Complete guide to EAA
Understanding the European Accessibility Act for digital products
Table of Contents:
What is the European Accessibility Act (EAA)?
Directive (EU) 2019/882 was adopted in April 2019. The goal of this directive, better known as the European Accessibility Act, is to harmonize rules on accessibility in the EU. Both companies and customers should benefit from the Act.
For companies, the benefit will be the harmonized accessibility requirements, which make it easier to trade in the EU.
All EU member states have signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). This means that every EU country must protect the rights of persons with disabilities. The European Accessibility Act derived requirements from this UN Convention.
The European Accessibility Act is the first European Accessibility law that applies to the private sector and non-profit sector. Products and services to which EAA applies are:
- Computers and operating systems
- ATMs, ticketing and check-in machines
- Smartphones
- TV equipment related to digital television services
- Telephony services and related equipment
- Access to audio-visual media services such as television broadcast and related consumer equipment
- Services related to air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport
- Banking services
- E-books
- E-commerce
EAA Website Requirements
EAA refers to the EN 301 549 standard which is the Accessibility Standard from the EU.
EN 301 549 depends on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, Level AA and defines on top of these requirements for biometrics.
The WCAG is an international standard and has guidelines for making a website accessible. WCAG has three levels of compliance: Level A, Level AA and Level AAA.
EAA requires WCAG Level AA compliance, which ensures robust accessibility without excessive costs.
Does EAA apply to me?
If your organization is a public sector entity, you must ensure website accessibility. Nevertheless, this requirement existed before the EAA through the Web Accessibility Directive.
For private sector and non-profit organizations, EAA applies to products and services:
- Computers and operating systems
- ATMs, ticketing and check-in machines
- Smartphones
- TV equipment related to digital television services
- Telephony services and related equipment
- Access to audio-visual media services such as television broadcast and related consumer equipment
- Services related to air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport
- Banking services
- E-books
- E-commerce
This implies that websites in the travel industry and online shops must meet the WCAG guidelines at level AA.
Note: The EAA's definition of E-commerce is wide-ranging. In simple terms, if your website generates income, it is likely to fall within the "E-commerce" category.
Exceptions
An exception is made for "microenterprises" that offer services. The EAA defines microenterprises as:
"Microenterprise means an enterprise which employs fewer than 10 persons and whose annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million."
Even if there is an exception for your organization, it is still a good practice to make sure that your website is accessible to everyone.
How to Ensure EAA Compliance for Your Website?
In general, we recommend the following approach toward website accessibility:
- Basic understanding of website accessibility:
Those who contribute to the website of the organization should have a basic understanding of website accessibility. There are plenty of good resources on website accessibility. We recommend the free course from w3C.
- Use an Automated Accessibility Checker:
An automated accessibility checker helps quickly gain insights into the most common accessibility barriers on a website.
The EAA accessibility checker provides an excellent guide to fixing common accessibility issues. Some issues are easy to fix in a CMS and can be performed by people without technical expertise. Other issues are easy to fix by a web developer or web designer.
You can save a lot of time and money by fixing the easy accessibility issues yourself.
- Manual Accessibility Audit:
A lot of accessibility issues can be found automatically but not all of them. To make sure your website complies with EAA you have to test the accessibility of your website with a manual audit.
You can consult an accessibility expert, or you can choose to educate yourself or your web developer to understand and implement accessibility best practices.
- Welcome feedback:
Allow individuals to submit feedback on the accessibility of your website. A good practice is to include an Accessibility Statement on your website. You can use the W3C Accessibility Statement Generator to create an Accessibility Statement. Add different methods to submit feedback in your accessibility statement.
- Conduct a usability test with people with disabilities:
To further improve the accessibility of your website it is important to test with people with disabilities.
- Monitor changes to your website:
Accessibility compliance is an ongoing process. Websites change over time. To make sure your website remains accessible it is crucial to monitor the accessibility. An Accessibility Monitor can help identify issues early on.
We discourage the use of Accessibility Overlay products. Despite claims to ensure website compliance with legislation, the European Disability Forum, an NGO, and the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) have jointly released a statement cautioning against the effectiveness of accessibility overlays.
Conclusion
The European Accessibility Act mandates that websites should be made accessible by June 2025. The European Accessibility Act is the result of signing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
For organizations, the European Accessibility Act means that they have to figure out if they provide products and services that are covered by the European Accessibility Act.