European Accessibility Act 2025 – What should you do after the deadline?

TL;DR The European Accessibility Act (EAA) deadline has passed, and any non-compliant digital product, from mobile apps to e-commerce and online services, is now in violation of EU law. Member States are obligated to impose penalties that are as high and frequent as needed to push companies toward fixing accessibility issues. This isn’t just about avoiding fines: with over 100 million people in the EU living with disabilities, accessibility is about serving a vast, mainstream audience and promoting disability inclusion Europe‑wide. The EAA is built on the EN 301 549 standard and WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines, requiring products to be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. If you’re unsure where to start, expert agencies like Chili Labs can help you move from problem to compliance, and open up new market potential in just five days

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The European Accessibility Act deadline has just gone by. If your mobile app (or essentially any other digital product) isn’t compliant with the required accessibility standards, you’re now operating in violation of EU law, as simple as that. The directive obliges each Member State to set penalties that are “effective, proportionate and dissuasive,” and to pair every fine with an order to put things right. Put bluntly: authorities can crank fines as high and as often as it takes to make you fix the problem. Fines don’t feel as a threat to you? Well then here is a statistic that might (and should) change your mind if you care about your reputation and society:

According to the European Commission (2023), around 1 in 4 people in the European Union live with some form of a disability (Source).

That’s over 100 million people! In fact, the proportion is the highest where we ourselves, Chili Labs are based - Latvia. The number here is over 40% of population. So yeah, these numbers are not just a niche audience, it’s rather a significant, potential mainstream user base your app could likely serve better, and if you don’t - your wallet, your reputation, and the society as a whole could be at cost.

So what Exactly Is the European Accessibility Act?

June 28 hit the deadline of the Directive EU 2019/882, effectively meaning you had 6 full years to adjust to the shifts in EU digital regulation and ensure your digital products align with the requirements. In its nature, it demands businesses selling non-compliant digital products to fix violations or face steep financial consequences. But it’s not just about fines - the Act aims to acknowledge over 1 billion people worldwide with disabilities who deserve equal access to digital services and assistive technology solutions.

And what does being “non-compliant” mean anyway? In simple terms, if people with disabilities can’t properly use your product, you’re considered non-compliant. For example, for companies like ours (focused on mobile app development), this means ensuring the products work seamlessly for users with visual, auditory, cognitive, or motor impairments. And yes, there should be an explicit emphasis on the word “seamlessly”.

The Act spans across digital products and services such as consumer electronics (smartphones, computers, TVs), e-commerce websites and mobile apps, ATMs and online banking resources, transport services (online ticketing and travel information), e-books, telecommunications services, and so on. Which as you can see, sort of brings us to and kind of already answers the question of:

Who Needs to Comply (And Who Doesn’t)?

Hopefully you have noticed by now – basically any digital solution, product or service provider in the EU market falls under the EAA directive. Whether you’re a European startup or a global company located on some island far away, if EU consumers are your clients, you’re in the scope of the Act.

However, there is a slight exception – microbusinesses. Companies with fewer than 10 employees and under €2M revenue are exempt from the list. But with an important caveat – microbusinesses that are providing services (and not products) are exempt. But, in any case, I would assume that not too many businesses aim to stay under this “micro” threshold for long, thus you might as well be proactive now and use it later as a competitive edge, not a compliance burden.

Technicalities

The European Accessibility Act (Directive EU 2019/882) is built around the EN 301 549 standard, which serves as the official European benchmark for accessibility across digital products, services, and technologies. This standard directly references the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) point 2.1 - an internationally recognized set of rules for making websites, apps, and digital content accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG defines three levels of accessibility: Level A (basic), Level AA (the recommended and required level under the EAA), and Level AAA (advanced, but rarely mandatory). Sounds a bit overwhelming, right? But in simple and practical terms it just means you have to follow the “POUR” framework:

• Perceivable: The colors in the app must contrast well, images must have text alternatives, and the interface must work with screen readers and color contrast analyzers
• Operable: The app must support full keyboard navigation, manage focus properly, and avoid any content that could trigger seizures.
• Understandable: Layouts should be predictable, labels clear, and error messages helpful so users can complete tasks without confusion.
• Robust: The underlying code must be clean and semantic, ensuring it works smoothly with various assistive technologies, automated testing tools, and accessibility testing software.

Seems so simple yet you can’t distinguish what is really meant by this? Well, that’s normal, and that is exactly why agencies like us exist. It’s like reading scientific papers. I once read a paper on Climate Change by Naomi Oraskes and she herself said “scientific papers […] are by experts for experts and are difficult for outsiders to understand”. So, if you feel like it is hard to grasp what is meant by accessibility, might as well just contact an expert and save you some nerves. At Chili Labs, we’ve seen how accessibility boosts businesses by tackling issues with an award-winning (Red Dot, Clutch) user experience designs, helping companies unlock market potential, not just avoid penalties.

What has to be done and how would we do it?

What it really takes is just five working days to go from “we should fix this” to a signed-off accessibility roadmap. Here’s how those five days unfold, step by step, when you lay it in the hands of Chili Labs:

Set the Scope (Day 1): We start with a 45-minute call to align goals, define scope and access your user flows. You’ll walk away with a clear brief, aligned calendars, and ready checkpoints.

Audit based on WCAG 2.1 (Day 2): Our UX designers run a full audit and accessibility test, benchmarking against WCAG 2.1 - from automated scans to manual screen readers and keyboard tests. Findings go into a live issue board, ranked by severity, with estimated fix efforts.

Prototype & Validate Fixes (Day 3-4): Designers ideate and draft inclusive solutions, while setting clear recommendations with the aim to boost accessibility and usability.

Insight session/documentation (Day 5): Setting up a session to present findings and tips going further: confirming compliance, showcasing polished slides, clickable prototypes, guidelines for code recommendations, etc.

Wrapping up/certification: You receive a “Fix Kit” with updated tokens, component specs, guidelines, and a draft accessibility statement, followed by ongoing consultations and employee accessibility training throughout the next 2 weeks to ensure confident implementation. Two weeks later, a post-fix review to verify EAA compliance and website accessibility.

Beyond Compliance

Web and app content accessibility is not just making sure you get through the legal requirements. It can be truly a great opportunity to reflect on your product’s user experience and interface, understand potential downsides and evaluate how others are doing it. Working on design can significantly boost clarity and trust, optimize your page for better search visibility, attract users and drive-up retention and conversions.

Contact Chili Labs today and let’s turn accessibility from a compliance burden into your next competitive advantage. Five days is all it takes to get your roadmap in place — and we’re ready when you are. Let’s make accessibility happen!

Key Takeaways

• The EAA deadline has passed; non-compliance is against the EU law.
• Fines can increase until issues are fixed.
• 1 in 4 EU residents has a disability according to European Comission - accessibility matters.
• Most digital products for the EU must comply.
• Non-compliance means your product isn't usable for people with disabilities.
• Standards such as EN 301 549, WCAG 2.1 AA are determining accessibility requirements, focusing on perceivable, operable, understandable, robust (POUR) design.
• Chili Labs offers a 5-day process: scope, audit, fixes, documentation, support.
• Accessibility boosts UX, trust, SEO, and business growth.