EU Accessibility Act 2025: What Changed and What You Need to Do

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) became enforceable on June 28, 2025. After years of preparation, the law now applies to nearly every business operating in the EU, and most companies are not ready.

What the EAA actually requires

The EAA enforces WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the legal accessibility standard across the EU. If your website, mobile app, e-commerce checkout, or self-service kiosk fails that bar, you can be:

• Fined up to €100,000 in most member states
• Hit with class-action lawsuits from consumer groups
• Removed from public procurement lists
• Required to issue public correction notices

Who is affected

The EAA covers any business that sells products or services to consumers in the EU, including non-EU companies that:

• Sell to EU customers (online or in person)
• Operate e-commerce sites accessible from EU countries
• Provide digital services (banking, transport, e-commerce, telecom)

In practice, this covers almost every B2C business with an EU customer base, regardless of where you are headquartered.

What is WCAG 2.1 AA

WCAG 2.1 AA is a technical standard with roughly 50 success criteria across four principles:

1. Perceivable — text alternatives for images, captions for video, sufficient color contrast
2. Operable — keyboard navigation, no seizure-inducing flashing, clear page titles
3. Understandable — readable text, predictable behavior, input assistance
4. Robust — works with assistive technology like screen readers

A typical small business website fails 8–15 of these criteria without remediation.

5-step audit checklist

Before paying for an audit, run this quick check:

1. Run a free scanner against your domain. Our tool at growifysupport.online/compliance/scan runs the same WCAG 2.1 AA checks the auditors use, and it scores you in under 30 seconds.
2. Check alt text on images. Open three pages. Does every meaningful image have descriptive alt text?
3. Tab through the site. Press the Tab key from the address bar. Can you reach every button, link, and form field without using a mouse?
4. Check color contrast. Use the WebAIM Contrast Checker on your primary CTA and text colors.
5. Test with a screen reader. NVDA (free, Windows) or VoiceOver (built into macOS) will reveal issues no automated tool can catch.

What to do next

If your free scan returns a score below 8 out of 10, we recommend a paid audit. The cost ranges from €500 to €5,000 depending on site size, but most remediation work can be done in 1–2 weeks.

We are currently running a founding-client rate of €197 for full EAA audits (normally €2,000+) through Q3 2026. Book a call to see if you qualify.

The EAA is not a future problem anymore. The deadline has passed. If your site has not been audited yet, it should be.

Run your free EAA scan →