Watch out: You still have around nine months to get your online presence ready for the European Accessibility Act (EAA)! The four-year transition period for this Europe-wide accessibility directive ends on June 28, 2025. In this article, you will get a compact overview of the EAA, find out the background and get practical tips on what you should definitely pay attention to now.
Note: This article gives you a general overview of the Directive and the laws derived from it, especially with regard to websites. It does not constitute legal advice and does not claim to be exhaustive. If in doubt, please refer directly to the regulations or seek professional advice.
What is the European Accessibility Act (EAA)?
The basic idea of the EAA is to standardize the accessibility rules of the EU member states. In Germany, the EAA directive has been implemented with the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG). In Austria, it is the Accessibility Act (BaFG). This should ultimately make it easier for companies to operate in the European single market , as described in Article 1 of the Directive:
'The purpose of this Directive is to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market by approximating the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States as regards accessibility requirements for certain products and services, in particular by removing obstacles to the free movement of products and services covered by this Directive caused by differences in accessibility requirements in the Member States or by preventing the creation of such obstacles.
Anyone who violates the requirements of the Accessibility Act after June 28, 2025, must expect expensive penalties - up to 100,000 euros in Germany. But more on this later.
What are the reasons for implementing the EAA?
In addition to the penalties incurred for non-compliance, there are good reasons to optimize the accessibility of your own website anyway. Because at the end of the day, it's not just about complying with legal regulations, but also about making your website accessible and usable for as many people as possible.
Examples of disabilities that can affect the usability of websites:
- Blindness, visual impairment, color blindness
- Deafness, hearing impairment
- Motor restrictions
- Reduced cognitive abilities
At the same time, we are talking about a not exactly small target group: according to the European Commission, more than 80 million people in the EU have a disability. According to the German Federal Statistical Office, 7.9 million people in Germany alone live with a recognized severe disability, i.e. 9.3% of the total population.
From this perspective, ignoring the needs of these people has always been a bad idea. Not least ethically and morally wrong. Now legislators are applying additional pressure to ensure that more companies come to this realization.
In the end, many people will benefit from this. After all, easy-to-use and easy-to-understand websites are a plus for everyone.
Who is affected by the EAA?
The European Accessibility Act focuses on numerous products and services that are particularly important from the legislator's point of view and should be made more accessible for people with disabilities. The products include, for example, computers, cash and ticket machines and e-book readers. However, "e-commerce services" are also affected. According to Article 3, paragraph 30, these are defined as follows:
"remote services provided via websites and mobile devices, electronically and at the individual request of a consumer with a view to concluding a consumer contract;"
For the term "service", the EAA refers to Directive 2006/123/EC, which defines it as "any self-employed economic activity normally provided for remuneration". This means that online stores, but also websites that offer paid services (e.g. consultations, subscriptions, downloads), fall under the EAA's regulations.
Ultimately, the Accessibility Act applies to websites if the contract is concluded via them. If a company instead only offers an inquiry option and the actual contract is only concluded later, this should no longer fall under the Accessibility Act.
What exceptions and special regulations are there?
As described above, the directive revolves around commercial activities aimed at consumers. Conversely, this means two things:
- A purely private website is not affected. However, caution is advised at this point, as the line between private and business offerings is quickly crossed.
- Offers aimed exclusively at companies (B2B) are also excluded. Here too, however, it must be absolutely certain that the target group does not actually include consumers.
In addition, services provided by "microenterprises" are not covered by the EAA. This refers to companies that employ fewer than ten people and either have an annual turnover of no more than 2 million euros or an annual balance sheet total of no more than 2 million euros (Article 3, paragraph 23). But beware: micro-enterprises that offer relevant products must still design them in accordance with the EAA. However, anyone offering services via a website or app is exempt.
The Accessibility Act also grants exceptions in certain cases:
This applies, for example, if compliance with the requirements requires either a "fundamental change" to the offering in question (Article 14, paragraph 1, letter a) or represents a "disproportionate burden" for the website operator (Article 14, paragraph 1, letter b). This requires clear evidence, including documentation. Article 14, paragraph 2 states that companies should "assess" whether these points apply to their own offering. They must record this, keep it for five years and present it on request. This is stated in Article 14, paragraph 3:
'Economic operators shall document the assessment referred to in paragraph 2. Economic operators shall keep all relevant results for a period of five years after the last making available on the market of a product or after the last provision of a service, as applicable. At the request of the market surveillance authorities or the authorities responsible for verifying the conformity of services, they shall provide the authorities with a copy of the assessment referred to in paragraph 2."
Incidentally, Annex VI of the EAA contains specific criteria for assessing the "disproportionate burden".
Further exceptions can be found in the EAA under Article 2, paragraph 4, which mentions "recorded time-based media published before June 28, 2025". This should include webinar recordings, for example. The list also includes "content from third parties that is neither financed or developed by the relevant economic operator nor under its control". This is likely to include embedded YouTube videos from others that you have neither commissioned nor paid for yourself.
There is also an exception for "content of websites and mobile applications that are considered archives, i.e. whose content will not be updated or revised after June 28, 2025". It should be noted that this only applies if the entire offering is no longer updated.
What needs to be done now and what requirements does the EAA place on websites?
Now that we know what it is about, who it affects and what penalties are threatened, the important question is: What do you have to do specifically? As a result of the EAA, many companies will have to deal with the accessibility of their online offering for the first time and will have to examine it specifically and, if in doubt, improve it.
Tip in advance: You can use the BFSG check to determine whether your website falls under the accessibility regulations or not. It checks some of the points mentioned here.
To describe the requirements, the EAA refers to Article 4 - Annex I. According to its Section III, "websites, including related online applications and services offered on mobile devices, including mobile apps, shall be designed in a coherent and appropriate manner that is perceivable, operable, understandable and robust". That's good to know, but not particularly specific. According to Article 15, paragraph 1, the "harmonized standards" are to be applied, which are defined separately. Paragraph 2 states that "several European standardization organizations" should implement them. According to Wikipedia, the basis is the EN 301 549 standard, which is based on the WCAG guidelines. The latest version is V3.2.1 from March 2021.
It would go too far at this point to go into all these points and their implementation. Instead, I would like to give you a few key suggestions and examples along the way:
Tips for checking the accessibility of your website
Testing for accessibility is important to ensure compliance with requirements. In his article, our guest author Beau Peters gives you practical tips on how to test your website for accessibility.
Perceptibility
All information and content must be perceptible to users, regardless of their sensory abilities.
- Contrast: Text and graphic elements must have sufficient contrast to the background to be easily legible and recognizable for people with visual impairments. EN 301 549 requires a contrast of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.
- Text alternatives: All non-text content that conveys essential information requires text alternatives. This includes images, graphics, buttons and other interactive elements.
- Subtitles and audio description for videos: Videos with pre-recorded audio content must offer subtitles for deaf users and an audio description for blind users.
- Further requirements: EN 301 549 contains additional requirements for websites, such as flexible font sizes, the avoidance of flickering and animations and the ability to customize the display of content.
Usability
All website functions must be easy and intuitive to use, regardless of the user's motor skills.
- Keyboard operation: All functions of the website must be operable exclusively via the keyboard, without the need for a mouse.
- Customizable time limits: Users must be able to customize or disable time limits for certain actions if they are used on the website.
- Further requirements: EN 301 549 defines additional requirements, such as sufficiently large click surfaces, simple navigation, a well-functioning search function and the avoidance of complex interactions.
Comprehensibility
The content and operation of the website must be understandable for all users, even those with limited cognitive abilities and language skills.
- Clear and simple language: The language of the website must be clear and simple and avoid technical jargon and complex sentence structures.
- Further requirements: The standard contains further requirements, such as a logical page structure, consistent navigation elements, helpful error messages and clear labeling.
Robustness
The content of the website must be programmed in such a way that it can be reliably interpreted by various browsers and assistive technologies.
- Valid code: The HTML and CSS code of the website must be validated and comply with current standards.
- Semantic HTML elements: EN 301 549 requires the use of semantic HTML elements to make the structure and content of the website understandable for browsers and assistive technologies.
- Further requirements: The standard defines additional requirements for the robustness of websites, such as compatibility with screen readers, the use of ARIA attributes and ensuring interoperability with assistive technologies.
How to create an accessible website
How accessible is the popular CMS WordPress and how can you make your WordPress website accessible for everyone? Our guest author Maddy Osman explains in her article.
Consequences of non-compliance
The Directive leaves it to the Member States to determine penalties for infringements. Article 30, paragraph 2 states that:
"The sanctions must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. In the event that the economic operator does not comply, these sanctions must also be accompanied by effective remedial measures."
Paragraph 4 adds to this:
"Sanctions shall take into account the extent of the infringement (including its seriousness and the number of non-compliant products or services concerned) and the number of persons affected."
In the case of the German BFSG, the specific provision on fines can be found in paragraph 37. There are two levels here:
- Serious violations such as placing non-accessible products on the market or offering non-accessible services can be punished with fines of up to 100,000 euros.
- For minor infringements, for example against the labeling or information obligations, it can be up to 10,000 euros.
In the Austrian BaFG, this information can be found in paragraph 36, which has more gradations than the German version:
- Serious violations can be punished with a fine of up to 80,000 euros. For the smallest to medium-sized companies, the maximum fine is 50,000 euros.
- Less serious violations can be punished with a fine of up to 40,000 euros. For micro-enterprises and SMEs, the maximum fine is 25,000 euros.
- Further violations, for example of information obligations or obligations to cooperate with authorities, can be punished with a fine of up to 16,000 euros. Micro-enterprises and SMEs face a maximum fine of 10,000 euros.
In both Germany and Austria, the competent authority determines the amount of the fine.
Closing words
The EAA reminds me a little of the GDPR: There, too, the aim was to standardize regulations across the EU. There was also a transitional period of several years. At the time, it seemed to me that many companies were only reacting at the last minute. Don't let it get that far with this topic and take care of it now.
"*" indicates required fields