The European Accessibility Act 2025: making your website compliant

As of June 28, 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) is in force, transforming accessibility from a recommendation to a requirement. For businesses selling products or services in Europe, this is a significant shift – with potential penalties for non-compliance.

So what's it all about? What does it mean for your website? And most importantly – how can you make your website more compliant?

Let's break it down.

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is basically a set of rules making sure products and services work well for everyone across Europe, including people with disabilities.

The EU adopted it in 2019, countries had to create their own versions by 2022, and as of June 2025, everyone needs to follow these rules.

The EAA aims to solve several important problems:

One standard for everyone – Before, every EU country had different accessibility regulations, which was confusing. Now there's one clear set of guidelines.

Including everyone – About 135 million people in Europe have disabilities. The EAA helps ensure they can use websites and services just like everyone else.

Bringing private companies on board – Until now, accessibility regulations have mostly only applied to government websites. The changes mean that other businesses, no matter whether private or public, will need to adhere to the requirements.

Making business easier – With one set of rules across Europe, companies don't need to create different versions of their websites for different countries.

The EAA applies to pretty much any organization selling products or services in the European Union:

• Companies based in EU countries
• Companies from outside the EU that sell to European customers
• Any business with 10+ employees and making over €2 million (USD$2.2 million / £1.7 million per year)

Businesses (under 10 employees and making less than €2 million yearly) – you're generally exempt, although this might not apply in all cases, especially for online stores.

While the EAA has broad application, there are some other exemptions and special cases:

• Pre-existing content: Certain content published before June 2025 may be exempt, including pre-recorded media, office file formats, and archived content that won't be updated.
• Transitional periods: Services using inaccessible products that were in use before June 28, 2025 have until June 28, 2030 to transition.
• Disproportionate burden: Organizations may be exempt if they can demonstrate that compliance would fundamentally alter the nature of their product/service or impose an unreasonable financial burden.

Even with these exemptions, it's recommended to work toward accessibility as a best practice rather than seeking ways to avoid compliance.

The EAA covers lots of everyday products and services we all use:

• Websites and apps
• Devices e.g. computers, smartphones, tablets
• Machines we use in public e.g. ATMs, ticket machines information screens
• E-books
• Phone services

For websites, the EAA follows a simple set of principles often called "POUR":

• Perceivable: Can everyone get the information, even if they can't see or hear well?
• Operable: Can everyone use your website, regardless of how they navigate?
• Understandable: Is everything clear and easy to understand?
• Robust: Will your website work with different technologies people might use?

For your website, you'll need to check things like:

• Content accessibility: Adding text descriptions for images, providing captions and audio descriptions for videos, and ensuring content works across different formats and devices

• Navigation and interaction: Creating clear, consistent navigation with proper heading structure (H1, H2, H3), ensuring keyboard accessibility for all features, and giving users adequate time to read and respond

• Visual design: Maintaining appropriate color contrast (at least 4.5:1 for normal text), avoiding flashing content that could cause seizures, and allowing text resizing without loss of functionality

• Forms and feedback: Using clear labels for form fields, showing helpful error messages when something goes wrong, and making it easy for users to correct mistakes

• Technical compatibility: Ensuring your code works with assistive technologies like screen readers, and creating predictable, consistent interactions

The EAA also emphasizes compatibility with assistive technologies like screen readers, voice recognition software, and other tools that people with disabilities rely on to access digital content.

All these requirements follow the WCAG 2.2 Level AA standards, which form the technical foundation of the EAA's accessibility requirements.

The cost of ignoring the EAA goes beyond just regulatory headaches:

• Financial impact: Penalties are now being applied in several EU states, with fines and corrective actions based on national enforcement authorities. But the real cost comes from potential lost business and retrofitting solutions after the fact.

• Legal exposure: Beyond government enforcement, the EAA opens doors for direct complaints and legal actions from consumers who face barriers.

• Market restrictions: Non-compliant products might face restrictions in EU markets, effectively shutting you out of a 450-million-person marketplace.

• Reputational damage: As accessibility awareness grows, brands that fall behind risk appearing outdated and exclusionary.

Beyond avoiding penalties, compliance brings important benefits: expanding your audience, improving user experience for everyone, and demonstrating corporate social responsibility.

1. Find out where you stand

Before you fix anything, you need to know what needs fixing:

• Make a list of all your websites and apps that EU customers might use
• Check how accessible they are now against the guidelines
• Write down all the problems you find
• Decide which ones to fix first (focus on the big issues affecting the most people)

2. Make a plan

Once you know what needs work, create a straightforward plan:

• Set hard deadlines
• Figure out what you need asap (people, money, tools)
• Create clear rules for new content going forward
• Decide how you'll check that everything's working

3. Update your website tools

Your website systems might need some upgrades:

• Make sure your content management system supports accessibility features
• Use templates that are already accessible to save time
• Add tools that check for accessibility as you create content
• Check that outside tools and plugins you use are accessible too

4. Help your team learn

Everyone creating content needs to understand the basics:

• Show writers how to create accessible content
• Help developers understand accessible coding
• Work with designers on accessible design principles
• Teach support teams how to help all customers

5. Keep checking and improving

Accessibility isn't a one-time fix:

• Set up regular automatic checks to catch problems
• Actually test with accessibility tools like screen readers
• Create an easy way for users to report problems
• Have a plan for fixing issues when people report them

6. Keep records

You might need to show your commitment to accessibility:

• Create accessibility statements for your websites
• Document how you've made things accessible
• Save records of your testing and what you've fixed
• Be ready to respond if someone files a complaint

The University of Highlands and Islands saw its accessibility problems reduced by over 80% simply by implementing Squiz's accessibility features.

The university's web team now considers Squiz Optimization tools "central to their ongoing governance," using the accessibility dashboard to track how well they're meeting guidelines over time.

The European Accessibility Act is pushing us all toward a more inclusive web. While getting ready might take some work, the benefits go way beyond just avoiding fines. Accessible websites reach more people, create better experiences, and show that your organization cares about including everyone.