Guaranteeing equal access to digital services and products for everyone, including people with disabilities, has become a priority for many organizations — not only for social or moral reasons, but also because of legal obligations. Currently, only a small percentage of the Internet’s resources is accessible to people with disabilities. That is about to change.
What is digital accessibility?
Digital accessibility isn’t just about technical matters. Making a website or mobile app accessible means accounting for the needs of different users, who for example:
- Want to understand what’s in a picture despite being unable to see;
- Can’t use a mouse, and navigate the page with a keyboard instead;
- Zoom the page or change its colors to see the content better;
- Modify browser settings to make the content more readable for them.
These principles cover all elements of a site or app — not just the content, but also how it works and even the code it’s written in.
The European Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882)
In most countries, government and public administration websites, as well as the websites of institutions such as museums or libraries, must ensure equal access to their resources for all citizens, including those with disabilities. EU Directive 2016/2102 was implemented in Poland back in 2019 through the Act on the digital accessibility of public bodies’ websites and mobile applications.
From June 28, 2025, this requirement will also apply to the private sector, including e-commerce.
In fulfilment of its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the European Union decided to introduce new harmonized digital accessibility standards for people with disabilities. Bear in mind, however, that disability doesn’t have to be considered only in physical terms. Guaranteeing equal access to digital content also concerns people with cognitive difficulties, or even the elderly. Directive 2019/882 — the European Accessibility Act (EAA) — aims to create an environment in which access to products and services is not a privilege but a condition of equal participation in society, regardless of physical or mental abilities.
The deadline for implementing the EAA expired on June 28, 2022, while the provisions of the implementing act are to apply from June 28, 2025. The draft of the Polish act on ensuring that certain products and services meet accessibility requirements reached the Polish parliament at the end of 2023.
Material scope
Focusing on digital technologies (but not exclusively), the EAA will cover a broad range of products placed on the market after June 28, 2025, and services provided after that date.
In short, this includes:
- Passenger transport services,
- Audiovisual and telecommunications services and related devices,
- Banking and financial services and related devices;
- Computers, smartphones, mobile apps and operating systems;
- Access to media, entertainment and education, e-books, electronic tickets;
- Emergency notifications and access to emergency services;
and — perhaps above all:
- E-commerce.
Note that the rules will apply only to the extent that compliance does not require a significant change to the basic characteristics of the given product or service.
Will the rules cover your business?
Businesses operating in the sectors listed above will have to comply with the Directive’s provisions. An exception is made for microenterprises, defined as “enterprises employing fewer than 10 people whose annual turnover or annual balance sheet does not exceed €2 million”.
The digital accessibility rules won’t apply to microenterprises, but guidance and a tool are planned to make it easier for them to ensure the accessibility of their goods and services.
Regardless of company size and growth plans, however, adapting to the new requirements (implementation costs aside*) brings many upsides — not just in terms of image, but economically too.
Better website accessibility can make your goods and services more competitive and increase sales revenue, since more people will be able to use the site.
*Digital accessibility requirements won’t have to be met to the extent that compliance would involve a disproportionate burden.
Market potential
Globally, disability affects 1.3 billion people (data source: WHO), which translates into enormous purchasing power. According to the “Return on Disability“ report, together with friends and family, people with disabilities control over $13 trillion in annual income.
Eurostat data shows that in 2022 as much as 27% of the European Union’s population over 16 had some form of disability — that’s 101 million people, or a quarter of the EU’s adults.
In Poland, according to the 2021 national census, the number of people with disabilities was 5,447,548 — over 14% of the country’s total population. This means one in seven people in Poland lives with some form of disability. Statistics Poland’s research shows this number keeps growing.
This is therefore a huge audience — and an opportunity to deliver products and services to people who need them.
It’s also worth keeping in mind consumers’ growing awareness and their expectations of brands’ sustainability efforts regarding the environment, climate and society. ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) matters especially to Gen Z buyers, of whom as many as 89% declare readiness to buy products from businesses supporting social and environmental causes, and 65% say they consider companies’ social responsibility (CSR — Corporate Social Responsibility) before making a purchase decision (data source: The Valuable 500 Global Trends Report).
How to assess a website’s accessibility?
A website is accessible when it meets the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) criteria. WCAG is a set of guidelines defining the accessibility level of the entire digital world, including websites providing access to products or services — entertainment and news services included. It’s worth keeping them in mind from the product or digital-communication design stage onward.
WCAG comprises 3 conformance levels (measurable success criteria):
- A is the basic level,
- AA is the recommended conformance level and the global standard,
- AAA is a conformance level intended for dedicated software (not necessarily for general websites).
These success criteria simultaneously serve as a checklist that helps carry out a digital accessibility audit of a website.
The newest version of the guidelines is WCAG 2.2, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in October 2023. Work on WCAG 3.0 is currently in progress.
In Poland, the commonly used standard is the WCAG 2.1 specification (level AA is required by the aforementioned act on the digital accessibility of public bodies).
Note that the new success criteria in WCAG 2.2 build on WCAG 2.1 and concern primarily cognitive difficulties. Under WCAG 2.1, fully achieving level AA requires meeting 50 criteria. To bring your platform in line with WCAG 2.2 at level AA, you’ll need to meet 58 criteria (out of a pool of 87 success criteria in total).
What do you need to do to make your site digitally accessible?
Accessibility is defined through four general principles: understandability, operability, perceivability and compatibility (robustness).
To ensure your online store’s digital accessibility, make sure that:
- All users can use the website or app with the senses available to them. This means, among other things:
- providing alternative text descriptions (“alt text”) for non-text content such as photos and graphics, so blind users can understand what they contain;
- providing text transcripts for audio materials;
- adding captions and audio description to videos;
- ensuring the site is responsive, i.e. the view automatically adapts to the width of the user’s screen.
- All users can find and use content and functions, however they navigate. This means, among other things:
- making everything operable with the keyboard alone;
- keeping the element currently selected with the keyboard clearly visible (the focus);
- avoiding complex gestures on touchscreens, or providing simpler alternatives;
- allowing keyboard shortcuts to be disabled or remapped.
- All users can understand the content and how the site or app works. This means, among other things:
- using plain language, without unnecessary words or bureaucratic jargon;
- avoiding difficult words, and explaining them simply where they’re necessary;
- adding explanations to abbreviations and acronyms;
- providing understandable error messages in forms, along with hints on how to fix them.
- Content and functions work correctly across users’ different software. This can be achieved through, among other things:
- correct code, compliant with the HTML web standard;
- exposing status or state information for users of assistive technologies;
- ensuring that important messages and modal windows are announced by assistive technologies.
Remember that digital accessibility isn’t only about meeting legal requirements. It’s about creating a digital world in which everyone can participate to the same extent.
People with disabilities represent a huge and much-underappreciated market from a business standpoint, and the return on investing in accessibility can prove enormous. Businesses should feel encouraged to build accessibility into everything they do right away: it lets them reach an even larger audience, makes their products and services more competitive, and helps their websites rank higher in Google search results. Ensuring digital accessibility fits the trend of inclusivity and diversity — worth remembering in marketing communication as well.
