The clock is ticking. With the European Accessibility Act’s June 2025 deadline approaching rapidly, businesses have limited time to ensure their digital presence complies—or face serious consequences.
Web Accessibility: Good for Users, Great for Business
Have you ever tried to navigate a website on a cold winter morning? Imagine using your smartphone with foggy glasses—the font is too small, the screen is blurred. You squint, struggle to open the menu, but with thick gloves on, you keep tapping the wrong button. Frustrating, right? For you, it’s a temporary nuisance. Soon, you’ll be in your warm office, gloves off, glasses clear.
But for millions of people, this is their everyday reality.
Did you know that over 1.3 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability? In the EU alone, one in four adults face these challenges, according to Eurostat’s 2023 estimates. These are your potential customers—people who can bring revenue into your business if you give them a chance to actually use your website.
What is Web Accessibility and WCAG?
Accessibility means inclusivity. It’s about creating websites that everyone can navigate and interact with. But accessibility isn’t just a noble principle—it also involves legal regulations and standards that businesses have to follow.
For instance, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) has a compliance deadline of June 2025. This law affects businesses offering products or services within the European Union. While microcompanies (fewer than 10 employees and a global turnover of under €2 million) are exempt, adopting these guidelines ensures they won’t fall behind competitors.
WCAG – the basics you need to know
WCAG stands for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), WCAG provides internationally recognized standards for making web content accessible to people with disabilities.
WCAG forms the foundation of accessibility laws worldwide, including:
- The European Accessibility Act (EAA)
- The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the U.S.
- Canada’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)
The Four Principles of WCAG 2.1 – how make your website accessible
WCAG is built on four core principles, often summarized as POUR:
- Perceivable
Users must be able to see, hear, or otherwise recognize the information presented.- Provide alt text for images so screen readers can describe them.
- Use captions or transcripts for videos.
- Ensure sufficient color contrast between text and background for readability.
- Operable
Your website must work with keyboards, voice controls, or other assistive tools.- Make navigation possible without a mouse.
- Avoid flashing content to prevent seizures.
- Allow users to pause, stop, or adjust moving elements like carousels.
- Understandable
The content and navigation must be clear and predictable.- Use a logical page structure with clear headings.
- Write in plain, simple language.
- Ensure consistent navigation and labels to avoid confusion.
- Robust
Content must work reliably across various technologies and devices.- Ensure compatibility with screen readers and assistive tools.
- Test your site on different devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.).
For detailed guidelines, visit the WCAG Quick Reference here: WCAG QuickRef.
The three levels of conformance you need to know
WCAG differentiates between three levels of accessibility:
- Level A – basic accessibility. It includes alt description for images, ensuring all functionalities are keyboard operable or adding captions to videos.
- Level AA – global standard. This is the level you should aim for when preparing your website, online shop or app to comply with the registration requirements. It adds additional 24 criteria on top of the basic 32, like ensuring the minimum contrast ratio, easy navigation, and content ability to resize
- Level AAA – all criteria dedicated for software and not always required. It includes enhanced contrast ratio or sign language interpretation for all prerecorded audio content.
Most mobile apps and websites must comply with Level AA. Visit WCAG 2.1 documentation to read more about the requirements or contact us for a consultation.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA): Key Facts
The EAA creates consistent accessibility standards across all EU member states. Soon, following these standards will be required by law. If you haven’t started preparing yet, now is the time—the compliance deadline is set for June 28, 2025.
While the act’s main goal is equal access to products and services, businesses that fail to comply may face penalties or restrictions and be excluded from public contracts and partnerships. If you need help making your website, e-commerce store or app accessible, let us know – we’ll be happy to help!
Who Needs to Comply and why?
The EAA applies to businesses offering:
- Websites and mobile apps
- Banking services (e.g., ATMs and payment terminals)
- E-books and e-readers
- E-commerce platforms
- Ticketing and check-in machines
- Public transportation systems (e.g., travel information systems)
Businesses that fail to comply may face:
- Fines or penalties
- Market restrictions
- Exclusion from public contracts or partnerships
Why Does an Accessible E-Store Generate More Sales?
Imagine you run a WooCommerce store. Your goal is to attract customers and drive purchases. But have you ever considered why people shop online?
- Some choose it for speed and convenience.
- Others enjoy shopping from their couch.
- But for millions, online shopping is not a luxury—it’s a necessity.
In the EU, 27% of the population over 16 has some form of disability (EU statistics). For these individuals, an accessible website can be the only option.
According to a Business Disability Forum survey:
- 42% of participants experienced accessibility issues with websites or apps.
- 45% found website navigation confusing.
Now imagine these are your potential customers. If your website is inaccessible, they’ll leave—and likely never return. With so many alternatives available online, you can’t afford to lose these visitors.
Accessibility Improves the Experience for Everyone
Accessibility doesn’t just help people with disabilities—it benefits all users.
- Ever searched for a vet clinic at midnight, tired and distressed?
- Or prepared for a meeting, coffee in one hand, phone in the other?
An accessible website is faster, clearer, and easier to use for everyone.
Web Accessibility Creates Business Benefits
An accessible website means a growing market opportunity, but not only through including the customers struggling with disability. Accessible websites are also more user-friendly and improve the overall user satisfaction – and happy users are returning users!
What’s more, if you aim to win a public contract or look for a partnership with leading companies, accessibility is a must – both from a legal perspective and for reputation reasons. The same rule applies to e-commerce stores as well – you may offer great products, but they won’t sell if your customers are frustrated with your online shop. No matter what you sell – you need to create a positive user experience behind your product.
Not sure yet? Web Accessibility creates a wide range of business benefits:
-
Reach a Wider Audience
Accessibility opens your business to customers who otherwise couldn’t interact with your site (e.g., visually impaired users relying on screen readers). -
Boost SEO and Site Performance
WCAG practices overlap with SEO (e.g., alt text for images, clean code, logical structure). Google favors accessible, fast, and well-structured websites. Following accessibility guidelines can improve your website’s ranking. -
Improve Brand Reputation
Demonstrating inclusivity shows you care, improving trust and brand loyalty. -
Increase Conversions and Sales
Accessible sites reduce barriers to purchasing, increasing conversions and reducing bounce rates. -
Future-Proof Your Business
Compliance prepares you for legal and technological changes.
EAA deadline is coming – how to prepare?
The deadline for EAA is approaching, and fast – set for June 28, 2025 – which means you should start preparing ASAP! So open your website and take off your glasses or put your dominant hand behind your back, and try to find your company’s opening hours or contact info. If it proved difficult, it might be the right time to undergo an accessibility audit.
An accessibility audit is an evaluation of the level of accessibility of your digital products or services. It should give you a good idea of what you need to fix. Even if your website seems accessible to you, it’s a good idea to undergo an accessibility audit before the EAA regulations take effect. Once you know what problems your website is facing, it’s time to contact your developers.
Why you shouldn’t use accessibility overlays
Once you realise your website or online store doesn’t follow the accessibility guidelines, you might be tempted for an easy fix. So called Accesibility Overlays are one-click tools such as WordPress plugins that are supposed to make your website accessible fast and effortlessly. They are, in the best case, like a patch covering the accessibility issues, but they don’t solve the problems in your website’s source code. What’s more, they likely will slow down your website due to the third-party code they have to load. They also won’t add missing alt text on images or labels of form fields – and these are only some of many things they cannot do. True accessibility requires addressing issues at the core of your website.
So, what should you do to tackle those problems? Once you recognise the issues with your website and decide what features need a boost, it’s time to involve your developers team!
What developers can do for you, and an accessibility overlay won’t? These are just several tasks your developers can help you with:
- Improve semantic HTML: they’ll fix your code to use appropriate HTML elements (headings, lists, tables, etc.) to create a clear and logical structure for screen readers.
- Keyboard navigation: they’ll ensure all interactive elements (buttons, forms, navigation) are fully operable with a keyboard. This includes adding focus indicators and managing focus order.
- Alt text for images: they’ll make sure all images, icons, and buttons have descriptive alt text that makes sense in context. While adding alt descriptions to images and icons is not necessarily a developers task, they’ll make sure that your website supports them.
- Accessible forms: they’ll adjust the forms for easy navigation and fill out, with clear labels, instructions, and error messages.
- Responsive design: they’ll make sure that accessibility features work across all devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones and that the design adapts without sacrificing usability.
Make your website accessible to all!
Don’t wait for the deadline. Make your website accessible now to unlock new opportunities and improve the user experience for everyone.
Need help? Fill out our contact form to schedule a meeting with us – we’d love to hear from you! Our developers team is experienced with tackling accessibility issues. We realise how important it is to make a website easily accessible for all. Start today and ensure your website is ready for the future, making it more inclusive and compliant with upcoming regulations.
