Time is running out: June 28, 2025, is the deadline to adapt your site to the new accessibility criteria. Failure to do so can cost you between €5,000 and €10 million in penalties.The good news? We can help you make your site compliant quickly and without complications.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is a European directive that establishes common accessibility requirements for digital products and services. The goal of the regulation is to promote the autonomy of people with disabilities through the development of digital accessibility. To this end, all companies, with the exception of micro-enterprises, are obliged to make their platforms compliant with accessibility requirements.
Does it concern you? Probably yes.
You have a micro-enterprise with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover/balance sheet of less than €2 million.
If the accessibility requirements are too burdensome for your company and you can demonstrate it.
You sell products and services in the European Union.
You have an annual turnover/balance sheet of more than €2 million and/or you have at least 10 employees.
To be compliant, your digital site, app, or service must comply with WCAG 2.1 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) level AA. It is necessary to work on aspects such as colors, contrast, typography, and other technical parameters to make digital interfaces accessible to people with disabilities and to assistive technologies such as screen readers.
Tell us about your challengesThe Accessibility Act applies to all digital products, of all organizations and institutions that provide services to the public, including government agencies, private companies, and non-profit organizations.
The Accessibility Act protects people with disabilities, guaranteeing them equal access and opportunities in various areas, such as education, work, and public services.
The Accessibility Act is mandatory for all public and private organizations that provide services to the the public. This includes government agencies, schools, hospitals, and companies that offer products or services online.
In Italy, the body that verifies the accessibility of websites is AGID, the Agency for Digital Italy. AGID provides information and support on accessibility regulations, and users can report non-compliance of a digital product.
Whether it's an existing digital service, a new app, or an enterprise site, we guarantee full compliance with WCAG 2.1 level AA.
Your website or application will quickly meet the requirements of the European Accessibility Act
Start here →Accessibility Audit: we identify the areas of intervention and provide a list of necessary remediations to comply with EAA requirements.
Custom Development: if necessary, we design tailored solutions, improving navigability and usability for people with disabilities.
Integration of Advanced Tools: we offer a hybrid, technical, and automated approach thanks to tools like AccessWidget.
Drafting the accessibility statement for websites: which must be published by June 28, 2025.
Many people think that simply installing new accessibility widgets is enough to be compliant. Although they may seem like a shortcut, in reality, these tools alone do not guarantee full compliance with EAA requirements. It is therefore important to combine widgets with a specialized technical intervention.
To be truly compliant, you need an approach that integrates accessibility from the design stage: a “design-to-code” method that only a specialized technical partner can orchestrate.
To help you navigate this complexity, we have condensed our experience into a strategic guide for CIOs, marketing directors, and UX/UI managers.
We collaborate with partners like Accessiway to offer a hybrid approach, combining the automation of the AccessiWidget tool with our custom technical expertise.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is a European Union directive (Directive 2019/882), which establishes common accessibility requirements for digital products and services, applicable from June 28, 2025. The objective is to ensure that digital platforms are accessible to all people, including those with disabilities, and to remove the barriers that limit their use."
The European Accessibility Act establishes essential accessibility requirements for a series of digital products and services, including:
Websites and mobile applications: must be easily navigable by anyone, including users with visual, hearing, or motor disabilities.
Banking and e-commerce services: must provide accessible solutions for navigation and the purchasing process.
Transport and information systems: to ensure that information is usable by people with disabilities.
It is necessary to intervene in the design and structure of digital systems so that they are easily usable by everyone, including people with disabilities.
The EAA stipulates that individual EU member states must establish penalties. Each country will therefore provide enforcement mechanisms and penalties based on its own laws. In Italy, non-compliance could be interpreted as an unfair commercial practice, with penalties that can reach up to 10 million euros, depending on the severity and duration of the violation. Furthermore, for products (hardware, software, terminals) subject to CE marking, non-compliance with accessibility requirements is equivalent to not meeting essential legal requirements. The product could therefore be withdrawn from the market. Finally, EAA compliance will become a requirement for contracts and public tenders, so not complying with the regulation could compromise future business opportunities.
Digital accessibility for people with disabilities concerns the design and creation of websites, applications, and digital platforms that are easily usable by people with disabilities. This presupposes that digital interfaces are compatible with technologies and practices such as:
Support for screen readers.
Keyboard navigation.
Alternative texts for images and subtitles for video content.
Responsive design and adequate contrast to improve readability and interaction.
The 4 fundamental principles of digital accessibility, according to the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), are:
Perceivable: Content must be presented in ways that are accessible to the user's various senses (sight, hearing, touch). For example: providing alternative text (ALT text) for an image allows it to be understood even by those who cannot see.
Operable: Navigation and interface components must be usable by all users. For example: all commands must be activatable with the keyboard for those who do not use a mouse.
Understandable: Content and commands must be clear and understandable. For example: a clear label on a button helps you understand its function.
Robust: The content must be able to be interpreted reliably by different tools, including assistive technologies. For example: using correct HTML code and respecting standards ensures compatibility with current and future screen readers.
According to the EAA, all companies that provide digital products and services intended for the public in the EU are subject to the regulation, with the exception of:
Micro-enterprises (with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover of less than 2 million euros).
Application of the principle of disproportionate burden, i.e., if it can be demonstrated that adapting to the requirements is excessively burdensome for the company.
Websites and apps of private individuals not for commercial purposes.
Companies operating in the public sector, such as public administrations, are obliged to comply with accessibility standards without exception.
The European regulation (European Accessibility Act (EAA), or European Union Directive 2019/882) provides that all websites and mobile apps are designed in a way that guarantees access to all people, including those with disabilities. Furthermore, from 2025, companies and Public Administrations must annually publish an Accessibility Statement, which provides information on the state of compliance of their digital services and on any areas for improvement.
The Accessibility Statement is mandatory for:
Public Administrations
Private companies with an average annual turnover of over 500 million euros
The statement must be updated every year by September 23. It must be visible on the site or in the app and is generally placed in the footer.
No, a widget alone is not sufficient to guarantee full compliance with the European Accessibility Act. Although it is a useful support tool that improves the experience of some users, it acts mainly at a superficial level, temporarily modifying the interface (e.g., contrast, text size). It cannot solve structural problems rooted in the code, which are fundamental for complying with WCAG 2.1 AA criteria. True compliance is only obtained with a "design-to-code" technical intervention that makes the site natively accessible. At SparkFabrik, we integrate tools like AccessiWidget within a complete strategy, but never as the only solution.
A Design System is a centralized library of reusable design components and code (buttons, forms, menus, etc.) that ensures consistency across all of a company's digital products. It is crucial for accessibility because it allows you to:
Standardize compliance: Each component is designed and built to be accessible once. When reused, accessibility is already integrated, drastically reducing the risk of errors.
Be more efficient: If a regulatory requirement changes, you just need to update the component in the Design System to apply the change everywhere, saving time and costs. Not only during the design phase, but above all during the maintenance of the entire product life cycle.
Guarantee consistency: A consistent and predictable user experience is one of the pillars of accessibility. A Design System ensures that users do not have to learn how to use the interface from scratch in each section.
In short, it is the strategic asset that allows accessibility to become a natural and scalable part of the development process, not a final addition.
From June 28, 2025, your site must comply with EAA accessibility requirements.
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