Brazil Web Accessibility Compliance

Brazil has comprehensive disability rights legislation that addresses digital accessibility:

• Lei Brasileira de Inclusão da Pessoa com Deficiência (Law 13.146/2015): Brazil's comprehensive disability rights law (also known as the Statute of Persons with Disabilities). Article 63 specifically requires accessible websites for companies with operations in Brazil, referencing international accessibility guidelines
• Decree 5.296/2004: Mandates accessibility for federal government websites and established the basis for the eMAG standard
• Law 10.098/2000: The foundational accessibility law establishing general norms for the promotion of accessibility for persons with disabilities
• Constitution of Brazil: Article 5 guarantees equal rights, and Article 227 specifically addresses rights of persons with disabilities

Brazil has approximately 46 million people with disabilities (24% of the population per the 2023 IBGE census methodology), making accessibility a significant social and economic issue.

The Modelo de Acessibilidade em Governo Eletrônico (eMAG) is Brazil's official accessibility standard for government electronic services. Currently at version 3.1, eMAG is based on WCAG 2.0 with Brazil-specific guidance:

• Six sections: Marking, Behavior, Content/Information, Presentation/Design, Multimedia, and Forms
• 45 recommendations organized by these sections, each mapping to specific WCAG success criteria
• Portuguese-language guidance: Detailed implementation instructions in Portuguese, making it more accessible to Brazilian developers than English-language WCAG documentation
• Mandatory for federal government: All Brazilian federal government websites must comply with eMAG. State and municipal governments are encouraged but not uniformly mandated

While eMAG is based on WCAG 2.0, Brazilian accessibility experts and the legal community increasingly reference WCAG 2.1 AA as the appropriate benchmark, particularly for private sector compliance under Law 13.146/2015.

Law 13.146/2015 (Article 63) requires that private companies with Brazilian operations ensure their websites are accessible. While enforcement has been gradual, the legal basis is clear and litigation is increasing:

• Ministério Público (Public Ministry): Can initiate civil public actions against companies for accessibility violations, acting on behalf of the public interest
• Consumer protection: The Código de Defesa do Consumidor (Consumer Protection Code) provides additional grounds for accessibility complaints from a consumer rights perspective
• Growing litigation: Brazilian courts have begun issuing decisions requiring companies to remediate inaccessible websites, with fines for non-compliance
• Municipal laws: Several major cities including São Paulo have enacted local digital accessibility ordinances

Brazil's e-commerce market exceeds BRL 185 billion (USD 37+ billion) annually, and the growing digital economy increases both the importance of and the legal exposure for web accessibility.

Start with a free CompliScan scan to identify WCAG 2.1 AA violations. Since eMAG maps to WCAG, automated WCAG testing covers the core requirements. Automated tools catch 30-40% of accessibility issues.

Brazil-specific compliance steps:

• Government websites: Audit against eMAG 3.1 criteria — CompliScan's WCAG results map to eMAG recommendations for remediation prioritization
• Private sector: Target WCAG 2.1 AA to demonstrate compliance with Law 13.146/2015 — this exceeds eMAG's WCAG 2.0 baseline and provides stronger legal protection
• Portuguese-language content: Test with screen readers that properly handle Portuguese language attributes and character encoding
• Ongoing monitoring: CompliScan Shield ($49/mo) provides weekly scans for continuous compliance

Shield Pro ($149/mo) offers daily scans and PDF reports. For Brazilian digital agencies, the Agency plan ($299/mo) covers up to 50 sites with comprehensive monitoring.