If your business falls under the European Accessibility Act, you need to understand its requirements and what they mean for your products and services.
In this article, we’ll break down EAA requirements, explain how to meet them, and share tools to help you assess and improve accessibility before the deadline.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires private sector businesses to make their digital services and certain physical products accessible. To comply, businesses must follow specific accessibility standards:
Note that some EAA requirements for physical products are not covered by the currently available EN 301 549, so additional accessibility standards may be needed for full compliance. Thankfully, EN 301 549 is also undergoing updates to address these gaps.
Are there any exceptions to the EAA?
Yes, the EAA exempts businesses with fewer than 10 employees and an annual revenue below €2 million. Other than that, some products and services have a grace period before they must comply.
You can meet EAA requirements by conforming your physical products to EN 301 549 and your digital services to WCAG 2.2 at Level AA. But knowing the standards isn’t enough – you need a clear plan to assess, implement, and maintain accessibility.
Here’s our 4-step process to meeting EAA requirements effectively:
Let’s dive into each step in detail.
The first step is to assess your current level of accessibility. Physical products should be evaluated against EN 301 549, while digital services need to meet WCAG 2.2 compliance standards.
For physical products, an accessibility consultant or expert may be needed to ensure full EN 301 549 compliance, as expert guidance is often required to interpret technical specifications and conduct real-world testing.
And for digital services, automated tools can provide a quick first look at accessibility issues, but they can’t make your website fully WCAG compliant. A manual review by an accessibility specialist is required to ensure full WCAG 2.2 compliance.
Once accessibility gaps have been identified, the next step is making the necessary changes to ensure compliance with the EAA requirements. This process will vary depending on whether you are working with physical products or digital services.
For physical products, this may involve adding or improving features such as tactile buttons, voice navigation, adjustable contrast displays, and compatibility with assistive technologies. These changes ensure your product is usable for people with disabilities.
For digital services, the focus is on ensuring the website aligns with the POUR principles of accessibility: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. This makes your site easier to navigate and interact with for people with disabilities.
Accessibility isn’t just about meeting technical standards – it’s about creating products and services that everyone can use. To achieve this, your team needs to understand why accessibility matters and how to implement it effectively.
Developers, designers, content creators, and product managers should be trained on EN 301 549 and WCAG 2.2. Regular training sessions or workshops can help ensure accessibility becomes a natural part of the development process rather than an afterthought.
A shift left accessibility approach can make this even more effective. Instead of treating accessibility as a final check before launch, bake it into the process from the very beginning. This means considering accessibility at the design, development, and testing stages.
Accessibility isn’t a one-and-done deal – it needs regular testing and monitoring to stay compliant with EAA requirements. As your products and services evolve, new barriers can pop up, so ongoing checks are key to keeping everything accessible.
For physical products, this means conducting periodic usability tests with people with disabilities and ensuring updates or new versions still meet EN 301 549 standards. For digital services, accessibility should be tested whenever new content or features are added.
By integrating accessibility checks into your quality assurance and update cycles, you can prevent accessibility issues from creeping in and ensure long-term compliance.
Does the EAA apply outside the EU?
Yes. If your business is outside the EU but serves EU customers, you must comply with EAA requirements to continue operating in the region.
Meeting EAA requirements can feel overwhelming, but WebYes makes it effortless. No need to spend hours decoding WCAG guidelines – we handle the heavy lifting. Our tool quickly identifies accessibility issues and guides you through fixing them.
With WebYes, you get:
Start your EAA compliance journey with a free WebYes audit. In minutes, you’ll get a clear view of your website’s accessibility and steps to fix any issues. It’s a simple way to make your website EAA compliant and accessible to everyone.
Article by
Melwyn holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and has been writing professionally for over 4 years. He has a strong background in SEO and is certified in web accessibility from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). When he's not writing about website optimisation, you can find him enjoying a game of FIFA or exploring the open world of GTA.
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