The European Accessibility Act is already in force.
Directive (EU) 2019/882 has applied since 28 June 2025. If you sell digital products or services to consumers in the EU, accessibility is now a legal requirement — and an ongoing one, not a one-off deadline. The good news: conformance is a well-defined, checkable standard, and getting there is a process you can start today.
Fixed-scope audit by the pace · continuous EN 301 549 checks on every parlance plan, Free included.
If consumers in the EU use it, it probably counts.
The act covers the digital products and services consumers rely on every day. The sectors below are named directly in the directive.
E-commerce
Online shops and marketplaces selling to consumers in the EU — the checkout, the catalogue and everything between.
Banking & fintech
Consumer banking and financial services: current accounts, payments, credit and the apps that front them.
E-books & audiobooks
Digital publications and the readers and platforms that deliver them.
Transport booking
Air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger services — timetables, booking and ticketing.
Consumer software & devices
Operating systems, communication services and the consumer-facing hardware and software around them.
The honest caveats: enforcement and penalties are set per member state and vary in pace and appetite; and microenterprises providing services (fewer than ten staff and at most €2 million turnover) are exempt for services. Scope questions for your specific product are a conversation with your counsel — this page is general information, not legal advice.
One standard, in plain language.
The standard behind the act
EN 301 549 — the European accessibility standard for ICT — is the yardstick regulators and buyers reach for. A version harmonised specifically for the act is in progress; once cited in the EU’s Official Journal, meeting it will carry a formal presumption of conformity. For websites and apps, its requirements are essentially the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at Level AA.
What that means in practice
Perceivable, operable, understandable, robust: sufficient colour contrast, full keyboard access, visible focus, labels and names on every control, sensible structure for assistive technology, and content that works at different sizes and orientations.
Where the goalposts are
EN 301 549 references WCAG 2.1 Level AA today. Auditing to WCAG 2.2 AA meets the current bar and the direction of travel at once — the W3C confirms content conforming to 2.2 also conforms to 2.1. That is the level parlance checks.
Compliance is recurring, not a certificate
Products change weekly; audits age. The act expects your service to stay conformant, not to have passed once — which is why a point-in-time audit and continuous monitoring belong together.
An audit to find the gap. Monitoring to keep it closed.
A fixed-scope conformance audit
the pace — the studio behind parlance — audits your product against EN 301 549 and WCAG 2.2 AA: a prioritised findings report with severity, evidence and concrete fixes, scoped and priced up front. The right first step when you need to know where you stand.
Continuous monitoring with parlance
Audits age the moment you ship. parlance checks design files, code, live products and native apps against WCAG 2.2, WAI-ARIA 1.2, Section 508 and EN 301 549 continuously — and those checks come with every plan, Free included.
They are designed to work together: the audit tells you what to fix and in what order; monitoring makes sure next quarter’s release does not quietly undo it.
Know where you stand before someone asks.
A conformance audit gives you the map; continuous monitoring keeps it true. Both start today.
General information, not legal advice — for scope questions about your product, speak to your counsel.