What does the score mean?

The a11y-Score provides a score between 0 and 100. A higher value means better accessibility. A value of 100 means that all included accessibility criteria are fully met.

Not a percentage

The value is not a percentage! A score of 50 does not mean that “half of a region is accessible” or that accessibility is “half as good” as with a score of 100. It also does not mean that only half of all criteria are met.

Instead, the value should be understood as a continuous scale. You can think of it like this: if people are asked to rate how satisfied they are on a scale of 1 to 10, a person with a value of 6 is not necessarily twice as satisfied as a person with a value of 3. But they are definitely more satisfied.

Data availability

The score also takes data availability into account. In regions where only little accessibility data is available, the score may turn out lower — even if the actual accessibility is better.

It is important to us to motivate people to collect accessibility data in the first place. Therefore, the score improves when new data is added to OpenStreetMap or Wheelmap — even if the data indicates poor accessibility.

So the score not only improves when accessibility is improved through concrete measures, but also when more data is collected and maintained overall.