Accessibility moved from best practice to legal requirement across Europe in June 2025, when the European Accessibility Act started to apply. For businesses in the Netherlands and companies anywhere that sell to EU consumers, websites and apps now have to meet a defined accessibility standard. In the UK, the Equality Act has required accessible services for years, and buyers increasingly ask for proof. This guide explains who is covered, what regulators expect and how to build a compliant site on Webflow or WordPress.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Check your specific situation with a specialist.
The European Accessibility Act in brief
The European Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882) has applied since 28 June 2025. It sets common accessibility requirements for products and services sold to consumers across the EU, including:
- Ecommerce sites and online shops
- Online booking and reservation systems
- Consumer banking and payment services
- Ebooks and ereaders
- Passenger transport ticketing and information
- Telecoms and some streaming services
It applies to the service, not the company’s location, so a US, UK or Australian company selling to consumers in the EU is covered for those customers. Microenterprises with fewer than 10 employees and no more than 2 million euros in annual turnover are exempt for services.
The Netherlands: what the ACM expects
The Netherlands implemented the directive through the Wet implementatie Europese toegankelijkheidsrichtlijn. The Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM) supervises most digital services and has said it will start with guidance and education, using complaints and sector scans to decide where to act.
For covered services, expect the ACM to look for:
- A site and checkout that meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA as a baseline
- An accessibility statement describing your compliance level and known issues
- A way for visitors to report problems and get a response in reasonable time
Compliance guides report that fines can reach 900,000 euros or 1% of turnover for serious or repeated breaches, alongside periodic penalty payments. In practice, the ACM has said it will focus on guidance first and ask businesses to fix issues.
The UK: the Equality Act and beyond
The UK did not adopt the EAA, but UK law already covers websites:
- The Equality Act 2010 requires service providers, including private businesses, to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. The duty is anticipatory, which means you must plan for accessibility before someone complains.
- Public sector bodies must meet WCAG under the 2018 accessibility regulations and publish an accessibility statement.
- Selling to EU consumers brings UK businesses under the EAA for those customers.
Private sector enforcement in the UK runs mostly through individual claims, which makes it unpredictable. The practical risk for a SaaS or ecommerce business is often commercial: enterprise and public sector buyers ask for accessibility conformance reports before they sign.
Which standard to build to
WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the baseline that regulators reference today. WCAG 2.2 Level AA, published in 2023, adds criteria that matter on modern sites, such as minimum target sizes, visible focus that is not hidden behind sticky headers, and login flows that do not rely on memory puzzles. If you are building or redesigning in 2026, target WCAG 2.2 AA. It meets the older baseline and saves another round of fixes later.
Website accessibility checklist
- Color contrast: body text at least 4.5:1 against its background, large text and UI components at least 3:1.
- Keyboard access: every link, menu, form and modal works with Tab, Enter and Escape, in a logical order.
- Visible focus: a clear focus outline on every interactive element, never hidden by a sticky header.
- Target size: buttons and links at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or spaced so they are easy to tap.
- Text alternatives: meaningful alt text for informative images, empty alt for decorative ones.
- Headings and landmarks: one H1 per page, headings in order, and header, nav, main and footer regions.
- Forms: visible labels, clear error messages that say how to fix the problem, and no CAPTCHA puzzles without an alternative.
- Motion: respect the reduced motion setting and let visitors pause carousels and autoplaying video.
- Media: captions for video and transcripts for audio.
- Language and zoom: the correct
langattribute, and layouts that still work at 200% zoom and 320 pixel width. - Consent and cookie banners: reachable by keyboard, readable by screen readers and not trapping focus.
- Accessibility statement: published, linked in the footer and reviewed at least once a year.
“Accessibility is cheapest on day one. Contrast, focus states and form labels cost almost nothing in the design file and a great deal in a retrofit.”
Making it work in Webflow and WordPress
Webflow: set color contrast and focus styles in your style guide classes so every page inherits them, use semantic tags for sections and navigation, and run the Audit panel before each publish to catch missing alt text and other issues. Build custom dropdowns and tabs with ARIA attributes, or use Webflow’s native components, which handle much of the keyboard behavior.
WordPress: start from a theme that states WCAG conformance, keep page builders to a minimum, since they often output inaccessible markup, and test every plugin that adds front-end UI such as sliders, popups and forms.
On any platform, test with a keyboard only, with VoiceOver or NVDA, and with an automated checker such as WAVE or Lighthouse. Automated tools only catch part of the problems, so manual testing still matters.
Sources
- ACM enforcement: digital accessibility is now mandatory, TrustYourWebsite, updated August 2026
- The UK’s regulatory approach to accessibility, Taylor Wessing, 2025
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, W3C