PULSE - Europe beyond the beat

EU law

Business and accessibility: adaptations for people with disabilities by 2026

Europe implements accessibility law to ensure inclusive services. Businesses must comply by 2025. Progress and challenges in implementation.

by Davide Madeddu (Il Sole 24 Ore) and Ana Somavilla (El Confidencial, Spain)

28 October 2025

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The goal is to remove barriers and make access to services and tools easier for people who, every day, have to deal with a disability. In Europe, there are about 100 million of them. Four months after the European Accessibility Act (EAA) came into force on 28 June, the focus is now on the concrete implementation phase: a decisive step to ensure that key products and services - from telephones to computers, from banking and payment services to public transport, e-commerce platforms and electronic communications - are truly accessible to people with disabilities.

The European Commission recalls that the Eaa 'aims to reduce the barriers that people with disabilities face on a daily basis and to enable them to participate fully in society'. Audits and adaptations are already underway in the different member states, withcompanies called upon to comply with the new requirements by 2025 and, for some sectors, by 2026.

The principle is clear: 'Selected products and services sold in the EU must now meet common accessibility requirements,' reads a European Commission document. This includes, for example, appropriate font sizes and speech synthesis functionality in self-service payment terminals, e-readers and smartphones. The provisions also apply to ATMs, public transport and digital channels, with the aim of ensuring inclusive user experiences for all citizens.

How the provisions apply

Provisions that have a practical application. In public transport, for example, system operators 'must report on the accessibility of stations and their services. Information on transport services, such as timetables or ticket purchase, and information screens in stations must be accessible'. As for the EU emergency number 112, 'people with communication difficulties can access emergency services using voice, text or video in real time and from anywhere in the EU'. No less important is the aspect of money and the use of cash dispensers.

"Visually impaired people can better access banking services through accessible and multisensory interfaces. Specific height requirements help wheelchair users and people of short stature". In addition, IT equipment must be "accessible and compatible with assistive technology, enabling people with disabilities to fully participate in employment". Mandatory disability and accessibility training for service providers is also required.

A painting to change

It is certainly no coincidence that, very often, those who have to move around with the aid of wheelchairs have to deal with high ATMs or self-service petrol stations that are not always accessible to people of small stature. The hope, as the representatives of the assistance and voluntary associations emphasise, is that something will change. It is no coincidence that those who look positively on this measure are precisely the organisations that deal with the defence and protection of citizens' rights.

Positive user feedback

"We can only say welcome Eaa," comments Michele Carrus, president of Federconsumatori, the national association that protects the rights of consumers and citizens. "The EAA regulation was approved in the EU in 2019, with entry into force postponed to 2025, as is often done to give operators time to prepare.

It introduces criteria of adaptation to differently abled persons for the use of digital hardware and software tools, according to a logic of design by design". A step forward in the realisation of the process of equal opportunities for people living with a condition of disadvantage. "It is a rule of civilisation, which applies to all companies, including SMEs, with the exclusion of micro-companies (those with less than 10 employees and a turnover of 2 million) and those that can demonstrate a great disproportion between the investment costs required and the company's means in relation to their particular operating equipment".

Wide application

What prompted the representatives of the associations to express a positive judgement towards this measure is the fact that its application is wide-ranging: 'Obviously, it concerns all fields of digital use: from credit to transport services, from e-commerce to e-books, from totems to communications,' he adds. And we say 'Finally'. On the one hand, there will probably be the usual opposition from the anti-European sovereignists and the most reactionary right-wingers who defend the interests of the economic potentates, peddling fake news, who will say that these are too stringent rules, that they cost a lot of money that the small cannot afford, that the usual woke egalitarian ideology is behind them'.

Carrus also highlights another aspect: 'Here, AI, IOT, augmented reality can really become useful tools to facilitate digital interaction for people with greater difficulties, and that is good,' he concludes. 'But it is precisely in order to develop these modalities that a proactive standard such as the EAA is needed, because otherwise, the mere pursuit of economic utility in technological development does not spontaneously turn to tools to foster social inclusion. So welcome EAA'.

The Spanish case

In Spain, the transposition of the European Accessibility Directive took place through Law 11/2023 of 8 May, which came into force in the country to ensure that products such as computers and mobile phones and services such as e-commerce and banking platforms are fully accessible to people with disabilities and the elderly.

Since the European legislation has become operational, some concrete progress has been made, especially in the field of digital services and public platforms. Several governmental portals have introduced read aloud options, increased colour contrast and compatibility with screen readers. Some sites also include content adapted to people with comprehension difficulties, with a view to broader digital inclusion.

In the consumer sector, several ATMs, payment terminals and electronic devices have started to incorporate speech synthesis functions and character size adjustment. However, according to the main disability associations, progress remains slow and uneven.

In fact, the new Web Accessibility Barometer 2025, published in Spain, shows that 98 per cent of private companies still do not fully comply with the requirements of European law. The report, based on the international WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), indicates that 24 per cent of the analysed websites do not even incorporate the basic technical criteria.

The main shortcomings reported include the absence of alternative text for images, which renders visual content invisible to those using screen readers, insufficient contrasts between text and background, which hinder reading, and links without a defined purpose, which create confusion in navigation.

*This article is part of the European collaborative journalism project "Pulse"