European Accessibility Act 2025: Is your digital product ready for the changes ahead?
A new European accessibility act is coming in June 2025, lifting the accessibility of digital products to the top of companies' priority lists. What does accessibility mean? Why is it important? What are the most common misassumptions around accessibility today? And most importantly, what should your company do now?
Accessibility simplified
Did you know that 20% of the population faces challenges accessing digital products due to disabilities, such as color blindness, limited mobility, and age-related impairments? Furthermore, 20% of people are neurodivergent, including those with dyslexia, ADHD, and autism.
Then there are situational disabilities. Have you ever struggled to see your phone screen in bright sunshine? These kinds of disabilities affect us all.
When we talk about accessibility, we talk about design for all as a concept. That means that we build software and websites without barriers that would prevent people with disabilities from accessing them.
The importance of accessibility
There are two main reasons why the accessibility of digital products is important: ethics and the soon to be renewed law.
Grocery shopping, personal finances, applying for jobs, buying clothes, visiting the doctor... in today's society, everything is digital. That is why digital exclusion creates unequal members of our community. A truly responsible company is one that ensures its products and services are accessible to everyone. So, let's build a more inclusive world where everyone has equal access to the digital services they need.
What will the new EU accessibility act entail?
A common misassumption is that accessibility equals font size and contrasting colours, when in fact most of the accessibility lies under the hood, in the code. For example, screen readers that are used by differently abled people read the code, not the visual stuff. Ability to write accessible code is a future skill.
EU’s accessibility act (EAA) will use the already established WCAG standard which includes guidelines that are organized under 4 principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Some of them will be must haves and some should haves. These new guidelines will apply to companies also within the private sector whereas the current guidelines only apply to the public sector.
The EU accessibility act will strive to ensure that products and services such as ATM’s, smartphones, e-books, banking services, e-commerce and public transportation are accessible for all.
Crowd Collective x Funka collaboration
We believe that digital products should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities. That's why we're working with Funka to raise awareness about the new EU accessibility act and help companies improve their products according to these new standards. We're also upskilling all our Crowd Collective tech consultants to ensure we're at the forefront of this important matter.
Don't let inaccessible products lock out 20% of the population. Reach out to us, and together, we'll tackle your accessibility challenges head-on!
Accessibility changes are coming – are you prepared? Join our free breakfast seminar about accessibility in our Stockholm office on March 22nd. The event is in Swedish and hosted in collaboration with Funka.