What is the a11y-Score?

Accessibility is a fundamental component of modern mobility and participation. Yet no matter where you go, buildings and pathways are full of obstacles for millions of people—a limitation on their quality of life. Countries around the world have long been legally committed to creating conditions that enable participation for all.

In their search for smart solutions, however, regions and municipalities often encounter a problem: there is no comprehensive overview and hardly any meaningful data to determine just how good—or bad—regional accessibility actually is.

Measuring, rating and comparing accessibility

This is exactly where our development project comes in: the a11y-Score system measures and rates the actual accessibility of a region based on defined features and categories. This also creates a new way to compare accessibility in a standardized and transparent way anywhere in the world.

The Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV) is funding this project as part of the mFUND initiative.

What the a11y-Score offers

The a11y-Score provides a standard for how to measure the accessibility of city districts, rural districts or entire regions of the world. Not only in Germany, but (almost) worldwide.

The a11y-Score can serve as a “key performance indicator” (KPI), i.e. as an essential metric for accessibility: it can be used to determine the current state in a region, develop targeted recommendations (for example structural measures, data collection or campaigns for awareness), or measure and document progress over time. The numbers also allow estimates of how much a measure actually costs.

The data is open and transparent. It paves the way for the next step: better participation of people with needs of all kinds, and a human-centered environment that works for everyone.