European Accessibility Act (EAA): What WordPress Site Owners Need to Know

The EAA is now in effect

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) became enforceable on June 28, 2025. If your website serves customers in the European Union, this law likely applies to you.

Unlike previous accessibility guidelines, the EAA carries real enforcement power. Member states can impose fines of up to €500,000 for non-compliance, and repeated violations can result in market restrictions.

Who does the EAA apply to?

The EAA applies to businesses that provide products or services to EU consumers, including:

E-commerce websites selling products or services
Banking and financial services websites
Telecommunications providers
Transport services (airlines, rail, bus)
E-books and e-readers
Any website or app that provides a service to EU consumers

Micro-enterprises (fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover under €2 million) are exempt, but the exemption is narrow. If you sell to EU customers online, you should assume the EAA applies to you.

What does the EAA require?

The EAA requires websites to conform to EN 301 549, the European standard for ICT accessibility. This standard maps closely to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, meaning if your site meets WCAG 2.1 AA, you are largely compliant with the EAA.

Key requirements include:

Perceivable content: Alt text for images, video captions, sufficient color contrast
Operable interface: Keyboard navigation, no time traps, clear focus indicators
Understandable design: Readable text, predictable navigation, helpful error messages
Robust markup: Valid HTML, proper ARIA attributes, compatibility with assistive technology

How to achieve compliance

Step 1: Audit your site

Run an automated accessibility scan to identify the most common issues. Tools like WP Comply can scan your entire WordPress site in minutes and show you a Compliance Score.

Step 2: Fix the issues

Address violations in priority order. The most common issues on WordPress sites are:

Missing alt text — Images without alternative text descriptions
Poor heading hierarchy — Skipping heading levels (h1 → h3)
Missing form labels — Input fields without associated labels
Insufficient color contrast — Text that’s hard to read against its background
Missing page language — HTML without a lang attribute

Step 3: Document your efforts

The EAA requires an accessibility statement on your website. This document should describe:

The accessibility standard you follow (WCAG 2.1 AA)
Known limitations and planned remediation
How users can report accessibility issues
When the statement was last updated

WP Comply Pro can generate this statement automatically based on your scan results.

Step 4: Maintain compliance

Accessibility is not a one-time fix. New content, plugin updates, and theme changes can introduce new issues. Set up regular scanning — WP Comply can scan automatically when you publish or update content.

Don’t use an overlay

Some services sell JavaScript “overlay” widgets that claim to make your site accessible with a single line of code. These do not satisfy the EAA.

The European Commission has explicitly stated that accessibility must be built into products and services, not bolted on as an afterthought. Overlays have been shown to create new accessibility barriers, and companies relying on them have faced lawsuits.

WP Comply takes the opposite approach: it fixes your actual source code, creating a permanent record of remediation that can serve as evidence of good-faith compliance.

Timeline and enforcement

Date	Event
June 2019	EAA directive published
June 2022	Member states transposed into national law
June 2025	Enforcement begins
Ongoing	Market surveillance and penalties

If you haven’t started yet, the time to act is now. Every day of non-compliance is a day of legal exposure.

Scan your site free with WP Comply →

Read more: What Is WCAG 2.1? · Overlays vs Real Fixes