The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is the most important legislation for accessibility rights in physical and digital spaces in the European Union. Frameworks are established across all member states to ensure the rights of individuals with disabilities to have equal and fair access to products and services.
Keep reading to learn more about the European Accessibility Act, including its background, objectives, EAA 2025 requirements, and the European Web Accessibility Act checklist, which covers general accessibility principles and everything you need to increase website and mobile application accessibility compliance.
Goals of the EAA
The European Accessibility Act has several objectives.
The first objective is to standardize accessibility standards across the European Union. Member countries must come to a consensus on what physical and digital accessibility means. By establishing a legal product and service design framework, a single set of standards can govern the European Union and make it easier for member states to implement accessibility plans.
Implementing the European Accessibility Act would benefit businesses and organizations by reducing costs, simplifying compliance, and increasing market access. It would also allow companies and organizations to enter new markets within the European Union and increase business revenue, foot traffic, and hundreds of other key performance indicators.
Another goal of the European Accessibility Act is to ensure that individuals with disabilities have equal access to products and services, a human right. By providing accessibility across digital and physical spaces, you allow equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
In short, the importance of accessibility in the European Union cannot be understated. The European accessibility guidelines make it easier for all member states to reach a consensus on what accessibility truly means.
EAA 2025 Requirements
One of the European Accessibility Act’s biggest goals is to flood the market with stricter requirements starting in 2025, offering updated legislation on accessibility standards across websites, mobile applications, physical workspaces, and more.
Here are the EAA full timeline requirements across different spaces:
Web and Mobile Application Accessibility
All businesses and organizations must adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 accessibility standards, which offer best practices for websites and mobile applications to increase accessibility for individuals with disabilities.
Features such as alternative text for images, keyboard navigation, contrast/text size adjustments, and dozens of other minor changes could amplify the navigational experience for individuals with disabilities and make it easier for them to consume content.
In addition, websites and mobile applications must adhere to strict navigational criteria, such as proper use of semantic HTML, implementation of ARIA landmarks, and responsive designs to make the desktop and mobile experience seamless.
Digital Document Compliance
Another critical aspect of the European Accessibility Act is digital document compliance, which requires that important digital documents like PDFs and Microsoft Word files be fully accessible to individuals with disabilities.
One primary way to do this is to ensure that all your documents are readable by third-party assistive devices like screen readers. In addition, they must adhere to WCAG best practices, including proper tagging of headings and other structural elements, alternative text for images, and accessible forms with clear labels.
It also helps to use accessibility features built into popular mainstream programs to create screen reader-friendly documents.
Physical Space Adaptations
The European Accessibility Act ensures that all public spaces, such as retail stores, commercial centers, and others, are fully accessible. They will require ramps and designated parking spaces based on square footage, accessible restrooms, and much more.
All of these components must adhere to Universal Design principles to be usable by all people. As with any accessibility program, you are also expected to conduct regular audits and updates to ensure you meet the latest physical accessibility standards.
Public Sector Obligations
Regarding the public sector, government agencies and institutions are held under increased scrutiny in the European Accessibility Act to ensure that it allows complete and equal participation for individuals with disabilities.
Private Sector Requirements
Under the European Accessibility Act, public sector organizations must create accessible public websites. In the physical realm, the goal is to develop excellent, accessible retail stores with widened aisles for users who use wheelchairs and increased training for customer staff to ensure that individuals with disabilities have a pleasurable shopping experience.
Accessibility in Transportation and E-Commerce
The EAA also enforces accessibility rules with public and private transportation services, ensuring their platforms and ticketing systems are fully accessible. In addition, vehicles must be specifically equipped to deal with users who use wheelchairs, with low floors, lifts, and priority seating available.
These features should also extend to trains and taxi/ride-sharing services to accessible infrastructure, where stations and terminals must be fully equipped with accessibility-friendly features like Braille signage and wheelchair ramps. Ticketing and information systems must also include auxiliary aids like tactile buttons to allow those with limited dexterity to navigate more comfortably.
Transportation and commerce providers must conduct ongoing staff training and assistance, ensuring that everyone is current on the latest accessibility standards.
To conclude, the European Accessibility Act oversees accessibility compliance across all of these spaces, making it a healthy force across the European Union.
European Web Accessibility Act Checklist
One of the European Web Accessibility Act’s mainstays is its robust framework based on four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.
Perceivable
Perceivable describes how information is displayed on a web page for individuals with disabilities. Providing extra features by hard coding them into the website or using web accessibility widgets like Accessibly can introduce several accessibility-friendly features to your website, such as alternative text for images, audio captioning, and higher contrast ratios between text and background to make it easier for the visually impaired to digest content.
Operable
Operable speaks to how you can make it easier for individuals with disabilities to interact with your website. One of its core tenets is keyboard accessibility. Developers seek to make all website functions navigable by using a keyboard instead of a mouse to help those with limited dexterity.
In addition, enough time should be provided to read and understand the content, easy navigation through properly implemented HTML, and input modalities that allow input with as few devices as possible.
Understandable
Understandable ensures that all text, audio, and video content on the web page is fully readable and understandable. One of the best ways to describe this is by ensuring that navigation is consistent across your website, with the same format on every web page.
One feature that best describes Understandable is that it offers error suggestions. For example, if a website user takes several attempts to complete a captcha, the site should provide clear messaging on what to do next.
Robust
Robust ensures that several technologies, including screen readers, can interpret website content. Regardless of the technology being used, content must be readily accessible at all times. Other ways robust can be implemented outside of assistive technologies include ensuring properly formatted HTML and ARIA standards to inform dynamic content better.
Technical Standards and Guidelines
One tenet of the European Accessibility Act is its guidelines regarding technical standards that all European Union member states must follow to create accessible digital and physical spaces.
Here are some of the most essential technical standards the European Union imposes.
Scope
European Accessibility Act requirements extend to the following products:
- Banking
- Transport
- Smartphones
- E-commerce
- Ebooks
- Computer operating systems
- Banking machines
- TV equipment
- Telephone services
- Audiovisual media
Technical Standards
The technical standards followed by the European Accessibility Act are based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Another European Standard is EN 301 549, which focuses primarily on ICT products and services across the software and hardware realms.
Key Accessibility Features
The European Accessibility Act requirements also mandate that key customer features be designed with operating principles in mind: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. This comprehensive framework ensures that digital and physical spaces are designed with accessibility best practices in mind.
Testing and Validation Processes
In complying with the EAA, another essential aspect of the European Accessibility Act requirements is testing and validation processes, which ensure that proper quality assurance protocols are met to eliminate accessibility barriers. Continuous improvement, identifying key areas, and soliciting user feedback from focus groups and social media are essential.
More popular ways to ensure testing and validation processes include manual and automated testing with tools like WAVE and Axe, which can quickly scan your site and return accessibility issues with suggested improvements.
Documentation and Record Keeping
Regarding your European Accessibility Act, it’s all about holding member states, businesses, and organizations responsible for compliance efforts. One of the best ways to do this is by maintaining detailed records that track all accessibility issues for a product or service.
Two types of documentation popular with the European Accessibility Act are accessibility statements and compliance reports, which organizations rely on to maintain ongoing tracking and compliance with the EAA.
Training and Staff Awareness
Do not skimp on training and staff awareness when promoting accessibility. Not only does training teach new subjects, but awareness campaigns through workshops and similar means could empower staff to recognize the needs of individuals with disabilities.
For example, solid accessibility training would inform valuable statistics like the percentage of websites with accessibility issues and their impact on users. Did you know that over 96% of the world’s top million web pages are inaccessible? What about 70% of government websites are inaccessible to the visually impaired? Accessibility training could improve these stats.
How Accessibly Can Help
With up to one in four adults in the United States having some disability, now it’s never been more important to download an EAA widget like Accessibly and avoid non-compliance fines.
Accessibly is a website accessibility widget that increases ADA and WCAG compliance by introducing several features that individuals with disabilities can use to customize their navigation experience.
These features include increasing font size, introducing dyslexic-friendly fonts, providing audio captioning, adding tooltips, and more. Users can even adjust text and background colors to improve readability. Plus, it is a small snippet of custom code that can be implemented on any website, with seamless integration on platforms like Shopify, WordPress, Squarespace, Magento, Weebly, and WooCommerce.
Now, Accessibly offers a free 7-day trial, during which you can test out features before committing to a monthly subscription starting at $20.
What are you waiting for? Get started on the road to meeting European accessibility requirements by downloading the Accessibly accessibility widget.
