Accessibility compliance guides · More Global Markets

Brazil’s Inclusion Law and website accessibility

The Lei Brasileira de Inclusão, Law 13.146 of 2015, is Brazil’s general disability rights statute. Article 63 requires websites maintained by companies with headquarters or commercial representation in Brazil, and by government, to be accessible.

Statute: Law 13.146/2015, Article 63
Government model: e-MAG, based on WCAG, for federal government sites
Practical target: WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA — the law points to international accessibility guidelines

What it is

Article 63 of Law 13.146/2015 says it is mandatory for websites maintained by companies with headquarters or commercial representation in Brazil, and by government, to be accessible to people with disabilities, so that the information available can be reached, in accordance with internationally adopted best practices and accessibility guidelines. The statute does not freeze a WCAG version number in that sentence.

For federal government websites, Brazil’s operational model is e-MAG, the Modelo de Acessibilidade em Governo Eletrônico, which is based on WCAG. Public bodies are expected to follow it. Private companies under Article 63 are pointed at international guidelines, which in practice means WCAG Level AA.

We audit Brazilian and Brazil-facing sites to WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA, and we use e-MAG’s expectations when the site is a government site. Portuguese-language labels, documents, and error messages are part of the sample. A site that is accessible only in an English staging environment is not an Article 63 result.

Companies in Brazil that also sell to the United States or the European Union should assume the ADA and the European Accessibility Act apply to those sales. One remediation at WCAG 2.2 AA is the clean way to cover Article 63 and the export markets together.

Who needs to comply

Article 63 names companies established or commercially represented in Brazil, and government.

Companies with headquarters or commercial representation in Brazil. The website those companies maintain is in scope. A local subsidiary’s site qualifies even when the parent is elsewhere.
Government. Federal sites follow e-MAG. State and municipal sites are still public services and should be built to the same WCAG AA practice.
Product teams exporting from Brazil. Your Brazilian site has Article 63. The product you sell abroad has the buyer’s law. We scope both when they share a codebase.

Timeline

The law dates from 2015. There is no future effective date to wait for.

July 6, 2015. Law 13.146 is enacted. Article 63’s website duty is part of the statute.
e-MAG. Federal government sites follow the accessibility model based on WCAG. Use the current model, not a decade-old checklist, when you redesign.
Ongoing. Accessibility of information is also supported by Brazil’s broader disability and consumer framework. Fixing the site is more useful than debating which agency knocks first.

What the rule requires

International guidelines, applied to the site Brazilians actually use.

WCAG Level AA. The practical reading of “internationally adopted accessibility guidelines.” We test 2.2 AA and can report 2.1 and 2.0 inside that result.
e-MAG for federal government. We follow the model’s WCAG-based checks and the publishing habits that make government sites fail: scanned PDFs, unlabeled search, and keyboard traps in service menus.
Portuguese interface. Names, instructions, and errors in the language of the page. Documents attached to the service are in the audit sample.
The same bar for the app. Article 63 is written around websites. If the service has moved to an app, we test the app too, because that is where the information now lives.

How we help

We help companies established in Brazil and public bodies meet Article 63 by auditing and fixing the live site, in the language it is published in.

An audit against WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA, with e-MAG called out when the site is federal government.
Remediation of templates, forms, and documents so a content team can keep publishing without breaking Article 63 on the next release.
Manual testing with NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver, plus keyboard-only use and browser zoom. The failures these rules care about are often invisible to an automated scan.
Remediation in your production code by our developers, so the fix lives in the product and not only in a report.
An accessibility statement and, where a buyer or regulator expects one, a VPAT-based Accessibility Conformance Report grounded in the audit.
Training for the people who publish pages, documents, and campaigns after the audit.
A retest after major releases, so a later deploy does not quietly undo the work.

Web accessibility audit and remediation

Our process

Confirm what applies to you. We confirm the company has headquarters or commercial representation in Brazil, whether the site is governmental, and whether an export market adds the ADA or the EAA.
Audit the live experience. We review the pages, flows, documents, and apps people actually use, with assistive technologies as well as automated checks, and map each finding to the standard this rule points to.
Fix the barriers that block access. Our developers remediate structure, keyboard access, forms, contrast, names, and media in your codebase, starting with the journeys that gate a service.
Document what was tested. You receive the findings, what we fixed, and the statement or conformance report your team, counsel, or procurement office needs on file.
Keep it from slipping. We train publishers and retest after significant releases so new content does not reopen the same gaps.

Frequently asked questions

Does Law 13.146 name WCAG 2.2?

Article 63 points to internationally adopted accessibility guidelines and best practices. It does not cite a WCAG version. e-MAG, used by federal government, is the WCAG-based model. We test WCAG 2.2 AA because it includes the older criteria and matches what global customers expect.

Our parent company is in the U.S. Does Article 63 apply?

If the company that maintains the site has headquarters or commercial representation in Brazil, yes. Separately, the U.S. parent may have ADA exposure on the U.S. storefront. We scope the properties, not the org chart slogan.

Is e-MAG only for government?

It is the federal government model. Private companies under Article 63 are held to international guidelines. We will not force a government checklist onto a store, and we will not ignore e-MAG on a ministry site.

Do you guarantee compliance with Brazilian law?

We audit and remediate to WCAG AA and, for federal sites, to e-MAG’s accessibility model. Legal compliance is a conclusion for you and your counsel, based on that record.

Related guides

This page is general information from Peradeo Technologies Inc., not legal advice.

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