2025
Make Your Digital Products Inclusive and Accessible
Accessibility naturally involves meeting a requirement, but it equally involves including users who don't have the same conditions as everyone else. The goal is for digital solutions to work for everyone, regardless of abilities, circumstances, or equipment. Since June 28th 2025, the EU Accessibility Directive has been expanded through the European Accessibility Act (EAA). The rules are known and have been applicable to public entities for several years, but starting in the summer of 2025, they will also apply to private businesses operating online.
The new digital accessibility standards will serve as guidelines for web content across all types of devices (including desktops, laptops, kiosks, and mobile devices), specifically applying to all businesses with more than 10 employees and/or an annual turnover exceeding 2 million euros.
Ensuring that an app or website complies with the new EAA primarily involves development in accordance with the WCAG 2.1 Level AA standard.
WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and provides guidelines to ensure accessibility for everyone. Specifically, WCAG is based on four principles that must be adhered to achieve the necessary accessibility:
Perceivability: Information and interface elements must be presented in ways that all users can perceive.
Operability: Visible and interactive elements must be operable by everyone.
Understandability: Information and user interfaces must be understandable to everyone.
Robustness: Content must be readable by various technologies, such as assistive tools.
Who Benefits from Increased Accessibility?
Around 20% of all people live with some form of permanent disability. This includes blind individuals using screen readers, people with Parkinson's disease who have difficulty clicking on small elements, or individuals with dyslexia who require more time to read content.
But accessibility isn't only about permanent challenges - it can affect us all. Temporary disabilities, such as a broken arm or a concussion, can make digital content difficult to use. The same applies to situational barriers, like noisy environments, the inability to use both hands, or needing silent interaction in quiet zones.
Beyond user inclusion, accessibility also has strategic benefits for businesses. Improving digital accessibility can enhance search engine optimization (SEO), as search engines reward websites that are easy to navigate and understand for everyone. This can lead to increased online visibility and reach.
A survey by WeArePurple.org indicates that 75% of people with disabilities have chosen not to engage with a business due to poor accessibility. This underscores not only the importance of taking accessibility seriously but also highlights clear business potential for those who do.
We've highlighted 6 key areas you can focus on to make your website accessible. By working strategically with these areas, you can create a more inclusive user experience for everyone, and simultaneously meet the requirements outlined in the European Accessibility Act (EAA).
A good starting point for accessibility is building your website with correct HTML structure, enabling assistive technologies like screen readers to interpret the content correctly. Ensure a logical reading order and always include text descriptions for images and graphics, ensuring users with visual impairments can access the content.
All content and functionality on the website must be operable using only a keyboard. This means users should be able to navigate links, open menus, fill out forms, and complete actions without relying on a mouse. This is crucial for users with physical disabilities and those using alternative input devices.
Colors significantly affect usability. Ensure sufficient contrast between text, backgrounds, and interface elements, so the content remains clear and readable, even for users with impaired vision, color blindness, or older screens.
To accommodate diverse user needs, content such as videos and audio should be supplemented with transcripts and descriptions. Additionally, PDFs should be both accessible and readable by screen readers. This improves the experience for users with hearing or visual impairments, ensuring everyone can access the same content.
Forms should be clearly labeled and easy to understand and complete. Use clear, descriptive labels, explanatory text for fields, and visible error messages, ensuring users always understand what actions to take if something goes wrong. This boosts both accessibility and general usability.
Accessibility is not just a technical task, it requires a collective effort from designers, developers, editors, and testers. Ensure everyone on your team understands basic accessibility principles, and regularly test your website using automated tools as well as real users, particularly individuals with disabilities.
Accessibility should be considered from the start
To ensure accessible digital solutions, accessibility needs to be integrated into the development process - from design to launch. Right from the design stage, considerations should include color contrast, icon usage, font sizes, element sizes, and ensuring alternative formats for content that isn't inherently accessible, such as animations, videos, and dynamic content. At the same time, it’s essential to establish predictable navigation, enabling users to easily find and operate functions and content.
It is significantly more effective, and much less resource-intensive, to incorporate accessibility from the beginning rather than addressing it afterwards. That's why it makes sense to start now. By integrating accessibility naturally into the design and development processes, you avoid having to fix issues later and simultaneously create a positive impact. Not just for users with disabilities, but for everyone.
