The hot topic across accessibility industry and digital businesses across the world is the European Accessibility act (EAA). In this post we are going to discuss what EAA is all about; what it means to your businesses and how to meet the compliance.

What is European Accessibility ACT?

The European Accessibility Act, here after referred as EAA in this post, is a piece of legislation on fare accessible products and services across all the European Union markets. this act also referred as EU Directive/882 was enacted in April 2019 in order to provide equally accessible products and services for people with disabilities in the member states and gratify United Nations Convention on rights for People with Disabilities (UNCRPD)

EAA aims to remove barriers in the form of multiple and conflicting rules from its member states for accessible products and services and thereby providing more accessible products, improve transport, education and job market for accessibility professionals. Businesses which provide accessible products and services now will have more markets to sell their products and services and reduce costs on accessibility.

Products and services covered by EAA

EAA covers the following products and services:

Computers and operating systems
ATMs, ticketing and check-in machines
Smartphones
TV equipment related to digital television services
Telephony services and related equipment
Access to audio-visual media services such as television broadcast and related consumer equipment
Services related to air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport
Banking services
E-books
E-commerce.

Enforcement of EAA

The law becomes active on June, 28 2025 requiring all the businesses to be compliant within this period. These businesses include both businesses that operate within the European Union countries and businesses that are outside EU but sell their products and services within the European Union markets.

Each member country is responsible for enforcing EAA. They also have to transpose EAA in to their existing laws failing which the member nations may face consequences.

Also, the punishment for not complying to EAA will be decided by the respective member country where the complaints are received. The punishment can vary from levying huge penalties to imprisonment.

Exceptions in EAA

EAA does provide some exceptions to micro businesses and a few content types too:

Businesses that prove that making their services and products accessible will bring disproportionate burden
Microbusinesses that have less than 10 employees and make an annual turnover of 2 million Euros
Pre-recorded time-based media published before June 2025
Office file formats published before June 2025
Online maps, if essential information is otherwise provided in an accessible way
Third party content that is not funded, developed, or under the control of the organization that has to be compliant
Archive content that won’t be updated after June 2025.

Differences between EAA and EU Web Accessibility Directive (WAD)

The EU Web Accessibility Directive applies to public sector organizations and the third party vendors who provide services or products to those organizations. The EAA applies to private sector organizations and public organizations providing the services and sell the products that are listed within the scope of EAA. While the WAD specifically addresses web and apps, EAA goes beyond web and addresses hardware and software.

The WAD references WCAG 2.1 AA as its guiding standard and has EN 301 549 as a standard, EAA does not specify any standard or guidelines.

So, if you are wondering what to follow as a compliance standard, it is best to use EN 301 549 for compliance.

What is the impact of EAA on my Business?

If your businesses operate in the European Union market, then your products and services must meet the compliance on or before June 28, 2025 unless they fall into any of the exception bucket.

Also, the Anex I of EAA specifies that the product and services must consider the current and foreseeable use by people with disabilities when designing and developing and publishing or introducing those products and services in to the market. The digital assets must include accessible instructions, errors and warnings, that cater to multiple sensory perceptions and are understandable. It also specifies that the accessibility characteristics of the products and services must be included in the product information. This could mean an accessibility statement or VPAT.

Given this nature, your business has the responsibilities of making the current versions of your digital assets and future versions of your products and services must be conceived, designed, developed and introduced in to the market with accessibility in mind.

The Next Steps

If you are ready to start the EAA compliance process journey, here are a few steps to follow:

Conduct a comprehensive audit of your current websites and applications
Remediate all the issues found during the audit
Validate if all the issues are remediated
Write an accessibility statement
Follow Shift Left approach in your accessibility journey
Consider accessibility review on your new feature designs
Incorporate the feedback in to the new design and product development
Develop the inhouse accessibility experts through training if you have not done so

Finally, remember that our experts at Digitala11Y are there to assist you with achieving EAA compliance and creating an inclusive digital environment.

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