Getting Ready for the European Accessibility Act in 2025. Yes, It Starts Now.
One thing is for sure – digital marketers never have a dull moment with the rules of the game always changing in real time. Luckily on this topic, however, we have some time.
The European Accessibility Act is EU legislation aimed at improving accessibility for individuals with disabilities, with a target date for compliance of 28 June 2025. After that, organisations become legally exposed for not making their digital platforms more accessible to all. Let’s take a look at what this is and what it means moving forward.
What is EEA?
Similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act in the U.S., the EAA is a directive aimed at making life better for 87 million Europeans with disabilities, with the additional benefit of formalizing the standard for digital communications across all EU-member countries.
EEA comprehensively applies to digital products and services like e-commerce, computers, smartphones, TV equipment, banking services, e-books, and websites. It is expected that the practical requirements will closely follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards, which is an internationally-accepted standard for online compliance.
WCAG has three levels – A, AA and AAA, with the latter being the highest. Most legal requirements and recommendations focus on meeting at least Level AA of the WCAG guidelines.
What does EEA mean for place organisations & companies?
As it relates to most investment, trade and talent organisations, the act will cover:
Website design, content and navigation.
Social media marketing, including posted images and videos.
Digital ads across various platforms like social media, search engines, and websites.
Email marketing design and content.
Other multi-media, including webinars, podcasts and videos.
For B2B companies, an additional consideration is mobile apps, including voice-over features, adjustable text sizes, and clear labeling of buttons and actions.
Across all of these channels, expect to address the following in your workflows and final content production:
Enhanced navigability and functionality, ensuring that all web content is operable through a keyboard interface.
Detailed alternative text for non-text content (e.g., images, videos).
Enhanced captions for videos (only if the content is prerecorded).
Clear and simple language in content.
Basic structure and labelling, using HTML tags to convey meaning and structure (e.g., headings, lists).
Avoidance of content that is known to cause seizures (e.g., no flashing content).
Enhanced color contrast, with text and images of text having a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1.
Resizable text up to 200% without loss of content or functionality.
Keyboard focus, with a visible indication when any component receives focus.
Better error identification and suggestions in forms.
What do to now in advance of EAA?
Planning for this can take months as we recently learned with the GA4 transition and GDPR, to name a few, so getting an early start is advisable. With the right planning, this might provide the opening to update that 3-year-old (or older) website, which probably needs SEO, technical and other content updates to bring it in line with current practices across the board.
Also important during this early start is setting up the guidelines and ongoing muscle memory for internal operations to ensure meeting these standards becomes common practice. What do we mean? Over the years, our team along with our friends at DCI have witnessed updates intended to achieve ADA compliance being undone when simple changes were made to a website by internal teams, as the new guidelines were not followed.
A compliant website at launch does not make a compliant website three months later. Establishing and practising those habits over time will prevent unintended consequences later on.
Of course, if you need a website partner familiar with internationalization across investment attraction, talent attraction, trade promotion and B2B, C Studios can help. We’re available for initial discussions on what this means and can do a basic assessment to see how much work will be needed in the year ahead. Contact us to learn more.
Need a website partner?
C Studios is the digital marketing agency for regions and countries. We can help upgrade your website with tailored counsel and strategy for economic development, trade and talent attraction agencies.
