The European Accessibility Act: What It Means for Your Website

Since 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) has applied across the EU. If your business sells products or services online to consumers in the EU, your website or app may now be legally required to be accessible to people with disabilities. And it does not matter where your company is based: selling to EU consumers is what counts.

Here is what small and medium-sized businesses need to know, without the legal jargon. (As always, for advice on your specific situation, check with a legal professional.)

Who does the EAA cover?

The Act covers specific products and services. For most of our clients, the relevant ones are:

• E-commerce: online shops and apps selling to consumers, across the whole customer journey from browsing to checkout.
• Banking and financial services for consumers, such as payments, credit and e-money.
• Transport services (websites and apps for booking and travel information), e-books, and electronic communications.

The microenterprise exemption

Microenterprises providing services are exempt. That means businesses with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than €2 million. The exemption does not apply to manufacturers of covered products. Even if you are exempt, accessibility is still good for business: it widens your audience and usually improves SEO and usability for everyone.

What does “accessible” actually mean?

The practical benchmark is the European standard EN 301 549, which incorporates WCAG 2.1 Level AA. An updated version based on WCAG 2.2 is on the way, so building towards WCAG 2.2 now is a sensible way to future-proof your site.

In everyday terms, your website should be:

• Perceivable: images have meaningful alt text, videos have captions, and text has enough contrast against its background.
• Operable: everything works with a keyboard alone, focus is visible, and nothing flashes or traps the user.
• Understandable: form fields have clear labels and helpful error messages, and the page language is set.
• Robust: clean, semantic HTML that works with screen readers and other assistive technology.

Deadlines and penalties

New services have had to comply since June 2025. Some transition periods apply: service contracts agreed before 28 June 2025 can continue unchanged until 28 June 2027, and certain products already in use have until 28 June 2030. Penalties are set by each EU member state, so they differ from country to country, and authorities can also order changes or withdraw non-compliant services from the market.

The most common problems we see

• Low-contrast grey text on white backgrounds.
• Images, icons and buttons without text alternatives.
• Forms that use placeholder text instead of real labels.
• Cookie banners, pop-ups and menus that cannot be used with a keyboard.
• Headings used for styling rather than structure, which confuses screen readers.
• Relying on “accessibility overlay” widgets. They do not make a site compliant on their own and can even get in the way of assistive technology.

A practical 5-step plan

• Audit your key pages and journeys (home, product, cart, checkout, contact) with automated tools plus manual keyboard and screen-reader testing.
• Fix the high-impact issues first: contrast, labels, alt text, keyboard access and focus states.
• Publish an accessibility statement describing how your service meets the requirements and how users can contact you.
• Build accessibility into updates, so new pages and features do not reintroduce problems.
• Re-test regularly, especially after theme or plugin updates.

Accessibility is not a one-off project, but it does not have to be overwhelming either. If you would like an accessibility review of your website or a prioritised fix list, get in touch. It fits naturally into our website care plans.