The European Accessibility Act and Beyond: The Future of Digital Accessibility

Web accessibility is no longer a looming best practice, it has arrived as a legal requirement worldwide. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) will reshape digital accessibility standards when it takes effect in June 2025. Not only will non-compliant businesses face penalties when engaging with European consumers, but they risk alienating users, damaging their brand reputation, and risk further non-compliance against ramping regulations that will adopt Europe’s new precedent. This blog explores the evolving web accessibility landscape and what businesses should prioritize to stay ahead.

The EAA is a new regulation enforcing accessibility of digital products and services operating in Europe. It applies to e-commerce platforms, digital content, web applications, and more. Web applications will need to adopt the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 AA standard. If you’re interested in learning more about updating your UI to be WCAG 2.1 AA compliant, check out our other blog here here.

While WCAG is a set of suggested guidelines for accessible web development, the EAA mandates compliance for businesses operating in the EU. Many regulations that exist today typically are confined to the public sector, but the EAA is establishing new precedent for the private sector. Non-compliance can lead to fines, market restriction, and other penalties.

June 28, 2025, with some additional leeway for legacy digital products in the EU, but there are other global regulations that are anticipated to adopt similar standards.

While many web developers may already be familiar with Section 508’s accessibility regulations, the ADA is expected to expand in 2025 with further restrictions for the private sector. This expectation follows the DOJ publishing a new rule in 2024 requiring private businesses that are used by public entities to adhere to WCAG guidelines.

In the province of Manitoba, the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA) will require organizations with “at least one employee” to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards or greater by May 1, 2025. This, like the EAA, applies to the private sector.

Okay, WCAG might not be the most exciting thing ever, but it’s the gold standard for web accessibility. But what could innovation in digital accessibility look like in the coming years?

Your web application’s UI might be accessible, but is the content or data it interacts with?

Investing in WCAG 2.1 AA will shield your web application from ramping global accessibility regulations.  However, WCAG 2.2 AA should be used as a north star for guiding your development.

WCAG 2.2 introduces additional success criteria that makes digital content more inclusive for a wider range of disabilities, including: 

Developing web applications with appropriately sized elements, proper contrast, and accessible user behaviours in mind will safeguard you against stricter regulations in the future.

As of February 2025, WCAG 3.0 is still a working draft with no official release date. It will build upon 2.2 by addressing how web content is consumed across new technologies, including the additions of virtual and augmented reality. New tests and different scoring mechanics will be introduced to help audit if a web application passes or fails WCAG compliance.

Becoming or staying compliant with growing trends in accessibility is a lengthy process and presents different challenges for the various components within your web application. You can either spend the development sprints to build and maintain the accessible design of your entire application, or you can lean on a trusted software development kit (SDK) such as Apryse’s WebViewer which already achieves WCAG 2.1 AA compliance of its UI, with future updates that will shield you from ramping regulations.

Interested in learning more about accessible document workflows? Reach out to our team and see how it could fit into your application.