The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is a piece of legislation aimed at making digital platforms more accessible to people living with some form of disability. Although the EAA is not a law in itself, it sets out a minimum set of requirements for businesses to follow, and each member state of the EU will devise and enforce its own laws under the act. Compliance with the act will be mandatory from the 28th June 2025.
Compliance with the act will be mandatory from the 28th June 2025.
Almost every company operating in the EU or targeting an EU audience is required to comply with the EAA. The only exceptions are companies with less than 10 employees, or with a turnover of less than €2million. This means that your company is probably required to comply with the EAA by 28th June. Read on to see how this will impact your business.
Around 1 billion people globally live with a disability, yet despite the web being a space that almost everyone occupies in one way or another, making that space accessible to these people is often overlooked. As our society turns increasingly digital, the EAA is needed to ensure that the web can be accessed and used by everyone.
The act doesn’t just apply to websites: it covers a wide range of digital services. The list of products and services it covers includes but is not limited to:
Click here to view the full list.
Although the EAA is not a blanket law that can be enforced, its core principles must be upheld by each member state when enforcing their own laws. These principles are commonly applied to digital accessibility, and can be remembered with the POUR acronym:
Perceivability: Users must be able to perceive the information being presented: information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
Operability: User interface components and navigation must be operable.
Understandability: Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable. Users must be able to understand not only the operation of the user interface, but also the information presented.
Robustness: Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
The EAA deadline falls on the 28th of June, meaning all EU member states must have their laws and regulations published and enforced by this date. Businesses that fail to comply by 28th June will face sanctions imposed by individual EU nations.
Although the EAA does not specify the minimum Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that businesses should adhere to, it is generally assumed that the WCAG 2.2 guidelines should be the aim. Here are some tips to help you get started with making your website accessible.
Making your site accessible to everyone may seem daunting, and having a deadline in place to adhere to puts pressure on businesses to accelerate their implementation process.
The first step is knowing what accessibility means to your audience, and how you plan to address their needs. Getting an idea of where your website already stands in terms of accessibility is a great stepping stone, and will help you map out your next steps. It’s a good idea to get an accessibility audit to help you at this stage: an audit will tell you where your accessibility measures are working, and where there’s room for improvement. It will also provide a detailed list of recommended accessibility fixes, and help you get to grips with accessibility best practices.
An audit will tell you where your accessibility measures are working, and where there’s room for improvement.
When it comes to inclusivity, the best way to check that your website is accessible is to have it tested by real people. Involving users with a range of disabilities will provide you with much more valuable feedback on your accessibility changes than an automated tool; the nuances of human interaction with your digital platform will reveal the issues that a machine might overlook.
This is not to say that you should not use automated accessibility tools to help you with your accessibility checks. These tools can catch issues early and suggest valuable solutions to minimise the need for costly corrections further down the line. Tools such as Axe, Lighthouse, and Pa11y can help you get started on your accessibility journey. Using these tools not only helps with consistency across your platform but also handles repetitive manual checks to make testing easier.
Accessibility is not something you should see as a box to be ticked in time for the EAA deadline: it should become a part of your regular practice. Maintaining accessibility best practices means that you won’t be caught short when the deadline comes around, and will ultimately boost business by expanding your audience. By letting accessibility standards slide, you not only risk legal action after the 28th June, but also risk your brand’s reputation amongst customers.
Complying with the EAA not only improves your customers’ experience, but will directly and substantially benefit you as a business. Here are some of the advantages you’ll see:
The most obvious benefit of adhering to accessibility best practices is that it increases the number of people who can use your website. Making your services available to everyone, regardless of their abilities, automatically increases your potential for growth; ultimately, the more people able to access your site, the more scope you have for potential sales, views, or whatever your business goals may be.
Making your services available to everyone, regardless of their abilities, automatically increases your potential for growth
Improving accessibility also improves your SEO, as search engines favour accessible websites. Higher search engine rankings mean that your visibility will increase, driving wider audiences to your website.
By taking your customers’ needs into consideration, you’re building a better reputation for your brand. A good relationship with customers means improved customer loyalty and a likely increase in new custom.
Making accessibility a priority puts you ahead of your competition by improving your reputation as an inclusive and responsible brand, and increasing the likelihood of you utilising innovative products and services that make usability easier for everyone, not just those with a disability.
Failure to comply with the EAA puts you at risk of facing legal action. Although the EAA is not a law in itself, each EU nation has its own laws and regulations under the act. The consequences of non-compliance may vary between nations, however it is expected that they will generally include heavy fines, your products and services being removed from the market, or even the suspension of your right to do business. Therefore, you must adhere to these laws in order to avoid legal action.
Sign up for a free accessibility audit to ensure your business doesn’t fall victim to these penalties.
The European Accessibility Act is a directive that will not only help to improve the lives of up to a billion web users around the world, but can also directly benefit your company as a result. Making your website more accessible means opening up your audience, driving an increase in sales and creating an inclusive environment for all of your customers to enjoy.
Ultimately, the web should be accessible to everyone. By following EAA guidelines, you’re doing your bit to create an inclusive space for every user.
Remarkable are one of the world’s leading digital experience agencies. As a double platinum Sitecore and Optimizely partner, we offer technology solutions to help brands build experiences that convert.
