Accessibility: make your business inclusive, compliant, and open to all
Accessibility matters. It’s not only about complying with legislation, it’s about making your business inclusive and resilient. From the end of June 2025, businesses will have to comply with the regulations set down in the European Accessibility Act (EAA). What does that mean for you, your organization, and your customers? Efficy has created one free resource to help you navigate the new legislation and ensure your business is compliant.
The goal of the act, aligned with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, is to make digital content accessible to all consumers, including people with disabilities. These changes will benefit both businesses and their customers and potential customers, whether or not they have a disability. It’s a win-win. Ensuring common rules across the EU leads to cost reductions and easier cross-border trading, while people with disabilities benefit from more accessible products and services.
Better for everyone
Around 87 million people in the EU have some form of disability. Schools, workplaces, infrastructure, products, services, and information are not equally accessible to them. Making your business or organization’s website accessible means ensuring that everyone can access, understand, and engage with your content. It improves readability, usability, and navigation for all users.
A few examples of good practice and why they matter:
- Alt text helps improve your SEO, is useful for people with slow internet connections where images take a long time to load, and it supports voice assistant functionality.
- Captions are helpful in noisy or quiet environments, assist people who don’t speak the language fluently, and allow quick content skimming.
- High-contrast designs enhance visibility in bright light, reduce eye strain, and improve clarity for all users.
The main benefits of an accessible website
By following these principles, you’re providing an equal experience for everyone, improving your brand’s reputation and engagement, and fostering inclusivity. After all, a smoother user experience is better for everyone. Let’s look at some of the main benefits of an accessible website.
- Smoother experience: First and foremost, with an accessible website, you’re not excluding millions of potential clients or users. Take the example of a webshop that doesn’t provide keyboard navigation. If a person with a disability that prevents them from using a mouse can’t reach the “Add to Cart” or “Checkout” buttons, they won’t buy from the site and they’ll take their custom elsewhere. If the website has keyboard navigation, they stay and buy.
- Improved brand reputation: That smoother experience leads to more completed purchases and a greater chance of repeat business. What’s more, people notice and appreciate it when a business considers their needs. They’re more likely to recommend it to their peers and leave positive reviews. Making your website accessible reflects positively on your brand and can help to grow your customer base organically.
- Digital visibility: Google rewards accessible websites that make use of features like structured HTML, fast loading, and alt text for images. Improve your website’s accessibility and you’ll see benefits such as better SEO and search rankings, improved page experience, mobile friendliness, reduced bounce rate, and inclusion in featured snippets. All these help promote your business and boost its visibility, making it easier for potential users and customers to find you in the first place. And once they find you, they’re more likely to stick around.
The legal risks of ignoring accessibility laws
Businesses that ignore accessibility legislation run the risk of legal consequences, fines, and lost revenue. The European Accessibility Act applies to the websites and apps of businesses offering digital products or services in the EU. It has to be implemented by 28 June 2025.
It’s aligned with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. These are a set of internationally recognized standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium to make online content more accessible to people with disabilities. Users can file a complaint if a website or app is inaccessible. Each EU country has a designated body that handles enforcement.
The penalties vary by country but can include:
- fines;
- public listing of non-compliant organizations;
- court injunctions or legal action if changes aren’t made.
Anti-discrimination laws, like those based on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, can be used in cases where digital inaccessibility excludes people with disabilities. For businesses contracting with public bodies, accessibility compliance is often a requirement. Organizations also face reputational damage and loss of market access if they fail to comply.
There are precedents of large companies being penalized for inaccessibility.
- In 2019, a US court fined Domino’s Pizza and ordered it to make its website and app accessible after a visually impaired person claimed the company violated accessibility laws.
- A similar case against Nike in 2017 claimed that the design of its websites created barriers to access for visually impaired users.
- Walmart and Amazon have been sued for omitting alt text on their sites.
- Netflix faced action for missing captions and audio description, while Harvard University settled a lawsuit brought over a lack of audio transcription.
Practical steps to make your website more accessible
How can you make your website more accessible? There are lots of simple steps you can take that will make a big difference to the user experience and ensure equal access to everyone. Let’s start with a few of the key features you should be implementing.
- Add descriptive alt text to all images: Alt text is a brief text added to online images to describe their meaning, content, or function to users who can’t see them. It’s essential for people using screen readers. It also helps when images fail to load and contributes to SEO by giving search engines information about an image. Good alt text is concise, accurate, and relevant.
- Provide captions for all audio content: Captions are a text description of audio content. They allow people who are deaf or hard of hearing to understand the information being presented. They also support understanding for non-native speakers and those with cognitive disabilities.
- Ensure clear and consistent navigation: Clear navigation is about ensuring that users, especially those with disabilities, can easily find, understand, and move between different parts of a website. For people using screen readers or keyboard navigation, or those with cognitive or visual impairments, consistent and well-organized menus, headings, links, and page structures make it easier to engage with your business.
- Make your site fully keyboard accessible: Keyboard accessibility is a fundamental part of usability and compliance. It means ensuring that all the interactive elements on a website—links, buttons, forms, and menus—can be operated using only a keyboard, without requiring a mouse. This is essential for users with motor disabilities or vision impairments.
- Optimize for readability: Readability is about the language you use and how you present it. Think about the words, the colors, the typeface, and the layout. These are some key guidelines:
- Choose clear, simple language.
- Write in short sentences and paragraphs.
- Use the active voice whenever possible.
- Choose sans-serif typefaces (like Arial, Helvetica, or Roboto) and avoid decorative ones.
- Make sure the text clearly stands out from the background.
- Organize your content with a logical heading structure.
- Use bullet points, numbered lists, and subheadings to break up text.
- Add whitespace between sections.
- Limit complex animations and avoid flashing content.
- Avoid generic link text like “Click here” or “Read more.” Be specific: “Talk to an expert” or “Download accessibility checklist.”
- Test with real users: Test out your website on real users. Seek feedback on the clarity and flow from people with a variety of reading levels, disabilities, and language backgrounds.
Future-proof your business
“Back in 2006, when I studied web programming at Linnaeus University, no project passed without validation against WCAG guidelines,” says Karin Lindell, Efficy’s online marketing specialist. “Today, I see the European accessibility act as a natural evolution, ensuring technology serves everyone.”
Making sure your business complies with legislation is more than simply a legal requirement. It’s a competitive advantage that delivers:
- enhanced user experience;
- wider audience reach;
- improved SEO and performance;
- future-proofing.
Accessible websites provide a better user experience for everyone, not just people with disabilities. It boosts customer satisfaction and conversion rates. You’ll get better SEO and online visibility while demonstrating your commitment to inclusion and strengthening your brand reputation.
Take the next steps
By integrating WCAG principles into your email marketing and digital content, you’re not only meeting legal requirements, but you’re also fostering a more inclusive, user-friendly, and sustainable digital environment. This benefits both your organization and your audience, ultimately contributing to long-term success.
Is your business ready to comply with the incoming rules, to serve your customers and potential customers better, and gain that competitive edge? Download the checklist and take the next steps towards an accessible business.
