Website accessibility law in Israel: IS 5568, WCAG and what to test
What Israeli law requires from a business website: regulation 35, IS 5568 at level AA, exemptions, the accessibility statement, what to test, and the EU rules.
Part of the guide: How to build a business website, step by step
In Israel, a business website that serves the public must meet Israeli Standard (IS) 5568 at level AA under regulation 35 of the Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities (Service Accessibility Adjustments) Regulations, 2013. IS 5568 is based on the W3C’s WCAG guidelines. Businesses registered as exempt dealers for VAT, or with an average annual turnover of no more than ₪100,000, are exempt, and every site that must comply also has to publish an accessibility statement with a way to report problems.
This article is written for international readers and for Israeli companies that sell abroad. It uses Israel, the market we work in, as a concrete case study of how web accessibility law works in practice, and shows where it sits next to WCAG and the European Accessibility Act. It is not legal advice; for a question about your own business, ask a lawyer. How accessibility fits into the whole build is covered in our guide to building a business website.
What Israeli law requires: regulation 35 and IS 5568
The obligation sits in the internet-services chapter of the service accessibility regulations (Hebrew). They define the “internet accessibility standard” as Israeli Standard 5568 and require anyone bound by them to make their internet service accessible at level AA. The deadline for existing sites was 26 October 2017, so there is no transition period left: a new site has to launch accessible, and an existing one should already be.
The rule covers websites and the apps a business operates, and it is not limited to public bodies. A private clinic, a restaurant, a law firm or an online store that serves the public is inside it unless one of the exemptions applies. A small brochure site with a list of services and a contact form counts just as much as a store with thousands of products; the difference is the amount of work, not the obligation.
Who has to comply, and who is exempt
The regulations include a few exemptions and reliefs. The ones that matter to most private businesses:
- Very small businesses: an exempt dealer under the VAT law, or a business whose average annual turnover does not exceed ₪100,000, is exempt from making its internet service accessible.
- Third-party content: when other people upload content to the site and the business does not edit or produce it, the business is not responsible for making that content accessible. Content the business writes, films or edits itself remains its responsibility.
- Technological impossibility: the regulations allow a temporary exemption to be requested when a specific component cannot be made accessible with current technology. It is requested, not assumed.
There were also temporary reliefs for mid-sized businesses, but their periods have ended. If you are unsure where a business stands, read the current text of the regulations or ask a lawyer before assuming an exemption.
How IS 5568 relates to WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2
IS 5568 is Israel’s standard for accessible web content. As Access Israel explains regulation 35 (Hebrew), the standard adopts the W3C’s WCAG 2.0 guidelines. WCAG is organised around four principles, content that is perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and its success criteria come in three levels: A, AA and AAA. Level AA, the one Israel requires, means meeting every A and AA criterion.
WCAG has moved on since: version 2.1 was published in 2018 and 2.2 in October 2023. According to the W3C’s WCAG overview, content that conforms to WCAG 2.2 also conforms to 2.1 and 2.0. That is why we build new projects to WCAG 2.2 AA: it covers what the Israeli standard asks for, and what a site serving customers in other markets is likely to need.
Beyond Israel: the European Accessibility Act
For Israeli companies selling into Europe, and for anyone comparing regimes, the closest parallel is the European Accessibility Act. The EU’s Your Europe guidance says its requirements apply to products and services placed on the market after 28 June 2025, with online shops among the examples, and that service businesses with fewer than 10 employees and under €2 million in turnover are exempt. The structure is familiar from Israel: a legal duty, a technical standard behind it, and a small-business exemption. Whether a particular non-EU seller is covered is a question for a lawyer in the relevant country.
What to test: an accessibility checklist
An accessibility review combines an automated scan with manual testing. The scan finds some issues, such as low contrast or an image with no alternative text, but it cannot tell whether that text is meaningful or whether a booking can be completed without a mouse. This is what we test on every business site, and how:
| What to test | How | Common failure |
|---|---|---|
| Keyboard navigation | Go through every page with Tab, Shift+Tab and Enter only, including menus, forms and pop-ups | A menu that opens only on hover; a pop-up you cannot close or leave |
| Visible focus | Check that you can always see where the focus is | A design that removes the focus outline because it “looks untidy” |
| Colour contrast | Measure text against its background, including on images and buttons | Light grey text on white; captions over photos with no darker layer |
| Alternative text | Every informative image has a description; decorative images are marked as decorative | The file name as alt text, or the same text on every image |
| Headings and structure | One H1, headings in order, lists and page regions marked up in code | Bold text that looks like a heading but is not marked as one |
| Forms | Every field has a label, errors are described in text not only colour, the form can be sent by keyboard | A field whose only label is placeholder text that disappears |
| Video and audio | Captions on pre-recorded video, a way to pause video that plays by itself | A background video with no pause control |
| PDFs and documents | Published documents are accessible, or have an accessible alternative | A menu or price list as a scanned image inside a PDF |
| Zoom and reflow | Text enlarged to 200% and phone widths without content being cut off | Button labels that clip when text is enlarged |
| Screen reader | Walk through key pages with NVDA or VoiceOver | Icon buttons with no name; a slider the screen reader cannot identify |
On a bilingual site every one of these checks is done in both languages, including the correct language and direction on each page, so a screen reader reads Hebrew as Hebrew and English as English. We cover that in building a bilingual Hebrew and English website.
For a concrete picture: in the Névé clinic website and the EMBER restaurant website, two concepts we built with fictional businesses, the menus, forms and the steps for booking a consultation are built to be used by keyboard, and the restaurant menu is text on the page rather than a scanned file. A clinic site has its own considerations too, such as privacy in forms; see what a clinic website needs.
What an accessibility statement must include
Under the Israeli regulations, the accessibility statement appears in a prominent place on the site, and in the app if there is one, and follows the standard’s guidance. It has to include:
- Information about the accessibility adjustments that were made.
- The accessibility coordinator’s details and how to reach them, where the business is required to appoint one.
- Contact details for reporting a missing adjustment or requesting one.
In practice a useful statement also says which standard and level the site was tested against, when it was last tested, which parts are not yet accessible and what the alternative is until they are fixed. A statement copied from another site that does not describe yours helps no one, and it can work against you if a complaint arrives. Link it from the footer of every page.
Why accessibility overlay plugins are not enough
Overlay plugins add an accessibility button that offers larger text, high contrast or highlighted links. Some visitors find those options convenient, but they are not what the standard measures. The standard measures the site itself: whether a form field has a label in the code, whether a pop-up can be closed by keyboard, whether an image has meaningful alternative text, whether a button is built so a screen reader knows what it does.
A script running on top of the code cannot reliably fix most of that, because it does not know what an image shows or what a field is asking for. What works is building the site accessibly from the start, testing it, and publishing a statement that describes what was tested. If you have an overlay today and no audit behind it, that is where to begin.
Accessibility is built into the code and the content. A widget is an extra at best, never a substitute.
Lawsuits and compensation
Under section 19נא of Israel’s Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law (Hebrew), breaching the accessibility provisions is a civil wrong, and a court may award compensation of up to ₪50,000 without proof of damage. The law also lists situations in which the court will not award compensation without proof of damage, for example when the defendant is already complying with an accessibility order on the schedule it sets.
The practical lesson applies in any jurisdiction: the risk comes from a site nobody tested. A site that was built accessibly, tested, and carries an honest statement with a working contact route lets a complaint be handled with a fix rather than a lawsuit.
What making a website accessible costs
On a new site, accessibility is part of the build rather than a separate line: components built correctly from the start cost little extra, which is why our article on website cost treats it as part of the price. On an existing site, the cost depends on the number of page templates, forms and custom components, and on how many of them need rebuilding. As a rough conversion of the ranges we see in the Israeli market, an audit and fixes for a small business site start at around $1,000, and a store or a site with many templates and interactive components can reach several thousand dollars or more. That is not a price list; an estimate is only accurate after someone has looked at the site.
How to work on an existing site
- Audit the main page templates, forms and interactive components with a keyboard, a screen reader and an automated tool.
- List findings by severity, with anything that blocks an action (booking, enquiring, buying) first.
- Fix in code and content, including alt text, captions and documents.
- Re-test what was fixed.
- Write and publish an accessibility statement that describes the real state of the site.
- Set a rule for new content: every page, image and video published later meets the same standard.
An accessible site from the start
At Libra we build websites, landing pages and stores that are tested for accessibility as part of the build: sound code structure, keyboard navigation, contrast, labelled forms, captions, and at the end an audit and an accessibility statement. What each type of site includes is on our websites, landing pages and stores page.
If you are building a new site or want an existing one checked, send a brief with the address and what matters most to you. We reply by email with a direction, a written price and a date.
No term matches.
Questions
Is website accessibility mandatory in Israel?
Yes, for sites that serve the public. Regulation 35 of the 2013 service accessibility regulations requires IS 5568 at level AA, with exemptions for exempt dealers and businesses with an average annual turnover up to ₪100,000.
What is IS 5568?
Israel’s standard for accessible web content. It is based on the W3C’s WCAG guidelines, and Israeli law requires conformance at level AA.
Does IS 5568 follow WCAG 2.0 or 2.1?
The standard adopted WCAG 2.0. Since content that meets WCAG 2.2 AA also meets 2.1 and 2.0, building to 2.2 AA covers the Israeli requirement.
What must an accessibility statement include in Israel?
The accessibility adjustments made, the accessibility coordinator’s details where one is required, and a way to report missing accessibility or request it. It must appear in a prominent place on the site.
Is an accessibility overlay plugin enough to comply?
No. The standard tests the site’s own code and content, such as form labels, keyboard access and alt text, and a script on top of the page cannot reliably fix those.
What are the penalties for an inaccessible website in Israel?
Under section 19נא of the Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law, a court may award up to ₪50,000 in compensation without proof of damage, subject to defences the law sets out.
Does the European Accessibility Act apply to websites?
It covers certain products and services, including online shops, placed on the EU market after 28 June 2025, with an exemption for service microenterprises. Whether it applies to a given business is a question for a lawyer.
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