes and means of the processing of Your personal data — is AccessiWay S.a.S., with registered office at 7 Rue du Général Henrion Bertier, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Sein registered with the Nanterre Trade and Companies Register under number 914 022 595.
AccessiWay is part of the team.blue group and, in certain cases, acts as joint controller together with team.blue NV, with registered office at Skaldenstraat 121, 9042 Ghent, Belgium. In this context, Your personal data may be shared within the group for statistical, administrative, operational, and service improvement purposes.
AccessiWay and team.blue have defined their respective roles and responsibilities under a joint controllership agreement pursuant to Article 26 of the GDPR, ensuring full compliance with data protection regulations.
For more information regarding joint controllership or to exercise Your rights, you may contact AccessiWay via email at the following email addresses:
📧 legal.fr@accessiway.com or info@accessiway.com.
2. Who This Privacy Notice Applies To
This notice applies to:
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users who browse the website www.accessiway.com,
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individuals who contact us through the form available on the website or via email;
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users who interact with tools we have implemented (e.g. widgets, cookies);
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individuals who, through the website or other channels, access external platforms or third-party entities through which they may submit a job application (e.g. recruiting portals or employment agencies).
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In such cases, the privacy notices of the third parties involved — independent from AccessiWay — also apply.
3. What Data We Process
To manage your interaction with our website, we may process the following categories of personal data:
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Identification and contact details such as name, surname, company, job title, email address, and phone number.
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These data may be partially processed through our customer relationship management (CRM) system.
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Data relating to your interaction with our services such as information collected via the website or through Hubspot, such as communication history, preferences, requests, and commercial or technical notes.
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Technical data such as IP address, device type, operating system, browser, access times, and other data automatically recorded by our systems or servers.
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Browsing data and preferences such as collected via cookies or similar technologies, in accordance with the choices expressed through the cookie consent banner.
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Application data such as personal information included in your CV or other documents submitted through third-party platforms (e.g. professional experience, education, contact details).
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These data are processed by AccessiWay only after being transmitted by the third party, which remains autonomous in the initial processing.
4. Purposes and Legal Basis of Processing
We process Your personal data in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and applicable national data protection laws. Your data may be processed for the following purposes:
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Technical operation of the website
We process technical data, using technical cookies and similar tools, to allow You to access the site, view it correctly, and ensure it functions properly (e.g. browsing, content loading, storing preferences).
📌Legal basis: this processing is necessary to provide a service requested by the user, pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR. Your consent is not required for these cookies.
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Handling contact or support requests
When you send us a request — via the contact form or by email — we process your data to respond and provide the information requested.
📌 Legal basis: this processing is necessary to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract, pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR.
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Compliance with legal obligations
In certain cases, we may need to process your data to comply with legal obligations, such as tax, accounting, or IT security requirements.
📌 Legal basis: this processing is based on compliance with a legal obligation, pursuant to Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR.
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Statistical analysis and website improvement
We use analytical tools (e.g. analytical cookies) to collect aggregated data in order to understand how the website is used and to improve its content and functionality.
📌 Legal basis: we process this data only with your freely given and specific consent, pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR.
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Marketing and Profiling
If you authorize us to do so, we may use your data to send you promotional communications or provide personalized content (e.g. through profiling cookies).
📌 Legal basis: this processing is carried out only with your explicit consent, pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR. You may withdraw your consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
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Management of job applications through third parties
We may receive job applications via third-party platforms (e.g. job portals) or through recruitment agencies. In such cases, we process the submitted data to assess your suitability for the proposed role.
📌 Legal basis: this processing is necessary to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract, pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR.
Note: the privacy policies of the third-party platforms or agencies involved also apply, independently of AccessiWay.
5. Cookies and Tracking Tools
This website uses a cookie management system provided by iubenda, which allows you to:
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view a full and transparent list of the cookies in use;
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modify or withdraw your consent at any time;
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access the complete Cookie Policy, integrated in the cookie widget.
You can manage your preferences by clicking on the cookie widget icon located at the bottom left corner of every page on the site.
Technical cookies are necessary and therefore enabled by default. Other non-essential cookies (analytical, profiling) are only enabled with your consent.
For more information, please refer to the full Cookie Policy accessible from the cookie widget.
6. Use of accessWidget
This website integrates accessWidget, an automated accessibility tool developed by accessiBe Ltd. and distributed by AccessiWay. The widget allows users to personalize their browsing experience based on their needs.
When the user activates the widget, their IP address is technically transmitted, but:
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it is not stored, tracked, or associated with identifiable individuals;
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it is anonymized via a proxy located in the European Union;
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it is not used for profiling or marketing purposes.
📌 Legal basis: provision of a service requested by the user (Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR).
7. Data Security
We adopt appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure the security, integrity, and confidentiality of the personal data we process. These measures are designed to prevent unauthorized access, loss, disclosure, or alteration of your data. In particular, we implement:
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secure connections via HTTPS (SSL/TLS);
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authentication systems and access control;
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access limitation and internal access tracking mechanisms;
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regular audits and verification procedures;
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continuous updates to systems and security measures according to the level of risk.
8. Data Retention
Your personal data is stored only for the time strictly necessary to achieve the purposes for which it was collected. Specifically:
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Contact data: up to 10 years if relevant for contractual or legal purposes;
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Technical and browsing data: according to what is outlined in the Cookie Policy;
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Marketing data: until consent is withdrawn.
9. Your Rights (Data Subject Rights)
As a data subject, you may exercise the rights provided under Articles 15–22 of the GDPR at any time. In particular, you have the right to:
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Obtain confirmation as to whether or not your personal data is being processed and access such data (right of access);
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Request the rectification of inaccurate personal data or the completion of incomplete data (right to rectification);
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Request the erasure of your data, if the conditions set out in the GDPR are met (right to erasure);
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Obtain restriction of processing where applicable (right to restriction);
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Object to the processing of your data, in whole or in part, under certain circumstances (right to object);
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Receive your data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and, where technically feasible, have it transmitted directly to another controller (right to data portability);
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Withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
📧 You can exercise Your rights at any time by contacting us at: legal.fr@accessiway.com.
🔗 If you are located in France and believe that the processing of your personal data violates applicable law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the French Data Protection Authority (Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés – CNIL) via the website: www.cnil.fr.
*If you have difficulty accessing our form, please feel free to contact us. Send an e-mail to info@accessiway.com
Most digital accessibility statistics come from audits of websites, counting errors a scanner can detect. Ours come from people. Between August and November 2025, we asked 6,599 consumers across Italy, Germany, Austria, France, and the UK a simple question: does a website or app ever get in your way, and what do you do when it does.
The answers give us something rare in this industry, a direct line from accessibility to revenue, told by the people who actually hit the wall.
Digital accessibility statistics: the scale of the problem across Europe
We worked with local research institutes in each market, Civey in Germany, Marketagent in Austria, Opinea in France, YouGov in Italy, and Censuswide in the UK, to make sure the sample in each country was representative rather than a convenience panel. That is what lets us say, with real confidence, that 73.1% of Europeans regularly run into digital barriers when they shop, bank, or use a public service online.
The barriers themselves are the everyday friction that any product team would recognize once it is named: pop-ups that will not close, pages that load too slowly, navigation that does not make sense on a phone.
None of this requires a rare disability or an edge case, just an ordinary Tuesday and a website that was never tested with anyone other than its own designers.
![Digital accessibility statistics: 73.1% - People who regularly encounter digital barriers while browsing the web [Accessiway, 2026]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4a0a65_6e8ff8a387ab4842b68f63bd8db6d692~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_49,h_26,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/4a0a65_6e8ff8a387ab4842b68f63bd8db6d692~mv2.png)
Accessibility statistics by country
Aggregate European figures are useful for a headline, but they hide the story that matters for planning. Abandonment and barrier types differ enough by market that a pan-European strategy built on the average would miss what is happening in any one country.
Italy
Italy has the highest abandonment rate in our entire study, at 84%, alongside the highest barrier-encounter rate, at 88%.
Intrusive ads and pop-ups are the top complaint, named by 44% of respondents, followed by slow loading times at 27% and unclear or missing instructions at 23%.
Italians also show the strongest belief that digital services should be accessible to everyone, at 86%, which points to a gap between expectation and execution rather than a lack of awareness.
Germany
Germany combines a large sample, 2,500 respondents, with an 80.7% abandonment rate.
Navigation issues are the leading barrier at 17%, and non-mobile-optimized layouts show up consistently as a secondary complaint.
Only 18% of German respondents feel that progress on accessibility has been insufficient, a figure low enough that it may reflect genuine improvement or, just as plausibly, lower awareness of what accessible design actually looks like.
Austria
Austria's abandonment rate sits at 78.6%, with navigation difficulties named by 31% of respondents as the primary friction point. 38% percent of Austrians describe current progress on accessibility as insufficient, the second-highest share in our study after Italy.
France
France reports the lowest abandonment rate we measured, at 58%, but the underlying barriers are far from resolved.
Poor readability tops the list at 38%, followed by navigation difficulties from unclear structure at 36%, and loading times cited by more than a quarter of respondents. A lower abandonment figure here reads less like success and more like a market where users have grown used to working around friction rather than walking away from it.
United Kingdom
We did not capture a direct abandonment figure for the UK, but readability problems were the most cited barrier, at 27.3%, a pattern that echoes France more than it echoes Italy or Austria.
The generational gap
The data on age is where this survey stops being a snapshot and starts being a warning. Younger consumers show markedly less tolerance for friction than older ones, and the gap is largest in the markets with the most digital-native populations.
In Germany, 79.8% of young adults have abandoned a digital process because of an accessibility issue, against an already high national average.
Austria sits at 74%
France at 64% for the same age group,
The UK comes in at 51%.
In Italy, respondents aged 18 to 34 report frequent abandonment at 18%, against a 15% national average, a smaller gap in absolute terms but one that points the same direction as every other market: the people building their digital habits right now are the least forgiving audience a business will ever have.
What people expect from digital services
Across the markets we surveyed, the expectation that digital services should work for everyone is close to universal, and it extends well beyond the group most companies picture when they hear the word accessibility.
In Italy, 86% of respondents believe websites, apps, and digital services should be usable by people with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive disabilities, and 80% extend that expectation to people with lower levels of digital literacy.
Elderly users are named consistently as well, which reframes accessibility as a mainstream usability question rather than a narrow accommodation for a small group.
At the same time, satisfaction with the pace of change is mixed. 44% of Italians and 38% of Austrians say progress has been insufficient, while only 18% of Germans share that view.
Read together with the abandonment figures, the pattern suggests that awareness of the problem has outpaced the rate at which businesses are fixing it.
The regulatory backdrop
The European Accessibility Act sets the common framework across the EU, and national rules are layering on top of it market by market: the BFSG in Germany, the RGAA in France, and, outside the EU, the UK's Equality Act and Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations. Technical requirements in nearly every market trace back to WCAG 2.1, so the underlying standard is more consistent than the patchwork of national names might suggest.
Where the quick wins are
The barriers that show up most often across every market we surveyed are ordinary usability problems: intrusive ads, slow pages, unclear navigation, layouts that do not adapt to a phone. For anyone building a roadmap, that matters, because the highest-impact fixes are often the least technically demanding ones.
A useful way to think about it: readability and page speed address France and the UK's top complaints, navigation clarity addresses Austria and Germany's, and ad and pop-up discipline addresses Italy's. None of these require a multi-year platform rebuild to start moving the needle.
We see this pattern in our own work with clients across these markets: the first wave of fixes that move abandonment numbers is the one that removes friction from the path a real customer is already trying to walk.
Three takeaways for your roadmap
This research gives you a country-level map of where digital friction is costing revenue today, and a few implications worth carrying into your next planning cycle.
Abandonment behaves like a market-specific problem: what is losing you customers in Italy is different from what is losing you customers in France, so a single fix will not close both gaps.
The generational data is worth reading as a forecasting tool rather than a side note, since the tolerance gap between younger and older users is only going to widen as digital-first generations make up a larger share of your customer base.
And because the biggest wins in this survey trace back to ordinary usability work rather than rare edge cases, the return on fixing them tends to arrive faster than most teams expect.
Across the five markets we studied, digital barriers are a routine part of how people encounter a business online, and a measurable share of them respond by leaving. That is the figure this survey puts a number on for the first time in most of these markets, and it is worth checking against your own product rather than assuming it applies to someone else's.
Our team can walk through what an audit and remediation process looks like for your specific market and stack. Discover how Accessiway can help you find out where your own customers are hitting the wall.
Source: European Digital Accessibility Survey, AccessiWay, fieldwork conducted August–November 2025 across Italy (1,030 respondents, YouGov), Germany (2,500, Civey), Austria (1,057, Marketagent), France (1,012, Opinea), and the United Kingdom (1,000, Censuswide).
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