Web Accessibility Part 1: Why It Matters, and What Changes Under the EAA?
Digital accessibility is no longer just a "nice to have" — it's becoming a legal requirement across the European Union. In this first piece of our two-part series, we explore what digital accessibility means, why it matters (not just ethically but also legally and strategically), and what changes will affect businesses and institutions after the European Accessibility Act (EAA) comes into force.
You’ll learn who benefits from accessible design, what obligations are involved, and how investing in accessibility leads to better digital products for everyone.
What is the European Accessibility Act?
On June 28, 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) entered into force. This legislation is expected to have a significant impact on the way digital products are designed and created in the European Union. Companies and public institutions will be required to adapt their services, including digital ones, to new accessibility standards.
For businesses operating in the EU, this means ensuring that their physical and digital products meet the EAA requirements. Even non-EU companies selling their services or products within the EU must comply with these regulations if they wish to continue operating in this market. Only micro-enterprises (companies with fewer than 10 employees and annual revenues of less than $2 million) are exempt from this obligation.
It is worth remembering two critical deadlines that determine the pace of implementation of the regulations:
- From June 28, 2025, all newly created products and services must comply with EAA requirements.
- Creators of existing solutions have until June 28, 2030, to adapt currently operating services and applications to the new standards.
Failure to comply with the requirements of the European Accessibility Act can lead to serious consequences, from financial penalties ranging from several thousand to even several hundred thousand euros (depending on the Member State) to product sales bans within the EU and loss of reputation and customers to more accessible competitors.
For front-end developers, UX/UI designers, business owners, and app developers, this is a clear signal that accessibility must be taken seriously not just as best practice but also as a legal requirement.
This is a good time to examine web accessibility, why it's so important, and what can be done to make websites and web applications accessible to the widest possible range of users, including people with disabilities, seniors, and users with limited access to technology.
Who does the European Accessibility Act apply to?
The European Accessibility Act covers many products and services that impact users' daily lives. These regulations include:
- Companies offering digital services and products, including online stores, banking platforms, video services, and mobile applications. These obligations apply to companies registered in the EU and entities outside the European Union (e.g., from the US) that target their offerings to EU customers.
- Manufacturers of digital and physical equipment, such as general-purpose computers, self-service terminals, ATMs, and smartphones. These requirements apply to all companies placing their products on the EU market, regardless of their place of establishment.
- Public institutions providing digital services, such as government offices, government portals, and e-government systems. All public administration bodies in EU member states must ensure that their websites and applications are accessible to the EAA.
What is digital accessibility and who is it intended for?
Digital accessibility is the design of websites and applications so that they can be used by the widest possible range of users, regardless of their skills, limitations, equipment used, or method of interaction with the interface.
Key elements of accessibility include explicit and plain-language content, intuitive operation of interactive components, and full compatibility with assistive technologies such as keyboards, screen readers, and voice control.
A common misconception is that accessibility only applies to blind people who use screen readers. In reality, it benefits a broad range of people, including those with temporary, situational, or long-term impairments, such as:
- People with reduced vision – not necessarily using a screen reader, but e.g., enlarging the font or scaling the page,
- Users with dyslexia – who find it easier to read content written in a simple font, with greater spacing between lines and a predictable page layout,
- Users with color perception disorders – who may not notice colored system signals if they are not additionally marked with text or icons,
- Users with motor impairments – who have difficulty moving the cursor precisely and often use a keyboard or voice control,
- Users with photo- or motion sensitivity may find flashing elements or intense animations uncomfortable and even cause neurological reactions.
By designing with accessibility in mind, we not only support those with permanent disabilities but also create more usable experiences for everyone.
WCAG and accessibility levels
The European Accessibility Act requires digital service providers to meet specific accessibility standards. In practice, they must implement solutions that comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
WCAG is a set of internationally recognized standards that define how to make digital content accessible to people with disabilities. It is developed and maintained by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), a working group within the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international organization founded in Switzerland and dedicated to making the web work better for everyone.
WCAG has evolved since 1999 and is the foundation for many national and international accessibility laws, including the European Accessibility Act. The guidelines define three levels of compliance:
- A (minimum requirements),
- AA (recommended standard for most websites),
- AAA (advanced accessibility, often reserved for specialized content).
Level A
A website or application that complies with Level A meets the minimum criteria that prevent the most obvious barriers. These include:
- Adding alternative text to graphics (e.g., alt attribute for images),
- Ensuring that all functions can be operated using a keyboard,
- Avoiding content that may cause epileptic seizures (e.g., flashing ),
- A consistent navigation structure,
- Clear labels for form fields.
Level A is the bare minimum, but it is not enough to ensure comfort for all users.
Level AA
This is the most commonly recommended and realistic goal for most organizations. It covers all requirements from level A and expands them with elements that have a real impact on usability:
- Sufficient contrast between text and background,
- Captions for video materials with sound,
- The ability to enlarge content without losing functionality,
- Various ways of searching for information (e.g., search engine, site map),
- Logical and clear hierarchy of headings.
Compliance with Level AA strikes a good balance between accessibility and technical feasibility.
Level AAA
This is the most advanced and most demanding level of accessibility. It is challenging to implement in full, but it is worth striving to implement at least some of its guidelines. It includes, among other things:
- Translation of films into sign language,
- Very high contrast between text and background,
- Audio descriptions for video materials,
- No time limits for interaction (e.g., when shopping or making reservations),
- Contextual help for complex functions (e.g., extensive forms).
Although it is not always possible to implement the AAA level in its entirety, each adapted part will make the digital service more user-friendly.
It is worth remembering that WCAG levels are layered, which means that meeting the AA level fulfills the requirements of the A level. For most public and commercial websites, WCAG 2.1 level AA is the standard required to meet legal obligations, including those set by the European Accessibility Act (EAA).
However, accessibility is not only about checking boxes on a compliance list. True accessibility means designing and developing with empathy, ensuring everyone can use digital products comfortably, effectively, and without barriers, regardless of their limitations or circumstances.
How does EAA affect websites and digital platforms?
In addition to compliance levels, WCAG requires websites to meet four key accessibility principles:
- Perceivable – content must be visually and audibly accessible to people with various disabilities, including visual, hearing, or cognitive impairments.
- Operable – the entire website should be operable using a keyboard and compatible with assistive technologies (e.g., screen readers).
- Understandable – interfaces and content should be written in simple, logical language and organized clearly.
- Robust – the website code must be prepared to be compatible with current and future accessibility support tools (e.g., semantic HTML, ARIA roles).
Why is it worth investing in accessible websites and applications?
1. The importance of digital accessibility
Creating accessible websites and web applications is one of the key challenges in digital service design today. Implementing accessibility principles is a sign of social responsibility and a practice that positively affects the usability, perception, and long-term success of any online project.
2. Reaching a wider audience
People with various types of limitations, visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive, constitute a growing group of Internet users. This includes not only people with permanent disabilities but also those with temporary or situational limitations. An aging population naturally increases accessibility-related needs.
Unfortunately, these users are still often overlooked at the design and development stages. By creating solutions that are inclusive and accessible to them, we open our services to a broader and more diverse audience, improving the user experience for everyone.
3. Improving user comfort for everyone
The principles of accessible interface design – such as clear structure, legible fonts, adequate contrast, and the ability to use applications and websites without a mouse – make applications and websites more intuitive for everyone. This benefits not only people with disabilities, but also seniors, mobile users, and people who are less familiar with technology.
4. Building a positive image
Accessible websites and applications are perceived as more user-friendly and aware of users' needs. Concern for accessibility becomes part of a brand's identity – it demonstrates empathy, inclusiveness, and social responsibility. Today, this is an increasingly important aspect of building relationships with users.
5. Benefits for online visibility
Compliance with accessibility rules often goes hand in hand with better search engine positioning. Correct header structure, logical element markup, and alternative text for graphics all have a positive impact on SEO, increasing a website or application's visibility in search results.
Practical steps to help you prepare for EAA compliance
Implementing the requirements of the European Accessibility Act requires technical adjustments and an organizational approach. The following steps form the basis for effectively preparing websites, applications, and digital products to comply with applicable regulations.
1. Digital accessibility audit
The first step in ensuring the accessibility of a website or application is to analyze its current status in terms of compliance with WCAG guidelines. It is crucial to detect errors related to, among other things, color contrast, incorrect header structure, lack of alternative text for graphics, and components that cannot be operated using only the keyboard.
We can use several free tools to perform an audit:
- Lighthouse (built into Google Chrome) – allows you to quickly identify fundamental accessibility issues within a single page,
- axe DevTools, Accessibility Insights, Accessibility Checker – browser extensions offering detailed WCAG compliance scans and practical tips for improving detected errors,
- WAVE – a tool that analyzes a page for contrast, alternative descriptions, and semantic structure,
- WebAIM Contrast Checker – for a point-by-point assessment of text readability against the background.
To illustrate how the audit tools work, below are a few screenshots from tests conducted on a demo application I created: >>
1. Lighthouse:
Lighthouse audit highlights common issues:
After implementing accessibility improvements, the audit confirms full compliance with no remaining issues detected:
2. axe DevTools:
Initial audit result showing accessibility issues - due to missing discernible text, alt attribute or labels:
Updated audit with all issues resolved - accessibility best practices applied and verified by automated tools:
3. Accessibility Checker:
A score of 95 indicates strong accessibility performance based on automated checks. However, according to audit suggestions, reaching full compliance and a perfect score requires manual testing to catch nuanced issues that tools alone can't detect — such as keyboard focus, screen reader behavior, or dynamic content updates.
The screenshots show how these tools detect problems (or confirm their absence) related to contrast, header structure, form accessibility, and semantic compliance.
These visual examples help explain how the audit process works in practice and how simple tools can significantly support the design of accessible interfaces.
2. Manual audit
Automated tools are a good starting point, but they don’t catch everything. Manual tests, which simulate how real users (especially those relying on assistive technologies) experience the site, are essential to complement the audit.
Recommended manual checks include:
- Navigating with the keyboard only (Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, Esc) to ensure all interactive elements are reachable and logically ordered,
- Use of screen readers (e.g., NVDA, VoiceOver) to verify that content is read in the expected order, labels are correctly associated, and error messages are announced,
- Testing with a text-based browser like Lynx, which strips all visual styling and relies purely on semantic structure and link clarity. If your interface is usable in Lynx, it’s a good indicator of sound accessibility foundations.
For more complex systems – especially those with multi-step forms, dynamic interfaces, or component-heavy views – it’s worth engaging accessibility specialists to perform an in-depth audit, ideally including real users with disabilities.
3. Identification and repair of the most important problems
Developing a list of non-compliances and prioritizing actions, emphasizing elements with the most significant impact on usability. Improving contrast, implementing legible form labels, ensuring mouse-free navigation, and adapting the interface to work with assistive technologies.
4. Adaptation of key digital functions
Taking into account EAA requirements in specific areas of digital activity: In shopping services, ensuring the accessibility of the ordering process; simplifying access to transactions in online banking; and implementing subtitles and alternative content formats in video platforms.
5. Development of technical documentation and declarations of conformity
As part of the EAA requirements, organizations are expected to prepare an EU Declaration of Conformity for any products or services falling under the directive. This document should clearly state how accessibility has been addressed – including which standards (e.g., WCAG 2.1 AA) were followed, and what specific solutions have been implemented to meet user needs.
Such a declaration is not just a formality. Ideally, it should be made publicly available, for example, near the Privacy Policy or Terms of Use, so that users with disabilities can easily access it and understand what level of accessibility they can expect from the product or service.
6. Incorporating accessibility into team processes
Training for digital product development professionals, including developers, designers, content editors, and SEO specialists. Ensuring that accessibility principles are an integral part of the design cycle and are taken into account at every stage of the work.
7. Long-term planning and monitoring
Establishing a schedule for regular accessibility audits and introducing internal procedures ensures the website stays compliant as standards evolve. Accessibility should be treated as a continuous process, especially as the product grows and new features are added, which may unintentionally introduce new barriers.
To maintain a high level of accessibility over time, it's worth integrating accessibility checks into the development workflow. Some basic accessibility rules (like the presence of alt attributes or keyboard focusability) can be covered by automated unit or integration tests, helping catch regressions early.
Conclusion
Digital accessibility is no longer optional — it's a fundamental aspect of quality digital services.
With the European Accessibility Act coming into force, designing with inclusivity in mind is now both a social responsibility and a legal requirement.
By understanding who benefits from accessibility, what the WCAG standards require, and why it matters, we take the first essential step toward building a better web that works for everyone.
In the next part of this article, I'll share practical examples, code snippets, and tools to help developers implement accessibility in real-world projects.