The European Accessibility Act (EAA) EAA requires EU member states to adopt and publish the necessary laws and regulations by June 28, 2025. By that date, newly marketed products and services within the scope of the EAA must be compliant.
The EAA represents one of the most significant shifts in digital compliance since GDPR. From banking apps to e-commerce platforms, businesses across sectors will soon be legally required to meet accessibility standards – or risk reputational damage, regulatory fines and public backlash.
New Digital Age spoke to Amit Borsok, CEO and co-founder of AccessiWay, a digital accessibility platform, to find out more about the new legislation and why marketers (even those outside of the EU) can’t afford to ignore it…
Why does the European Accessibility Act have global significance?
The European Accessibility Act is a game-changer, not just for businesses in the EU, but globally. It’s no longer just big corporations who need to comply. The new threshold includes businesses with as few as 10 employees or €2 million in annual turnover, which suddenly pulls a huge number of SMEs into the regulatory framework. That’s an enormous shift.
What makes this even more impactful is that each EU member state is now required to pass legislation that aligns with a common framework—creating harmonization across the bloc. That means if you’re selling to, say, Germany or France, you’ll have to meet the same core standards. It’s very similar to what happened in the U.S.: once enough businesses are affected, accessibility becomes part of the mainstream digital conversation. This legislation will accelerate adoption, enforcement, and awareness like nothing we’ve seen before in Europe.
Accessibility isn’t something that only matters if you’re physically based in the EU. If you’re selling into the European market, even from the UK or the U.S., you have to comply with these laws. The moment your digital product touches the EU consumer, you’re in scope.
What we’re seeing now is a convergence around WCAG – the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines – which are becoming the global standard, even if the legal frameworks vary. For SMEs and most digital marketers, being WCAG-compliant is already a huge step. But for larger enterprises or international brands, it becomes more nuanced. You need to understand how the law applies locally, because enforcement, deadlines, and penalties will differ country by country. But make no mistake: the direction of travel is clear. Accessibility is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it’s a baseline requirement for doing business globally.
Despite increased awareness of accessibility issues, there seems to have been limited progress – is that a fair conclusion?
Yes, absolutely. It’s shocking that in 2025, more than 98% of the internet remains inaccessible. We’re talking about basic things—text contrast that fails minimum standards, websites that break completely with screen readers, missing alt text for key images. These are fundamental barriers, yet they’re still widespread.
The truth is, many companies still treat accessibility like a bolt-on, rather than something that’s baked into the process from the beginning. It needs to be part of your design thinking, your dev cycles, your QA. And when it’s not, you end up with digital experiences that exclude over a billion people worldwide. That’s not just a moral or legal issue—it’s a massive market failure.”
Can improved accessibility really provide a competitive advantage?
We’re at a tipping point. Think about how unacceptable it would be to build a store without a wheelchair ramp. Yet we tolerate digital spaces that are essentially closed to millions of people. Accessibility is not just a legal obligation—it’s a chance to serve more customers, build stronger brands, and create more resilient digital infrastructure. It’s one of the few compliance issues that actively drives business value. We’re seeing more companies realize that prioritizing accessibility gives them an edge—whether it’s in customer satisfaction, SEO, or reputation. It’s a clear case of doing well by doing good.
One of the biggest misconceptions is that accessibility is just a cost center. It’s not. We’ve seen companies gain up to 20% in customer retention by making their digital assets more inclusive. Accessibility also has a measurable impact on SEO—sites that are easier to navigate, read, and interact with perform better in search rankings. We’ve seen improvements of up to 12% in some cases. That’s because search engines—and increasingly AI models—prefer clean, structured, well-labeled content.
From a brand perspective, it also sends a clear signal: we care about all our users. In a competitive marketplace, that’s powerful.
How does your company, AccessiWay, help others to improve the accessibility of their digital estate?
There’s a huge gap in the market between fully manual accessibility services, which are expensive and slow, and fully automated solutions, which often don’t work well for complex platforms. That’s where we come in. At AccessiWay, our approach is hybrid. We use AI and automation to scan and flag issues, but we combine that with human expertise (developers, auditors, accessibility experts) who can interpret the data, provide context, and recommend meaningful fixes. It’s scalable, ongoing, and adaptable. Accessibility isn’t a one-time fix—it evolves as your website evolves. That’s the mindset we bring to our clients.
Our mission is to embed accessibility into everyday business operations – not as an afterthought, but as part of the digital lifecycle. That’s why we offer remediation packages that include annual audits, compliance documentation, and integrations with platforms like Jira, so teams can act on issues without changing their workflows. We also provide an overlay tool that gives users real-time customization without altering the website’s core code. Beyond the tools, we also offer document remediation, accessibility training, and strategic consulting. We want to help organizations become self-sufficient in accessibility, so they can sustain compliance and deliver a better experience to every user.
The company was founded in 2021 with the belief that accessibility should be a digital default, not an exception. In just a few years, we’ve grown to become the largest accessibility provider in Europe, with over 100 employees and a presence in Italy, France, Germany, and Austria. Our recent partnership with Team Blue, which serves over 3.5 million clients, is a major milestone.
But it’s not just about scale—it’s about impact. Every site we help remediate, every team we train, every law we help interpret—that’s another step toward a more inclusive digital world. And we’re just getting started.
