Designing for Everyone: What the European Accessibility Act Means for Your Digital Products

The European Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882) is being rolled out to raise the bar for digital accessibility across the EU. If you run a website, mobile app or software platform that serves European customers, it’s worth understanding what the European Accessibility Act means for your digital products and making sure the digital spaces you manage can be used by everyone.

What is the European Accessibility Act?

In simple terms, it’s a law that sets new rules for making products and services accessible to people with disabilities. That includes the digital products many of us design and build every day.

If you’re working on a website, app, e-book, online shop, banking platform, travel service or communications tool, the law now expects it to work for a much wider range of people.

Who does it apply to?

The Act applies to any business providing certain digital services to consumers in the EU after 28 June 2025. That includes:

• Online shops
• Banking and finance platforms
• Telecoms and messaging tools
• Video streaming services
• Travel booking and real-time information platforms
• E-books and e-reading software

If you’re a microenterprise (fewer than 10 employees and under €2M turnover) and only providing services, you’re exempt for now. But if you’re growing or building for scale, it’s wise to design with accessibility in mind from the start.

What does it mean in practice?

The law is built around four ideas you might already know from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG):

• Perceivable: People can read or hear your content, no matter how they access it.
• Operable: Everything can be used by keyboard or assistive tech.
• Understandable: Content and interactions make sense and behave as expected.
• Robust: Your product works with various technologies now and in the future.

That translates to things like:

• Making sure your content works with screen readers
• Adding captions to videos
• Providing alt text for images
• Letting people resize text or adjust contrast
• Clear labels and helpful messages on forms

Some sectors have more detailed requirements. For example:

• Banking apps need to make secure logins and payments accessible
• Streaming platforms should support subtitles and audio description
• Travel platforms should provide real-time updates in formats people can use

If you offer customer support or help docs, those need to be accessible, too.

What about older content?

You won’t need to retrofit everything overnight. PDFs, videos, or web pages published before 28 June 2025 don’t need to be updated unless you edit them. Self-service machines installed before the deadline can stay in use until they reach end of life.

But if you’re building something new or refreshing a product, it must meet the latest standards.

Why it matters

More than a billion people globally live with a disability. That includes your users, customers, colleagues, and community. Accessible design makes digital spaces work better for everyone.

It also brings practical benefits: clearer content, better usability, and smoother journeys. It improves SEO. It strengthens your brand. It’s good design, full stop.

And yes, it’s also the law.

What should you do next?

Here’s how to get ready:

• Audit your platforms: Review your sites and apps for accessibility issues. Look at core journeys like sign-up, search, and purchase.
• Focus on the essentials: Prioritise real tasks that matter to users and make those work well for everyone.
• Build accessibility into your workflow: Use semantic HTML, add alt text, write clearly, and test with assistive tech. Make it part of how you work.
• Get your team involved: Designers, developers, writers, product leads - everyone has a role to play.
• Be transparent: From June 2025, you must publish a public statement showing how your service meets accessibility requirements.

Building better, together

At Human Kind, we design for inclusion. We believe accessibility is part of what makes digital products thoughtful, generous, and useful.

The European Accessibility Act is a step forward. If you’re ready to make your digital spaces more welcoming, we’re here to help.

Accessibility is part of building digital products that work for everyone. If you need help ensuring your products meet the EAA requirements or simply want to raise the bar, we can help. Our Digital Product & AI service.

Further Reading

• Making Your Content AI-Friendly: A Guide to Getting Noticed by AI Assistants.
• How AI Is Shaping the Future of Browsing the Internet.
• Future Vision - Google, Sustainable Tents, European Space Agency and Figma.
• About
• What Is the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and What Might It Mean to Your Business.