The European Accessibility Act: what it means for your app or website
Since June 2025, many digital services sold to EU consumers must be accessible — even if your company isn't in the EU. A practical checklist.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) has applied since 28 June 2025. It covers a wide set of consumer products and services — including e-commerce, banking, transport and e-books — and it applies to businesses selling to people in the EU, wherever the business is based. Very small businesses providing services are exempt, and enforcement is handled country by country.
In practice, teams use WCAG 2.1 Level AA (via the European standard EN 301 549) as the target. WCAG 2.2 adds a few useful criteria on top, and is a sensible goal for new work.
What usually fails an audit
- Text and buttons with too little colour contrast.
- Forms whose fields have no proper labels or error messages.
- Things you can only do with a mouse — menus, sliders, date pickers, carousels.
- Images and icons without text alternatives.
- Pop-ups that trap focus or can't be closed with the keyboard.
- Animations with no reduced-motion option.
A practical plan
- Run an automated scan, then test the key journeys (sign-up, checkout, booking) with a keyboard and a screen reader.
- Fix the design system first — accessible buttons, inputs and modals fix hundreds of screens at once.
- Publish an accessibility statement and a way to report problems.
- Add accessibility checks to code review and QA so it stays fixed.
Accessible products are easier for everyone to use — and tend to convert better.
Sources
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