The laws that ask for an accessible website, described plainly, with the source for every sentence.
Six pages and a set of questions. Each page says who a law applies to, what it requires, who enforces it, what the penalties are, who is exempt, and what meeting it looks like in practice. Every factual sentence carries its source, the article or section, the source's date, and a short quotation from it. These pages describe the law. They do not say what any product does about it.
Does the European Accessibility Act apply to you?
Answer each question by following its link. Every outcome is written out below, including the ones that say the Act does not apply, and each question cites the article of Directive (EU) 2019/882 that decides it. National law can add to the Directive; this follows the Directive.
Does the European Accessibility Act apply to you? Five questions.
The laws
- The European Accessibility Act
Directive (EU) 2019/882, applied across the Union since 28 June 2025. It reaches online shops that sell to consumers in the EU wherever the shop is based, exempts the smallest service providers, and asks for an explanation of how the service meets the requirements rather than a certificate.
- EN 301 549
A European standard for the accessibility of information and communication technology, published by ETSI with CEN and CENELEC. For websites it points at WCAG. It is what an EU law means when it says a website should be accessible, once the law's harmonised standard is cited in the Official Journal.
- WCAG
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are written by the World Wide Web Consortium. They are not a law. They are the measure that laws in the EU, the United States and the United Kingdom use when they need to say what an accessible web page is.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 reaches businesses open to the public through Title III and state and local governments through Title II. For businesses there is no web regulation and no technical standard in the law; courts decide case by case, and most cases are private suits. For governments a 2024 rule names WCAG 2.1 Level AA, with dates now in 2027 and 2028.
- Section 508
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act binds federal departments and agencies when they build, buy, maintain or use information technology. It does not bind private companies' own websites. It reaches a company only when the company sells technology to the federal government.
- The UK Equality Act
In Great Britain a business that provides a service to the public, online or not, must not discriminate because of disability and must make reasonable adjustments. The Act names no web standard; the statutory code says websites are services. Public bodies have their own regulations that do name WCAG.