European Accessibility Act

The European Accessibility Act, or directive 2019/882, often shortened to EAA, harmonises accessibility requirements for digital products and services across the European Union. Its requirements have applied since June 2025. For a publisher, what matters most is its SCOPE: until then, accessibility obligations mainly targeted the public sector. The act extends them to many private services.

What changes for a news publisher

The text covers e-commerce, banking services, transport, e-books and audiovisual media services, among others. A news site selling subscriptions online falls within scope through its commercial function, regardless of its editorial content. Plainly: the subscription funnel, the reader account and the payment flow are digital services in the meaning of the directive.

A micro-enterprise exemption exists but should be read carefully: it is assessed on headcount and on turnover or balance sheet. A mid-sized regional title does not qualify. The precise transposition, supervising authorities and penalties are set by each member state, so the applicable national law has to be checked rather than the European text alone.

What you will actually be asked for

The same as under the RGAA, in a wider frame: an assessment, a declaration reachable from the service, and a reporting channel. That is the tipping point. Before, a publisher could decide accessibility would come 'later'. Now silence is a position, and anyone can verify it from a browser.

Where audio honestly sits

Nowhere in the requirements, and everywhere in the usage. No line of the directive mandates an audio version of articles, and no vendor can sell you EAA compliance through a player. What audio actually does is serve part of the audiences the directive is trying to stop excluding, and it only does so if the player itself meets the criteria. An inaccessible component installed in the name of accessibility is the worst possible outcome: it costs, it reassures, and it makes things worse.