What Is the EAA?

EAA stands for European Accessibility Act – often called the Accessibility Directive. It’s an EU directive that since June 2025 requires private companies too to make their key digital services accessible to people with disabilities. For many businesses, this is an entirely new playing field, and it’s worth understanding why.

From public sector to private companies

The big news with the EAA isn’t that accessibility requirements were invented – they’ve existed for a long time – but who they apply to.

Previously, the legislation was, in practice, aimed at the public sector. Government agencies, municipalities, and regions have for years had to make sure their websites and digital services work for everyone, while private companies largely stood outside that obligation. An e-commerce company could have a store that was nearly unusable for a visually impaired customer without breaking any law.

The EAA moves that line. Now private operators offering certain services to consumers are covered too. That means a long list of companies that never had to think about accessibility suddenly have a legal requirement on their hands – and that it’s no longer enough for a service to work for most people.

Which services and companies are covered

The directive is tied to the type of service rather than the industry as a whole. It concerns key services that consumers use in everyday life.

• E-commerce – online stores and purchase flows aimed at consumers.
• Banking services – online banking, payments, and similar consumer services.
• Ticket and travel booking – purchasing trips, events, and transport.
• E-books and certain digital media, plus parts of electronic communications.

If you offer such a service digitally to consumers, the starting assumption is that the requirements apply. There is, however, an exemption for microenterprises providing services – roughly, the very smallest businesses, with few employees and low revenue. But the exemption is narrower than many hope and shouldn’t be taken for granted. A small company selling through a well-functioning e-commerce platform may well be covered anyway. If you’re unsure, it’s wiser to investigate your specific situation than to assume you’re in the clear.

A concrete example

Say you run a small online store. A customer using a screen reader should be able to navigate the range, understand the product information, add items to the cart, and complete the purchase – without getting stuck because a button lacks text or a field lacks a label. Under the old order, that was a nice ambition. Under the EAA, it’s a requirement, and a store that fails to meet it has a real problem, not just a missed sale.

The point is that accessibility has gone from “nice to have” to a compliance issue for far more companies than before.

The connection to WCAG

The EAA states that services must be accessible, but doesn’t describe in detail how. That bridge runs through the European standard EN 301 549, which in turn builds on WCAG – the international guidelines for accessible web content. In practice, that means anyone following WCAG at the specified level goes a long way toward meeting the EAA.

For you as a buyer, that’s good news: the requirement is concrete and testable, not a vague ambition.

Why it’s not enough to “fix it later”

A common misconception is that accessibility is something you add to a finished service, like a coat of paint. In practice, much of accessibility sits in the foundation – in how the page is structured, how the content is organized, and how the components are built. Fixing it after the fact often means rebuilding parts that are already finished, which is more expensive than getting it right from the start.

That’s why the sensible stance is to treat the EAA as one requirement among others right from when a new service is commissioned or rebuilt, not as something to put off. A business that waits until an inspection or a customer complaint forces the issue often ends up paying both for the rebuild and for the time the service was unsuitable. Building accessibly from the start is, just like quality in general, cheapest in the long run.

Want to work out what the EAA means for your service? Accessibility is a natural part of our services. Get in touch and we’ll take a look at where you stand today.