Jimdo does not make a website accessible or inaccessible. Jimdo renders the templates, the cart and the checkout; you choose the colour set, the headings, the images, the widgets and – if you want – your own layout code. Jimdo says so itself: the operator of a commercial site is responsible for meeting the BFSG, and Jimdo supports them with guidance [3]. Many Jimdo sites belong to very small businesses, so the first question is whether the law applies to yours at all.
Does the BFSG apply to your Jimdo site?
If you sell to consumers through a Jimdo shop, or take bookings and payments online, you provide a "Dienstleistung im elektronischen Geschäftsverkehr" (§ 1(3) no. 5 BFSG), covered in Germany since 28 June 2025. The BFSG transposes the European Accessibility Act; other EU countries have equivalent laws [1][2].
Micro-enterprises that provide services are exempt: fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than €2 million (§ 2 no. 17, § 3(3) BFSG) [1]. Both conditions must be met. How to count staff and what applies inside a group of companies is on our page on the micro-enterprise exemption. Jimdo also offers a self-test as a first orientation, and says itself that it is not legal advice [10]. A shop that sells only to business customers is not a service to consumers.
A Jimdo site without a shop or booking function is a different case. The BFSG covers listed services – e-commerce, banking, telecoms, e-books, passenger transport – and a pure information site of a private company is generally not one of them; a booking or order function on it can be. Public bodies fall under BITV 2.0 instead. More in BFSG for online shops and the BFSG and EAA guide.
What the platform gives you, and what it does not
Jimdo's accessibility guide is written for Jimdo Creator websites [5], and the settings named here are Creator's. Jimdo hosts the site and generates the templates, the shop cart and the checkout.
You get:
- A guide and a checklist. Jimdo's help centre explains alt text, headings, links, media, forms and colour for Creator sites, with the contrast values to aim for [5].
- Alt text fields almost everywhere. Images, image-with-text elements, every gallery image, background images and the logo each take their own alternative text [6].
- Mobile-friendly templates. Jimdo says its templates are mobile-friendly by default and still advises testing on several devices [5].
- A cookie notice you switch on. The consent notice is enabled under Settings → Privacy & Security [9].
You do not get:
- Accessible colours by default. Jimdo states that not all suggested colour sets in Creator templates are accessible; you adjust them yourself [5].
- A free hand in the shop. The cart is generated automatically and styled from your site's settings; you can change button texts, but not the cart icon or its individual (mandatory) fields [7].
- Support for your own code. HTML in text elements, the Widget/HTML element, code in the head and a fully custom layout are all possible – and Jimdo's support leaves that code to you [8].
- Coverage from Jimdo's statement. Jimdo's own accessibility statement covers jimdo.com and its help and marketing pages [4], not the sites its customers build.
What we find on Jimdo sites
Colour sets that fail contrast
The colour set is chosen once and applies everywhere, so a weak pairing fails on every page. Light grey text on white, white text on a pale photo and coloured buttons with light labels are typical. Jimdo notes that cart fields or labels can disappear when the colour scheme uses transparency [7].
Three heading sizes, used for looks
Creator offers large, medium and small headings, which become H1, H2 and H3 [5]. When "large" is chosen because it looks good, a page carries several H1s; when a section title is bold paragraph text, it is missing from the outline a screen-reader user navigates by.
Cookie notice, widgets and embeds
Booking tools, maps, newsletter forms and videos arrive through the Widget/HTML element [8]. Each brings its own markup, often an iframe without a title or a pop-up that does not take focus. For YouTube, Jimdo shows how to switch captions on by default in the embed code [5]. Test the cookie notice and every widget with the keyboard.
Shop pages and the cart
Product variants, product images and "Add to cart" are where a Jimdo shop is tested. The cart sits in the top right corner and its icon and fields cannot be changed [7], so what you control is contrast, product data and alt text – and whether a keyboard user can reach the cart and learns that something was added is a test you run.
Language settings and system texts
Jimdo offers a limited choice of site languages, and system texts – including those in the online shop – appear only in the language you choose [5]. A site with passages in a second language needs those parts marked, or screen readers pronounce them wrongly.
Your own layout
With a custom layout written in HTML and CSS, the template's markup is replaced by yours [8]. From then on the skip link, the focus style, the menu and the reading order are your code, and nothing Jimdo improves in its templates reaches your site.
Where to look first
| Criterion | Why on Jimdo | Automation |
|---|---|---|
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (AA) | Colour sets, cart fields with transparency | Automated |
| 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A) | Large/medium/small headings used for looks | Partly automated |
| 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A) | Background images, logo, product images | Partly automated |
| 3.1.1 Language of Page (A) | Site language setting | Automated |
| 3.1.2 Language of Parts (AA) | Second-language passages | Partly automated |
| 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A) | Widget/HTML embeds, icon buttons | Partly automated |
| 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) (A) | Embedded videos | Manual only |
| 2.4.7 Focus Visible (AA) | Custom layout CSS | Partly automated |
| 4.1.3 Status Messages (AA) | "Add to cart" | Manual only |
| 3.3.1 Error Identification (A) | Contact form, checkout | Manual only |
"Automated": a rule decides the criterion alone. "Partly automated": a rule finds some failures, a person judges the rest. All criteria: WCAG 2.2 AA, criterion by criterion.
A sensible order of work
- Settle the scope first. Is there a shop or booking function, and are you a micro-enterprise? If the BFSG does not apply, the steps below are still worth doing, but without a deadline.
- Fix the colour set. Check text, buttons and cart fields against the contrast values and adjust the set in the style settings [5][7].
- Set language and headings. Choose the site language, then give every page one large heading and use medium and small for the levels below [5].
- Write alt text everywhere Jimdo offers a field. Images, galleries, background images, logo and products [6].
- Inventory widgets and code. List every Widget/HTML element, head script and, if you have one, the custom layout. Test each with the keyboard; switch on video captions [5][8].
- Walk the order by hand. Product → variant → cart → checkout → payment in test mode. What you cannot change in the cart or checkout, report to Jimdo – it takes accessibility feedback at barrierefreiheit@jimdo.com [4] – and name it as a known limitation.
What Reviseberg checks on Jimdo – and what you still test yourself
Reviseberg crawls your published site, shop pages included, and runs every axe-core rule on every page at a desktop width of 1280 pixels, then repeats the rules that change with the layout – contrast and target size among them – at 360 pixels. Results are mapped to WCAG 2.2 A/AA and EN 301 549. Findings are grouped into issues by rule and ranked by the points you gain by fixing them, so a weak colour pairing is one issue on every page rather than one entry per page. Where the cause sits in markup only Jimdo can change, you mark the issue "can't fix" with a reason, and it stays on record.
The keyboard agent opens the pages of a journey you name – say the homepage and a product page – and presses Tab, Shift+Tab and Escape through each of them, recording every step. It reports unreachable elements, lost or invisible focus, missing skip links and keyboard traps. It does not fill in forms or place an order, so the cart and checkout steps are yours to walk by hand. The free report covers up to 100 pages and runs the keyboard agent on one page you choose.
You still test some things yourself: whether alt text describes the image, whether error messages make sense, and how the site behaves with a screen reader and zoom. Screen-reader, zoom and voice-control agents are not built yet; for those criteria the platform gives you guided manual tests, and a criterion nobody has tested is reported as untested, never as passed. We install nothing on your site and never inject an overlay script.
Written to be useful, not as legal advice. As of 27 September 2026.