Digital Accessibility and Institutional Empathy: Evaluating WCAG Compliance in Croatian Higher Education

This study analyzes the compliance of higher education institutions in Croatia with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, with particular emphasis on the dimension of institutional empathy.
The research was conducted through a quantitative content analysis based on EN 301 549 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines compliance levels, using weighted scoring to assess the severity of non-compliance. Results show that the highest level of non-compliance persists in the following categories: visual clarity (distinguishable), multimedia content (time-based media), and navigation
(navigable), all of which are crucial components in user experience. These findings suggest that accessibility is still treated as a formal obligation and not a genuine response to user needs, emphasizing an empathy gap in addressing the real needs of students with disabilities.