European Accessibility Act (EAA)

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is an EU directive, formally Directive (EU) 2019/882, that sets common accessibility requirements for a range of products and services across the European single market. Its purpose is to harmonize accessibility rules between member states so that businesses face one set of requirements rather than twenty-seven, and so that people with disabilities have consistent access across the EU.

What makes the EAA significant is that it reaches deep into the private sector. Where the earlier Web Accessibility Directive covered public-sector bodies, the EAA covers commercial products and services including e-commerce, consumer banking services, e-books and e-readers, ticketing and check-in machines, telephony and audiovisual media access services, and computers and operating systems, among others. Companies that sell these products or services to EU consumers can be in scope regardless of where the company itself is based.

The obligations began to apply on June 28, 2025. The directive sets out functional accessibility requirements rather than naming a single technical standard, but conformance is demonstrated in practice through the harmonized European standard EN 301 549, which itself incorporates WCAG for web content. Meeting the relevant EN 301 549 requirements provides a presumption of conformity with the EAA.

There are proportionality provisions and exemptions, including relief for microenterprises providing services and a disproportionate-burden mechanism, so the precise obligations depend on an organization's size, role in the supply chain, and the specific product or service. Any business with EU customers in the covered categories should assess whether it is in scope rather than assume the Act is a European-companies-only concern.