How to Prepare Your Business for the European Accessibility Act (EAA)

Summary:

• Learn how to prepare for the European Accessibility Act (EAA), and what it means for your organization if you operate or plan to operate in the EU
• Take the necessary steps to understand the guidelines, update your products and services, and train your employees on the new mandates
• Discover our approach to compliance, where security and digital accessibility are considered in every internal and external process

What Is Accessibility and Why Is it Important?

First, what exactly is accessibility? Accessibility is the practice of designing products, services, and environments so everyone can use them, including individuals with disabilities. It ensures that people with various needs, such as those who are blind, deaf, or have mobility challenges, can fully engage with and benefit from the world around them.

The World Health Organization estimates that one in every six people worldwide (over 1 billion people) experience significant disability. Creating an accessible society is therefore critical for fostering inclusion and equality. Beyond its social value, accessibility opens new markets, enhances customer satisfaction, and supports compliance with legal requirements. Many of the products we use daily have their origins in accessibility. In 1608, Pellegrino Turi invented an early version of the typewriter when he noticed his close friend struggling to write letters due to her blindness. Today, most of us spend every day in front of a keyboard that is a direct descendant of that invention.

There are countless other examples of how our lives have been improved by accessible products. The electric toothbrush, remote controls, closed captions, audiobooks, and even Siri can trace their roots back to inventions for disabled people.

As more and more of our day-to-day lives shift online, it’s increasingly important that we prioritize digital accessibility and the building of accessible technologies, so that no one gets left behind.

What Is the European Accessibility Act?

The European Accessibility Act (EAA), sometimes called EU Directive (2019/882), is a landmark piece of legislation aimed at improving the accessibility of goods and services (including digital products such as websites and apps) across the European Union (EU). Approved in 2019, the EAA sets out harmonized accessibility standards to ensure that people with disabilities can more easily access essential products and services.

The EAA becomes law in all EU Member States on June 28, 2025 and aims to enhance social inclusion and remove barriers within the EU’s internal market, fostering increased competition and innovation. It is based on the EN 301 549 standard, which is linked to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Additional deadlines set by the Act are on June 28 of the following years:

• 2027 - Emergency services must conform to the EAA.
• 2030 – The 5-year exception for products and services placed on the market before June 28, 2025 expires.
• 2045 - Expiry of 20-year exception for long-life self-service terminals.

The EAA complements and clarifies existing EU legislation on accessibility, rather than replacing it. As a directive, the EAA is binding on its goals. However, each of the EU’s Member States can devise strategies for reaching these accessibility goals and implementing them as laws. Any new products and services must conform to the EAA’s accessibility provisions after June 28, 2025. Failure to comply could result in penalties, fines, or the removal of products and services from the market.

Who Does the EAA Apply to, and Which Services Does It Cover?

The EAA applies to private-sector businesses that offer relevant products or services in the EU market, even if they’re headquartered elsewhere.

The EAA primarily focuses on technology and covers the most essential products and services, including:

• Digital products such as computers, smartphones, and payment terminals Online services, such as e-commerce websites, banking platforms, and streaming services
• Telecommunications services, including mobile operators
• Transport services, ranging from ticketing systems to travel information
• Ebooks and digital media

Public-sector organizations are also encouraged to align with these requirements, ensuring a consistent approach to accessibility throughout the EU.

How the Act, technical standards, and guidelines work together

If you’re new to accessibility, compliance can be daunting and confusing. There are many laws, standards, and guidelines, and how they work together is not always clear.

• The European Accessibility Act (EAA / Directive 2019/882) is a legally binding directive establishing accessibility requirements for certain products and services across the EU. It sets overarching legal obligations but does not define detailed technical standards itself.
• EN 301 549 are the European technical standards for digital accessibility, outlining requirements for information and communications technology (ICT) products and services. It serves as the baseline for compliance with the EAA’s accessibility standards.
• WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are internationally recognized guidelines addressing digital accessibility (websites and digital interfaces). WCAG sets clear criteria across three conformance levels (A, AA, AAA), which are widely used as global best practices for web accessibility.

The EAA mandates adherence to EN 301 549, which in turn incorporates WCAG standards. Compliance with WCAG is crucial to meeting the broader accessibility obligations under the EAA. While EN 301 549 is the most comprehensive, covering hardware and software, the WCAG guidelines provide broad enough coverage for most companies.

What Steps Can You Take to Comply?

Compliance with the EAA is not just a legal obligation but also an opportunity to enhance your reputation and expand your customer base and total addressable market (TAM). Here are the steps you can take to prepare:

1. Get a sense of where you currently stand

Start by assessing your existing products, services, and digital platforms to identify accessibility gaps. An accessibility audit should cover everything from your website and apps to physical products and customer service channels.

2. Familiarize Yourself With EN 301 549 and WCAG

Ensure that your team understands the standards outlined in EN 301 549 and the WCAG guidelines. Training sessions or hiring accessibility consultants can help bridge any knowledge gaps.

3. Update Your Products and Services

Based on your audit findings, make the necessary adjustments to ensure compliance. This could include redesigning digital interfaces, offering alternative formats for content, or adding assistive technologies.

4. Train Your Employees

Accessibility should be a company-wide commitment. Provide training to your staff to ensure they understand both the importance of accessibility and how to implement it in their roles.

5. Monitor and Maintain Compliance

Accessibility is not a one-time effort. Regularly review your products and services to ensure they remain compliant as standards evolve, and new technologies emerge.

Our approach to accessibility

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. We understand that our products and many interactions with them occur online. To make those experiences work for everyone, we design our products with accessibility in mind.

Over the last eight years, we’ve developed our internal accessibility program. Our initial efforts focused on the design and engineering of digital products, but now the program extends into almost every team at Entrust: procurement, legal, human resources, industrial design, and test engineering.

We consider digital accessibility at every stage of creating products and services, constantly reviewing and improving everything we develop. This process surfaces accessibility issues early in the software development lifecycle, avoiding a buildup of expensive technical and usability debt that we’ll need to fix in the future.

We’ve invested in a custom training program for our engineers, designers, and product managers, and we regularly share industry updates and news to keep accessibility at the forefront of our minds.

Our accessibility program focuses on advocacy and continuous improvement. Rather than being the “accessibility police,” we provide encouragement, training, and resources to teams looking to improve their internal processes and outcomes. We’ve been delighted to see so many across Entrust embrace universal design principles and work diligently to increase access to our products, services, documents, and media.

Final Thoughts

Preparing for the European Accessibility Act may seem daunting, but it is vital to creating a more inclusive world. By aligning your business with the EAA, you can help meet your legal obligations and demonstrate a commitment to equality, innovation, and customer satisfaction.

As the EAA’s implementation deadline approaches, now is the time to act. Accessibility is not just a compliance requirement –it’s a business opportunity and a moral imperative that benefits everyone.