European Accessibility Act: What It Means for Your Site in 2026

Few people know about it. Even fewer have done anything about it.

This article is structured in two sections: one for designers and developers, one for entrepreneurs and managers. Read whichever is most relevant to you, or both if you want the full picture.

EAA (EU Directive 2019/882) is a European law that requires private companies to make their digital products and services accessible to people with disabilities. This obligation previously applied only to the public sector. From June 2025, it extends to the private sector as well: websites, mobile apps, e-commerce platforms, online banking services, streaming services, and more.

In Romania, the directive was transposed through Law no. 232/2022, which entered into force on 28 June 2025. Romania adopted the directive without any additional requirements beyond the European minimum.

Microenterprises with fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover or balance sheet below €2 million are exempt. All other companies operating or selling in the EU, including those from outside the EU with European customers, must comply.

There are two key deadlines. The first has already passed: 28 June 2025, from which all newly published digital content must comply. The second is 28 June 2030, when all existing content, including sites launched before 2025, must be fully compliant. If you've launched or updated anything after June 2025, you're already within scope.

EAA changes the delivery standard. Accessibility is no longer an optional criterion you add if there's time left at the end of a project. It becomes an explicit requirement, on a par with responsiveness or load speed.

The technical reference for compliance in Romania and the EU is EN 301 549, the harmonised European standard for digital accessibility, equivalent to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. If you've worked with WCAG before, you already know the framework. If not, the core principle is POUR: content must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for any type of user, including those who use assistive technologies.

Beyond the technical requirements, the law requires publishing an accessibility statement on the site: a document describing the level of compliance achieved, known issues, and a contact channel through which users can report problems. Without this document, technical compliance alone is not sufficient.

If you deliver projects for clients operating in the EU, EAA compliance enters the project requirements. In practice, this means an accessibility audit before launch, accessible components in the design system, and testing with real screen readers, NVDA on Windows or VoiceOver on Mac and iOS.

An important detail: automated tools such as Lighthouse, axe DevTools, or WAVE identify around 30–40% of issues. The rest requires manual testing.

You don't need to understand code to understand what's at stake with this law.

Law no. 232/2022 designates several authorities responsible for overseeing compliance, depending on the sector: ANPC, ANCOM, the Authority for Romania's Digitisation, the National Audiovisual Council, and others. The enforcement mechanism exists and is active.

Penalties for non-compliance include administrative fines between RON 2,500 and 15,000, with separate sanctions for the absence of an accessibility statement or for excluding accessibility criteria from procurement specifications. In serious cases, the law also provides for suspension of activity or withdrawal of licences. Beyond administrative penalties, any affected user or advocacy organisation can initiate legal proceedings. Non-compliant companies may also be excluded from public tenders, where EAA compliance is increasingly becoming a contractual requirement.

Approximately 135 million people in the EU live with a form of disability. Add to that temporarily affected users: a broken arm, recovery after eye surgery, using a phone in bright sunlight. An accessible site serves a broader audience than might initially appear.

Furthermore, accessibility requirements largely overlap with good SEO practices: correct semantic structure, alternative texts for images, clear headings, clean code. A site built with accessibility in mind tends to perform better in organic search as well.

The first step is knowing where you stand. An accessibility audit, combining automated analysis with manual testing, gives you a clear picture of existing issues and remediation priorities. Not all problems have the same impact: those that completely block access, forms non-functional via keyboard, images without alt text, or insufficient contrast on primary buttons, are addressed first.

The second step is publishing an accessibility statement, a document required by Law no. 232/2022.

The third, most valuable in the long run, is integrating accessibility into your workflow from the next project onward. Remediating an already-launched site costs more than building one correctly from the start.

The European Accessibility Act is active legislation, with designated enforcement authorities and concrete penalties across the EU. The June 2025 deadline has passed. The 2030 deadline follows, when compliance becomes mandatory for all existing content.

Companies that act now make the transition in a controlled way, with predictable costs. Those that delay will end up remediating under pressure, driven by an external audit or a complaint.

If you'd like to know where your site stands relative to EAA requirements, I can help you identify critical issues and conduct an initial audit. Contact details are below.