European Accessibility Act: from DACH to the rest of Europe

A shared framework for selected offerings

The EAA aims to reduce diverging requirements in the single market and improve access for people with disabilities. It covers selected products and services, such as computers, certain self-service terminals, e-books, banking services and electronic commerce. The claim “Since 2025, every website in Europe has to comply with the EAA” therefore goes too far.

When you expand, start with the service you actually offer. A corporate website, a consumer shop and a purely business-to-business procurement portal cannot be classified the same way without further checks.

Telling the directive and national laws apart

An EU directive is transposed into national law. The familiar names BFSG and BaFG refer to the German and Austrian implementing laws respectively. In further target markets, competent authorities, procedural rules and information requirements, among other things, may call for a separate review.

Create a short market overview for this: country, offering, target group, legal basis, competent authority and responsible contact. Document open questions before sign-off. A German template that has simply been translated does not automatically answer another country's legal questions.

Consider the public-sector framework separately

The EAA and the directive on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies have different scopes. For a public portal, the appropriate national public-sector rules must therefore be checked. A private information obligation under the BFSG and a public accessibility statement are not interchangeable documents.

This is especially important for agencies that run shops and public websites on the same technical platform. Shared accessible components make sense; the legal basis, mandatory information and acceptance must still be set for each project.

Translation is also a quality task

A new language version changes more than the body text. Longer buttons, different date formats, new error messages and different payment methods can create new obstacles. So test every language version you offer in the context of its most important user tasks.

An order should remain understandable from start to confirmation. Image descriptions, help texts, documents and confirmation e-mails also need the right language. Use a shared glossary so that the same action is not called something different on every page.

Reuse technology, assign evidence properly

A design system with accessible fields, dialogs and navigation makes work across several markets easier. Tests should still refer to specific versions, languages and user journeys. A result from the German checkout does not prove that a different local payment selection works.

So collect technical findings and manual results with a traceable test date. Link every fix to a retest. Accessonaut can help you find and organise problems that can be detected automatically; that does not amount to a legal guarantee across countries.

Checklist for your next EU market

1. 1Classify the covered service, consumer relevance and target market with expert input.
2. 2Check the national implementation, exemptions and competent authorities against current official sources.
3. 3Record technical requirements, mandatory information and the people responsible.
4. 4Test localised content and every step of important user journeys, both automatically and manually.
5. 5Document sign-off and include changes to language, payment or platform in the retest.