EAA Compliance: Your Guide to Accessible Web Design

The June 28, 2025 deadline for the European Accessibility Act (EAA) has passed, marking a new era for digital inclusion. For web designers, this isn't just a regulatory update; it's a fundamental shift in how we approach our craft. Digital accessibility is no longer a "nice-to-have" but a legal and commercial necessity for any organization serving customers in the European Union.

With over 85 million people in the EU living with a disability, the EAA represents both a significant market and a profound ethical responsibility. This guide is designed to help you navigate the post-deadline landscape. We'll break down what EAA compliance means for web designers, from the technical standards you need to master, like WCAG, to the practical steps for auditing your websites and leveraging cutting-edge tools to streamline the entire process.

This post will cover what the EAA is, who and what it affects, the core technical standards, a step-by-step guide to achieving and maintaining compliance, and the powerful tools that can accelerate your workflow.

What is the European Accessibility Act (EAA)?

The European Accessibility Act is a landmark EU directive aimed at standardizing accessibility rules for a wide range of products and services across the single market. Its primary goal is to remove and prevent barriers for people with disabilities and the elderly, ensuring they can participate fully in society.

Enacted in 2019, the directive required EU member states to adopt and publish their national laws by June 28, 2022. The crucial compliance date was June 28, 2025. After this date, new products and services introduced to the EU market must be accessible. The EAA creates a common set of rules, reducing the complexity and cost for businesses that previously had to navigate divergent national regulations.

Who and What Does the EAA Cover?

The EAA applies to any company, regardless of its location, that sells covered products or services within the EU. If your website or app serves EU consumers, these regulations apply to you. This has significant implications for web designers, as many of these products and services are delivered through digital interfaces.

Industries Covered by the EAA

The EAA's scope is broad, impacting a variety of key sectors. If you design for clients in these industries, EAA compliance must be a priority:

• E-commerce sites
• Banking services
• Companies with consumer-facing mobile apps
• Media services (e.g., streaming platforms)
• Transport services (air, bus, rail, and waterborne)
• Telephony services
• E-books

Key Products and Services for Web Designers

The EAA specifies certain products and services where accessibility is critical. For web designers, the most relevant online touchpoints include:

• E-commerce: Websites, mobile applications, and checkout flows.
• Banking Services: Online banking platforms and mobile apps.
• Transport Services: Websites and apps for ticketing, real-time information, and booking.
• Audio-Visual Media Services: Web players and interfaces for streaming platforms.
• E-books: Dedicated reading software and distribution platforms.
• Consumer Operating Systems: These impact web compatibility and the user experience for assistive technologies.
• Self-Service Terminals: ATMs, ticketing, and check-in machines that often use web-based interfaces.

Technical Standards for EAA Compliance

To achieve EAA compliance, your designs must meet specific technical benchmarks. The law outlines functional accessibility requirements, mandating that digital experiences be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. The best way to meet these requirements is to conform with two key standards.

EN 301 549

This is the harmonized European standard for digital accessibility in ICT products and services. While it's a comprehensive and detailed technical document, it directly incorporates the guidelines that are most practical for web designers: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

WCAG 2.1 Level AA

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the global benchmark for web accessibility. For EAA compliance, WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the required standard. WCAG is built on four core principles, easily remembered by the acronym POUR:

• Perceivable: Users must be able to perceive the information being presented. It can't be invisible to all of their senses.
• • Example: Providing alternative text (alt text) for images allows screen readers to describe the visual content to users who are blind.
• Operable: Users must be able to operate the interface. The interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform.
• • Example: Ensuring all interactive elements, like buttons and links, are fully accessible and usable with only a keyboard is crucial for users with motor disabilities.
• Understandable: Users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface. The content and operation cannot be beyond their understanding.
• • Example: Using clear language and creating predictable, consistent navigation helps users with cognitive disabilities understand and use your site effectively.
• Robust: Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
• • Example: Using clean, valid HTML ensures that screen readers and other assistive technologies can correctly interpret and present the content to the user.

A Step-by-Step Guide to EAA Compliance

Now that the deadline has passed, the focus shifts from preparation to ongoing validation and maintenance. Here’s a practical, step-by-step guide for web designers to ensure your projects are compliant.

Step 1: Audit Your Current Websites

Your first action should be to conduct a thorough accessibility audit against WCAG 2.1 AA. An effective audit combines automated testing and manual review.

• Automated Testing: Tools can quickly scan your site and identify a significant portion of accessibility issues, such as missing alt text or low-contrast colors.
• Manual Review: Manual testing is essential for catching nuanced issues that automated tools miss. This includes testing with assistive technologies like screen readers and ensuring logical keyboard navigation.

Step 2: Remediate and Prioritize Issues

Once you have your audit results, create a remediation plan. Prioritize fixing high-impact issues first. For example, a broken checkout process or inaccessible navigation creates a major barrier and should be addressed immediately. A common issue like a low-contrast button can be fixed by adjusting the color palette to meet WCAG's contrast ratios.

Step 3: Integrate Accessibility into Your Workflow ("Shift Left")

The most effective way to ensure compliance is to make accessibility a core part of your design process from the very beginning. This "shift left" approach saves time and resources by preventing accessibility issues before they are coded.

• Design Phase: Create accessible color palettes, design clear focus states for interactive elements, and use logical heading structures.
• Annotations: Annotate your designs with accessibility notes for developers, specifying ARIA roles, keyboard interactions, and other crucial details.

Step 4: Validate Your Fixes

After remediation, it’s critical to validate that the fixes have resolved the accessibility barriers. Rerun automated tests and, more importantly, perform manual testing again on the updated components. Ensure that the user experience is genuinely improved for individuals using assistive technologies.

Step 5: Monitor and Maintain Compliance

Accessibility is not a one-time project; it's an ongoing commitment. Websites are dynamic, with new content and features added regularly.

• Continuous Monitoring: Implement tools that continuously monitor your site for new accessibility violations.
• Feedback Channels: Establish a clear feedback mechanism, like an accessibility statement with contact information, so users can report any issues they encounter.

Tools for EAA Compliance

Leveraging the right tools can dramatically simplify and accelerate your compliance efforts. A combination of automated and manual testing tools will yield the best results.

Automated Testing Tools

AI-powered platforms have revolutionized accessibility testing, offering speed and accuracy that were previously unattainable.

• Rock Smith: This AI-powered platform uses AI vision to understand your application's context, dramatically reducing false positives. While traditional automated tools typically detect only 20-30% of WCAG issues, Rock Smith's AI agents identify 70-80% of issues automatically. The platform delivers comprehensive reports with actionable remediation advice, which can even be fed into other AI agents for automated code fixes.
• axe DevTools: This popular browser extension allows you to run on-page accessibility checks during development, providing instant feedback on compliance issues.

Manual Review Tools

While automation is powerful, human evaluation remains irreplaceable for assessing the true user experience.

• Screen Readers: Test your sites using built-in screen readers like VoiceOver (macOS) and NVDA (Windows) to understand how users with visual impairments navigate your content.
• Keyboard-Only Navigation: Unplug your mouse and navigate your entire site using only the Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, and arrow keys. This will quickly reveal any keyboard traps or unreachable elements.

Benefits Beyond the Law

While avoiding penalties is a strong motivator, the advantages of EAA compliance extend far beyond legal necessity.

• Market Expansion: A fully accessible website opens your client's business to the 85+ million people with disabilities in the EU, a significant and often-overlooked market.
• Enhanced User Experience (UX): Accessibility improvements benefit everyone. Features like video captions, high-contrast text, and clear navigation improve usability for all users, including those in noisy environments or those with temporary impairments.
• SEO Benefits: Many accessibility best practices directly correlate with SEO best practices. Structured data, alt text for images, and video transcripts all help search engines better understand and rank your content.
• Stronger Brand Reputation: Demonstrating a genuine commitment to inclusivity builds a positive brand image and fosters customer loyalty.

The Future is Accessible

The European Accessibility Act has solidified digital inclusion as a cornerstone of modern web design. The June 2025 deadline was not a finish line but a starting gate for a new standard of excellence. By embedding accessibility into your workflow, you not only comply with the law but also create better, more effective digital experiences for everyone.

The future of web design is inclusive. It's about building a web that works for all people, regardless of ability. By embracing these principles and leveraging powerful new tools, you can lead the charge in creating a more accessible digital world.

Ready to see how AI can accelerate your EAA compliance? Explore our AI-powered solutions and discover how quickly you can identify and fix accessibility issues.