In 2019, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) was published, laying out new minimum accessibility requirements for businesses operating within the EU market. The aim of the Act is to make businesses ensure their products and services are accessible to people with disabilities.
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.
Does the EAA apply to my law firm?
The act applies to listed categories of products and services, such as e-commerce, consumer banking, transport, telecoms and e-books.
Although legal services are not listed, the category most likely to catch a law firm is 'e-commerce'. The definition is wider than just having a checkout or store.
If consumers can instruct or engage your firm through your website, for example booking and paying for a consultation or buying a fixed-fee will online, those journeys may well be in scope. A purely informational site, where clients engage by phone or in person, is generally not. Whether the scope covers 'pay online' features is a grey area, depending on whether the payment portal plays a role in instructing or completing a contract.
The Act applies to anyone providing in-scope services to consumers in the EU, regardless of where the provider is based. If your UK law firm offers these online journeys to EU consumers, it may fall within the scope of the Act.
Are there any exemptions?
Microenterprises are exempt from the EAA. To qualify, a business must meet both of the following criteria:
- Fewer than 10 employees
- Annual turnover of less than 2 million euros
There is also a disproportionate burden provision if a business can 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
- Criminal penalties (reserved for serious, persistant non-compliance)
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?
In-scope services and products offered to users within the European Union (EU) must meet specific accessibility standards. This covers all supporting digital content such as PDFs and terms and pricing information.
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. Numerous 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.
- Colour contrast ratio checker https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/
- https://wave.webaim.org/
- https://www.gov.uk/guidance/government-design-principles
- https://overlayfactsheet.com/en/
- WCAG 2.2 Understanding Docs https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/
If you have any further questions about the EAA, please get in contact with the team at Conscious at sales@conscious.co.uk or call us at 0117 325 0200.