EAA Compliance Checker — European Accessibility Act Test 2026

EAA Compliance: Requirements & Checklist for Businesses

If your business sells products or services to customers in the EU, EAA compliance isn't optional anymore. The European Accessibility Act has been enforced since June 28, 2025, and regulators across member states are already issuing fines and corrective orders to companies that haven't caught up. This guide breaks down exactly what EAA compliance requires, who needs to act, and how to check where your business currently stands.

What Is EAA Compliance?

EAA compliance means meeting the accessibility requirements set out in the European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) — the EU law that requires digital products and services to be usable by people with disabilities. In practice, this means your website, mobile app, e-commerce checkout, customer documents, and even your cookie consent banners need to work properly with screen readers, keyboard navigation, and other assistive technologies.

The technical backbone of EAA compliance is a standard called EN 301 549, which is built on WCAG 2.1 Level AA (with WCAG 2.2 increasingly referenced as the current benchmark). If your digital experience conforms to WCAG 2.1 AA, you're covering most of what the EAA requires.

Unlike older EU accessibility rules that only applied to government websites, the EAA reaches into the private sector — banking, e-commerce, telecoms, transport, e-books, and consumer electronics are all directly covered.

Who Needs to Comply?

A common misconception is that EAA compliance only applies to companies based in Europe. It doesn't. The rule is simple: if you offer products or services to consumers in the EU, the EAA applies to you — regardless of where your company is headquartered.

That means EAA compliance for US companies, UK businesses, and organizations anywhere else in the world is just as relevant as it is for EU-based businesses, as long as you have EU customers.

There is a limited exemption: businesses with fewer than 10 employees and under €2 million in annual turnover are generally not required to comply, and exemptions can also apply where compliance would create a genuine "undue burden" on the business. Most mid-size and larger companies don't qualify for either exemption.

EAA Compliance Requirements: The Core Checklist

Here's a practical breakdown of what EAA compliance requirements actually look like for a typical digital business:

1. Website and app accessibility

2. E-commerce and transactional flows

3. Documents and content

4. Consent and cookie banners

5. Ongoing monitoring and documentation

This is a partial list — full WCAG 2.1 AA conformance includes dozens of individual success criteria — but addressing these areas covers the issues that trigger the vast majority of real-world accessibility complaints.

EAA Deadlines You Need to Know

• June 28, 2025 — Enforcement began. All new products and digital content launched after this date must meet EAA requirements.
• June 28, 2030 — The deadline for bringing existing digital services and legacy content into full compliance.
• Archived content that hasn't been updated since June 28, 2025 is generally exempt, but anything you actively maintain or republish is back in scope.

If you missed the original 2025 deadline, you're not alone — but the gap is closing fast, and the 2030 deadline for legacy systems isn't as far off as it sounds once you factor in audit and remediation time.

What Happens If You Don't Comply?

Enforcement is handled at the national level, so penalties vary by country, but they're not symbolic. Depending on the member state, non-compliance can result in fines reaching into the millions of euros, removal of products or services from the EU market, or — in some countries — even the suspension of a company's right to trade. A few countries, including Ireland, have provisions that allow for criminal liability in serious cases.

Beyond the legal risk, there's a real business cost: roughly one in four adults in Europe lives with some form of disability. An inaccessible website isn't just a compliance gap — it's a quarter of your potential market that can't use your product properly.

How to Check Your EAA Compliance Status

Before you can fix anything, you need to know where the gaps actually are. This is where most teams get stuck — manually auditing a website against the full WCAG 2.1 AA criteria is slow, and it's easy to miss issues that don't show up until a real user with a screen reader or keyboard-only navigation tries to use the site.

An EAA compliance checker can shortcut this process by scanning your website against EN 301 549 and WCAG criteria automatically, flagging issues like missing alt text, poor contrast, unlabeled form fields, and keyboard traps before they turn into compliance risks. Running a free EAA website compliance check is a reasonable first step for most businesses — it won't catch everything a manual audit would, but it gives you a clear, prioritized starting point instead of guessing where to begin.

That's the gap a tool like AccessiTool is built to close: a fast way to scan your site, see exactly where it falls short of EAA and EN 301 549 requirements, and get a clear list of fixes — without needing to hire a specialist just to find out where you stand.

Frequently Asked Questions — EAA Compliance

This article is for general informational purposes and isn't legal advice. EAA enforcement varies by country, so check with a qualified professional for guidance specific to your business.