Is your website ready for the European Accessibility Act?

In short, it’s a legal upgrade. The European Accessibility Act (or EAA if you’re on a first-name basis) was introduced to create consistent accessibility standards across EU member states. Think of it as the EU saying: “Come on now, let’s all raise the bar.”

What makes it a big deal is the scope. It goes beyond public sector sites (which are already bound by accessibility regulations) and now applies to private businesses offering digital products and services in the EU.

That means your business website, e-commerce platform, mobile app, online checkout, booking system, e-book or even your self-service terminal needs to meet accessibility standards, or face the consequences. Importantly, it reinforces WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the baseline for digital accessibility. Don’t panic if you’re hearing ‘WCAG’ for the first time, we’ll break it down for you in this article.

• Applies to all businesses selling goods/services in the EU, including UK-based e-commerce and SaaS providers

• Covers websites, apps, e-books, online checkouts, ticketing machines, and more

• Requires conformance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards

• Goes into full effect on 28 June 2025

It’s not just developers and legal teams who need to care. The EAA touches nearly every part of your digital operation.

If you’re running an online store, offering booking functionality, hosting an e-learning platform, or using a third-party booking or payment tool (yep, you too). And yes, even if you’re using something like WordPress or Shopify, the responsibility is still yours to ensure accessibility.

And don’t forget: if you’re using embedded tools or plugins (cookie banners, calendar widgets, chatbots), you’re still responsible for their accessibility under the law.

• E-commerce stores and marketplaces

• Financial services and digital banking platforms

• Booking engines for travel or hospitality

• E-learning platforms and online education tools

• Mobile apps tied to services/products in the EU

• Online forms, login areas, and digital customer journeys

If your site isn’t accessible by 28 June 2025, it won’t just be an awkward oversight. You could be looking at serious legal and financial consequences. Each EU country sets its own penalties for non-compliance, and some of them are eye-watering.

• Germany: Up to €100,000

• France: Up to €250,000

• Ireland: Up to €60,000 + possible jail time

• Sweden: Up to €200,000

• Italy: €5,000 - €150,000 or up to 5% of an organisation’s turnover

• Ongoing daily penalties in some cases: €1,000/day

And then there’s the damage you can’t put a price on quite so easily. Non-compliance can mean your products or services are pulled from sale across the EU. You could find your business publicly named and shamed by regulators, your rankings taking a nosedive thanks to poor user experience, or your brand’s hard-won trust taking a hit overnight.

Put plainly, this isn’t SEO or UX jargon, it’s a digital strategy issue that affects how you sell, how you’re seen, and whether your customers will stick around.

Here’s the good news: making your website accessible isn’t just a legal win - it’s a strategic power move.

Google has made it crystal clear: user experience isn’t a nice-to-have anymore, it’s central to how your site is ranked. Core Web Vitals - metrics that measure things like loading speed, visual stability, and interactivity - are official ranking signals. And while they’re technical under the hood, they all speak to the same thing: a smooth, frustration-free user experience.

Accessibility plays directly into this. Both Page Speed Insights and Lighthouse flag accessibility issues as standard, calling out poor colour contrast, missing aria labels or non-sequential heading tags. Are they ranking factors? No. Will they encourage dwell times and engagement rates for all users? Yes. And that definitely does impact how you rank.

And really, it makes total sense. Search engines and users are looking for the same things: clarity, structure, and ease of use. Accessibility best practices, like using proper heading structures, alt text for images, and meaningful link labels, make it easier for both humans and crawlers to navigate and understand your content.

Google loves accessible websites. So do your users. It’s a no-brainer.

Improved crawlability, and indexability

Search engines rely on structured content to understand what your pages are about. Using semantic HTML (like sequential heading tags or accessibility landmarks) helps crawlers map content hierarchy accurately. ARIA labels add context for interactive elements like buttons or dropdowns, making your site easier for search engines to understand, but also for screen readers and assistive tech.

Reduced bounce rates and stronger user signals

When users land on a site that’s confusing, cluttered or hard to navigate, they leave. But accessible websites tend to be clearer, easier to scan, and more usable for everyone, which naturally leads to longer dwell times, higher engagement and lower bounce rates. Google picks up on those positive user signals and factors them into your rankings.

Better site speed and performance

Accessibility often encourages a clean, modular approach to development. Like avoiding bloated code, ensuring consistent behaviour across devices, and reducing reliance on JavaScript for basic functionality. This naturally leads to faster load times and better performance scores, particularly across Core Web Vitals. Faster sites don’t just rank better, they convert better too.

More inclusive design that supports real users

Features like screen reader support, keyboard navigation, and sufficient colour contrast aren’t just for a small subset of users. Think of someone navigating with one hand on a mobile or browsing in bright sunlight, adhering to accessibility standards improves the experience for everyone.

Legally? No. At least, not always in the same way. Social platforms like TikTok and Instagram aren’t currently held to the exact same WCAG 2.1 AA standards as websites under the European Accessibility Act.

That said, if you’re embedding, linking to, or using social content as part of your digital product or service, it could fall under scrutiny. Especially in regulated sectors or if the content is part of a commercial offering (think product videos, tutorials and customer service content).

Responsibly? Absolutely. Even if not mandated by law (yet), accessibility should still be best practice for all your digital touchpoints, including your Reels, Stories, and TikToks. After all, a large and growing percentage of users rely on:

• Captions and subtitles (for users with hearing impairments or anyone watching with sound off)

• Colour contrast (to make sure overlays or on-screen text are readable)

• Alt text or descriptive captions (for screen reader users on platforms that support it, like Instagram)

• Clear visual hierarchy (like avoiding flashing, overcrowded layouts, or unreadable fonts)

It’s also worth noting that platforms themselves are introducing more accessibility features. Instagram allows alt text for images. TikTok offers auto-captions and warnings for seizure-inducing content. If they’re building it in, it’s a signal that accessibility on social is only going to get more important, not less.

You wouldn’t launch a website without considering accessibility (or at least, you shouldn’t). So why let your social media content fall short?

From video captions to colour contrast, accessibility on social is about making sure every scroll, swipe and story lands with the people it’s meant for. The good news? Most of it comes down to a few small habits that add up to a much bigger impact.

The content businesses publish there should still follow accessibility best practices. That includes using alt text or image descriptions, adding subtitles to videos, ensuring accessible colour contrast, and avoiding motion or flashing visuals that could trigger seizures.

These principles support users who rely on screen readers, keyboard navigation or captions, and they’re increasingly supported by tools like Instagram’s alt text editor and TikTok’s auto-captioning.

Accessible social content improves user experience across the board and strengthens your brand reputation. Simple changes, like writing hashtags in CamelCase, avoiding text-heavy graphics, and testing content with assistive tech, make your posts more usable and inclusive. It also aligns with SEO and UX best practices, reinforcing structure, readability and clarity in everything you publish. Whether you’re embedding videos, linking out to stories, or simply building a presence across channels, accessibility on social media is just as essential as it is on your website.

You don’t need to rip everything up and start again (unless you’ve really ignored accessibility so far). But you do need to take a structured, proactive approach.

Start by running your site through accessibility testing tools like WebPageTest, WAVE, Lighthouse or NVDA. They’ll help flag common barriers like missing alt text, poor contrast, or broken keyboard navigation.

The benchmark you’re aiming for is WCAG 2.1 AA conformance (AAA if you can!), which is where most of the European Accessibility Act’s digital requirements land (though WCAG 2.2 is now live if you’re keen to go the extra mile).

• Add or fix alt text and image labels

• Review colour contrast and adjust where needed

• Structure pages using semantic headings (H1, H2, etc.)

• Enable full keyboard navigation (no mouse required)

• Add ARIA labels to complex elements for screen readers

Once you’ve tackled your accessibility audit, the next step is to create a Declaration of Conformity. This is a formal document that confirms you’ve reviewed your site against WCAG standards and taken steps to fix any issues.

Essentially, this is your way of saying, we’ve done the work. It’s not just good practice; it’s a requirement under the European Accessibility Act, and something regulators may ask to see as proof of compliance.

Accessibility shouldn’t be an afterthought, it needs to be baked into how your team thinks, plans and builds from day one. That means equipping your designers, developers, SEO specialists and content creators with the knowledge and tools to make inclusive decisions at every stage.

Whether you build that capability in-house or lean on a partner like us, the goal is the same: creating a culture where accessibility isn’t reactive, it’s just how you work.

Here’s how that looks in practice:

• Train design, content and SEO teams on accessibility basics like heading structure, colour contrast and alt text

• Align dev and UX teams to include accessibility checks in every sprint or QA process

• Include accessibility criteria in briefs, tickets and sign-off stages

• Regularly audit and review third-party plugins, booking systems and embedded tools for compliance

• Keep a shared accessibility checklist or framework visible to everyone, clarity beats assumptions every time

Yes, an actual team, not just a landing page.

Getting this right isn’t about ticking a box. It’s about building something better for your business and your users.

At Engage, our accessibility work lives at the point where UX, design, development and SEO teams meet. Our teams collaborate to create websites that are fast, beautiful, inclusive (and legally compliant) by default.

We don’t just run audits. We:

• Design with accessibility in mind, from colour contrast to CTAs
  

• Develop WCAG-compliant code with accessibility baked in
  

• Optimise for search engines using structured data and accessible content
  

• Support screen reader navigation and complex keyboard flows
  

• Work with real users and tools to test, improve and report

Whether you’re replatforming, tweaking an existing site, or building something brand new, we’re here to make the process easy, effective, and honestly? A bit of a game-changer.

The EAA isn’t just coming. It’s nearly here. If you’re still playing catch-up in 2025, the consequences won’t just be legal, they could be commercial.

So don’t wait for the deadline.

• Audit now
• Fix what you can
• Get a roadmap in place
• Train your team
• Ask for help

And if you’re wondering who to ask? Drop us a line and we’ll set you up with a personalised accessibility plan. No jargon, no pressure, just clear steps forward.