The European Accessibility Act 2025 is Coming. Is Your Law Firm Ready?

The European Accessibility Act 2025 is Coming. Is Your Law Firm Ready?

View profile for Angela Whittaker
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In 2019, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) was published, laying out new minimum accessibility requirements for businesses operating within the EU. The aim of the Act is to make businesses ensure their products and services are accessible to people with disabilities and elderly people.

The Act covers a wide range of systems and experiences, including websites, so it will have direct implications for any business with an online presence, including your law firm.

The EAA will come into force on 28 June 2025, so the deadline is fast approaching to make sure your firm, and particularly your website, meets the requirements.

Who will it affect?

The Act will be adopted by all EU member states, but it affects anyone who provides a service for users within the EU.

There are, however, a few exemptions:

  • Companies with fewer than 10 employees
  • Companies with an annual turnover of less than 2 million euros

Companies may also apply for an exemption if they demonstrate that implementing the required changes will cause an unreasonable financial burden.

When is the deadline?

  • 28 June 2025 – all new and updated products and services must comply.
  • 28 June 2030 – any existing products and services must comply.

Your website may have new content added daily, regular software updates, and new features. It is unclear at this stage exactly how these features will fit under ‘updated’ or ‘existing’ products and services, so it is best to err on the side of caution and make a plan for making your website meet the requirements.

How will it be enforced?

Each EU member state will set its own rules for how it enforces the Act. This means they can choose the penalties they give for non-compliance, and could mean you receive penalties from multiple countries. Some examples of possible penalties:

  • Fines (could be one-off fines or daily fines until issues are fixed)
  • Public announcements (which can damage reputation)
  • Legal action
  • Business suspension
  • Monitoring
  • Imprisonment

Although these may seem severe, the EAA includes ‘alternative dispute resolution mechanisms’, so authorities may decide to notify businesses in the first instance and give them time to fix any issues before any penalties are applied.

What are the requirements?

Any services and products offered to users within the European Union (EU) must meet specific accessibility standards. This extends not only to websites but also to all digital content, including PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, and e-books.

In addition to this, organisations must be able to demonstrate they are taking the following steps to ensure accessibility of their products and services:

  • Publish accessibility statements on their website. This should include what the firm has done to ensure accessibility, any limitations, and how they are maintaining this
  • Provide accessibility training for employees
  • Companies must be able to demonstrate they are continuously monitoring their products and services for accessibility barriers and fixing any issues that arise.

Can I just use an accessibility overlay plugin?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: An overlay is a third-party code which can be added to your website with the aim of improving accessibility. They often add a widget pinned to the side of your site which adds controls, allowing a user to modify elements on the website such as colours and font-sizes.

They often market themselves as improving website accessibility with one line of code. In reality, they are a quick-fix that is often too good to be true, and often make the experience of using a website worse for users with disabilities.

Nowadays, features to change font size and colours are built into most modern operating systems and browsers.  The users for whom these tools are designed will often have their own tools for achieving the same modifications promised by the overlay.

Real-life users who have tried these products find they are not very effective. At best, they seem to add very little useful functionality, and at worst, they are obstructive and get in the way of users’ own accessibility tools. In fact, over 400 accessibility experts and allies have signed a statement describing the harm caused by overlay widgets. Some of the biggest overlay providers are currently involved in class action lawsuits for false accessibility claims.

On top of this, the European Commission has also stated that overlays are not accepted as a solution for compliance with the EAA.

Finally, tools like this can introduce GDPR and data privacy concerns as they often persist users’ settings across websites.

Although there is a chance that some of the overlay products on the market may help users, why not (given the benefits) just make your website accessible in the first place?

Who is responsible for ensuring the accessibility of products and services?

  • Business owners
  • Sales/marketing
  • Designers
  • Developers
  • Copywriters
  • Content creators and editors
  • Users – listen to user feedback

Basically, everyone! 

It is clear from the guidelines that accessibility must be at the forefront of your business decisions and integrated into your services from the outset. A ‘once-and-done’ approach will not suffice, and everyone in your business needs to be informed about the requirements.

Useful tools and resources

We’ve compiled a list of some helpful tools and resources that you might want to use to check your firm’s accessibility.

If you have any further questions about the EAA, please get in contact with the team at Conscious at sales@conscious.co.uk.