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As 2025 approaches, the proactive step to start making your products accessible, compliant, and usable by people with disabilities is now. With the European Accessibility Act (EAA) coming into effect on June 28, 2025, businesses must ensure their applications meet the accessibility standards of today and beyond. Preparing early is not just essential, it's a proactive strategy that puts you in control of your business's future—postponing may not be the best strategy for your business.
What is the European Accessibility Act of 2025?
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is a crucial step toward creating a more inclusive Europe by removing barriers for people with disabilities, including the aging population. Before the EAA, businesses operating in the EU had to comply with varying accessibility requirements across multiple countries. The EAA addresses this challenge by standardizing accessibility rules across EU member states, not just for compliance but to foster innovation and creativity. By harmonizing accessibility standards, the EAA ensures that critical products and services are accessible to all citizens, regardless of their abilities, inspiring a new wave of inclusive innovation.
The EAA allows each EU member state to adapt the requirements to their laws, meaning some countries may have extra rules. While the EAA sets a common baseline, businesses should know that specific countries may have additional requirements. It's crucial to approach accessibility in a scalable way to stay compliant across all markets. By June 28, 2025, the EAA's requirements must be fully implemented.
Which businesses will be affected by the European accessibility act?
The EAA will impact businesses that sell or provide services within the EU, particularly in sectors such as:
- E-commerce: online stores and services
- Banking and Financial Services: websites, mobile apps, and kiosks
- Public Transport: ticketing systems, terminals, and transportation services
- ICT Products: smartphones, computers, ATMs, e-readers, and other devices
- Media: websites and applications offering audio-visual content
Certain businesses are excluded from these requirements:
- Microenterprises: Businesses with fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover below €2 million are not subject to the EAA.
- Disproportionate Burden: Companies may be exempt if meeting accessibility requirements impose an undue burden, but they must provide evidence of this.
- Certain Government Sectors: Some government services, like those related to national defense, may be exempt depending on national laws.
What are the requirements of the EAA?
The EAA doesn't set specific technical standards but relies on existing accessibility standards, mainly EN 301 549 Accessibility Requirements for ICT Products and Services. For most digital services, this aligns with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, which is a global framework for assessing accessibility.
EN 301 549 is undergoing revision, with a new version expected in 2025. This may bring additional requirements, including WCAG 2.1 standards. To stay compliant, businesses should focus on ensuring their digital products conform to WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA requirements.
How will these requirements be enforced?
Enforcement of the EAA will be handled by national authorities within each EU member state, meaning the process may vary depending on the country. Authorities will review complaints and follow up on reported non-compliance. Corrective actions will be required if a business is found in violation, and failure to comply could result in fines, penalties, or legal action.
In recent years, the number of accessibility-related lawsuits has been on the rise, especially in the U.S. under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This trend has set a precedent for similar legal actions in the EU. As the EAA becomes law, accessibility-related claims in the EU are expected to increase. Companies that fail to meet the EAA's standards risk not just legal action, but significant reputational damage. Ensuring compliance is more than avoiding fines—it's about protecting your business's reputation and fostering a culture of inclusivity, which have become increasingly important in today's market.
How do we prepare for the EAA?
To ensure your business is ready for the European Accessibility Act (EAA), the first step is conducting a comprehensive accessibility audit of your products and services. This audit should cover your websites, mobile apps, and other digital services to identify any gaps in accessibility. A critical part of this is ensuring your products meet the minimum requirements set out by the EAA, including compliance with WCAG 2.1 standards.
Once you have completed the audit, it's essential to create a clear roadmap for compliance. This roadmap should prioritize which accessibility issues need to be addressed first. A tool like Codacy can help you identify the most critical problems, enabling you to tackle the most impactful changes first. Taking these steps now will help you avoid penalties and ensure you allocate the necessary resources to achieve compliance.
💡 Start here: create an account and set up your organization. After the initial configuration, access your organization's Policies > Coding Standards page, and editing or create a new coding standard (in advanced mode). There, you will be able to activate or disable accessibility rules using the Discover Patterns tab (tip: use keywords such as a11y or accessibility).
From this point on, as you update your repositories and branches, old and new issues will start showing up on your repositories. You will then be able to easily assess the most critical accessibility issues within your repositories.
Great start, but why stop there? While addressing existing accessibility issues is essential, ensuring that new problems aren't introduced as your development continues is important. Codacy empowers teams to set up policies and gates that prevent accessibility problems from entering the codebase in the first place. It also ensures that these policies are applied to the most important areas of your code, safeguarding ongoing compliance.
As accessibility requirements become more stringent, having a continuous, automated system to detect, prioritize, and prevent accessibility issues is no longer optional—it's a necessity. With Codacy, you can make accessibility a seamless, integral part of your development process, ensuring compliance today and tomorrow.
Start addressing your EAA compliance today.
Ready to make accessibility a priority in your development workflow? Sign up for Codacy and integrate accessibility seamlessly into your processes. Protect your products from non-compliance and ensure a more inclusive experience for all users.
