European Accessibility Act (EAA): Is your website ready for June 28, 2025?

The EAA is a directive of the European Union that aims to establish a common and harmonized framework of accessibility requirements. It targets a range of products and services considered essential in our digital and material daily lives. Its main objectives are clear and meaningful:

1. Harmonize the internal market: One of the major obstacles for businesses was the multitude of accessibility rules from one country to another. The EAA aims to remove these barriers by setting common requirements, which greatly simplifies placing products on the market and providing services at the European level and reduces regulatory complexity.
2. Promote active inclusion: At the heart of the directive is the desire to ensure that people with disabilities (estimated at about 135 million in the EU, a number that is increasing as the population ages) can access and use products and services independently and on an equal basis with other citizens, in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

The EAA applies broadly to economic operators (manufacturers, importers, distributors, and especially service providers) who place certain products and services on the market or provide them after the fateful date of June 28, 2025. For businesses whose activities depend partly or entirely on an online presence, the following points are of utmost importance:

• E-commerce websites and mobile applications: This includes the entire customer journey, from browsing products and services to completing a purchase (product pages, ordering process, payment, customer account management).
• Consumer banking websites and mobile applications: Account access, viewing transaction history, transfers, payment methods management, subscribing to simple products, etc.
• Passenger transport websites and mobile applications (air, bus, rail, maritime): Route search, timetable consultation, ticket purchase, reservation management, real-time traffic information, interactive kiosks in stations or airports (for their interfaces).
• Electronic books (e-books) and the specific software or applications for reading and navigating them.
• Services granting access to audiovisual media services: Web interfaces and applications of streaming platforms (video on demand, catch-up TV), including catalog navigation, the video player, and its controls.
• Electronic communications services: Certain aspects related to user interfaces and end-user equipment.

It is crucial to note that user interfaces and operating systems of many devices (computers, smartphones, tablets, payment terminals, ATMs) must also be natively accessible.

Far from reinventing the wheel, the EAA firmly relies on recognized foundations. Its technical requirements for the digital field are aligned with the four fundamental principles of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which are the de facto international standard for web accessibility:

Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presented in ways that users can effectively perceive, regardless of their sensory disabilities. Concrete examples: provide relevant text alternatives for all informative images, offer synchronized captions and transcripts for audio and video content.

Operable: User interface components and navigation must be functional for everyone. Concrete examples: enable complete and logical navigation using only the keyboard, allow users sufficient time to read and interact with content, avoid content that may trigger seizures (fast flashes).

Understandable: Information and operation of the user interface must be clear and predictable. Concrete examples: use simple and clear language, provide consistent navigation mechanisms throughout the site or application, guide users to avoid and correct input errors in forms.

Robust: Content must be technically robust enough to be reliably interpreted by a wide range of user agents, including and especially assistive technologies (screen readers, screen magnifiers, etc.). Concrete examples: adhere to HTML and CSS coding standards, use ARIA attributes correctly when necessary to enhance semantics.

For products and services pertaining to information and communication technologies (ICT)—which includes the vast majority of websites and applications—compliance with the harmonized European standard EN 301 549 is essential. This detailed technical standard, which explicitly includes the WCAG 2.1 Level AA criteria, creates a presumption of conformity with the EAA’s technical requirements. In practice, EN 301 549 is therefore the main technical reference and practical guide for achieving the required compliance for your websites and applications.

This is not just a recommendation, but a legal requirement. From today, all new products and services (or those that have undergone substantial modifications) falling within the scope of the EAA and placed on the European market must strictly comply with these accessibility requirements or face penalties.

Complying with the EAA should not be seen as a mere constraint, but as a real strategic opportunity. Beyond the legal obligation, the benefits are multiple and tangible:

• Avoid financial and operational sanctions: Non-compliance exposes your company to potentially hefty penalties, set by each Member State (in France, legislation provides for potentially significant administrative fines). Additionally, authorities may require compliance, and even the withdrawal of the product or interruption of the service.
• Protect and enhance your reputation: At a time when corporate social responsibility (CSR) is under scrutiny, demonstrating a concrete commitment to accessibility has a positive impact on your brand image, customer trust, and your ability to attract talent.
• Significantly expand your potential market: An accessible website or application opens up not only to the millions of people with disabilities in Europe (who represent a considerable purchasing power), but also to seniors, people with temporary disabilities, and more broadly anyone who appreciates a well-designed interface.
• Improve the overall user experience (UX): Best practices in accessibility benefit everyone. Clear navigation, sufficient color contrasts, well-designed forms, and well-structured content make your site more pleasant and efficient for all your visitors, whatever their usage context (mobile, noisy environments, etc.).
• Optimize your natural SEO: Google and other search engines value well-structured and technically clean sites. Many accessibility practices (correct use of semantic tags, alternative texts for images, video transcriptions) directly contribute to better SEO.
• Affirm your social responsibility (CSR) and your values: Committing to accessibility is a strong statement in favor of inclusion, diversity, and equal opportunity—values that are increasingly important to consumers, partners, and employees.

The EAA recognizes that achieving compliance can be challenging for certain organizations. That’s why a few specific exemption cases are provided:

• Microenterprises providing services: A significant exemption concerns businesses with fewer than 10 employees AND an annual turnover or total balance sheet below 2 million euros. This exemption only applies to the services they provide. Be aware that if a microenterprise manufactures, imports, or distributes products covered by the EAA, it remains subject to requirements for those products.
• Disproportionate burden / Fundamental alteration: In very specific cases, a company may be exempted from certain requirements if it can rigorously and thoroughly demonstrate (through a self-assessment based on precise criteria set out in the directive’s annex) that implementing them:
  - would result in a fundamental alteration to the very nature of its product or service, OR
  - would impose a disproportionate financial burden.

This assessment must compare the costs of compliance with the company’s resources and the expected benefits for people with disabilities. This is not an easy loophole: the assessment is subject to review by market surveillance authorities, who may validate or reject it.

Achieving EAA compliance may seem complex, but it is a key strategic investment for the future of your digital presence. At bluedrop.fr, we have made accessibility a cornerstone of our quality approach. We integrate best practices at the heart of our web projects, relying in particular on the flexibility and native capabilities of Drupal. Drupal is a CMS platform recognized for its robustness and its ecosystem, which supports the creation of accessible websites that comply with international standards.

Our expertise allows us to offer you customized support:

1. Audit your existing site or application: We conduct a comprehensive assessment (technical, functional, editorial) of your current level of compliance with EAA requirements.
2. Define a clear and prioritized action plan: Based on the audit, we establish a realistic roadmap, prioritizing the corrections that have the greatest impact for both your users and your compliance.
3. Implement the technical and functional corrections: Our Drupal expert development teams can efficiently integrate the required changes into your existing platform.
4. Design and develop natively accessible solutions ("Accessibility by Design"): For your new projects, we integrate best practices and accessibility testing from the earliest design phases and throughout development.
5. Train and raise awareness within your internal teams: We can help your contributors understand and apply accessibility best practices on a daily basis.
6. Offer you strategic advice: We guide you through the subtleties of regulatory requirements and help you define the best strategies for your specific business context.

June 28, 2025 is not that far away. Taking early steps to ensure your products and online services are compliant is the safest and smoothest way to avoid last-minute penalties, to sustainably improve the experience for all your users, and to clearly demonstrate your commitment to truly inclusive digital solutions.

Contact the bluedrop.fr team today to discuss your specific accessibility needs.

Ludovic Coullet.