The Accessibility Directive and WCAG

From June 28, 2025, the new Accessibility Directive will come into effect. In short, this means that all apps and websites must be visually clear and provide support for screen readers and other assistive technologies for people with visual or motor impairments. The directive outlines who is affected, but for details on how digital services must be adapted, you need to refer to WCAG 2.1.

What is WCAG?

An almost impossible abbreviation to remember, but it refers to web content that must follow accessibility guidelines, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

The EU Accessibility Directive uses WCAG 2.1 as the foundation for its requirements, thereby setting clear expectations for the organizations it applies to.

Who needs to comply with this directive?

If you’re reading this in a professional context, the likelihood is very high (about 99.9%) that your organization or company is affected. There are exceptions, but they are few. For example, companies with ten or fewer employees and a turnover below €2 million are not required to comply.

There is also an exception if adapting your service to WCAG would effectively end your entire offering, but honestly, it’s hard to imagine such a scenario. If you can think of one, feel free to reach out!

APIs are also exempt, but their documentation is not. This is because WCAG and the Accessibility Directive are intended for people, not machines.

Accessibility for everyone

Accessibility is for all of us. At its core, it’s about having a realistic understanding of how users interact with products and services. It’s not just people with permanent disabilities who benefit from a WCAG-compliant website. Anyone can temporarily find themselves in situations where their senses or mobility are limited:

You might forget your glasses at home, or have blocked ears due to a cold. Some people prefer keyboard navigation to avoid repetitive strain injuries. Or you might be stressed, standing in bright sunlight, trying to catch a replacement bus in chaotic conditions.

Accessibility is about creating interfaces that work for people in real life, in all situations.

Why is it important?

The web is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. It is so deeply integrated into our society that hiding essential functions behind poor design becomes directly discriminatory. Think of WCAG as a kind of CE marking for your website, a quality stamp that ensures your solution works for everyone. CE marking is actually part of the directive, but only applies if you sell hardware (yes, hardware is also included in the directive, though that’s not our area).

What exactly is included in WCAG?

A lot. Too much to cover in a single blog post. The good news is that there are many tools available that can test your website and list what needs to be fixed. By using them, you get a clear overview of what needs attention without having to go through the WCAG 2.1 documentation on the W3C website line by line. If you do want to read it yourself, we recommend the Finnish WCAG site, which has done an excellent job making the guidelines more accessible.

But there’s more!

Not only are there different versions of WCAG, but there are also different levels within each version. To meet the EU requirements, you need to achieve level AA in WCAG 2.1. Some tools allow you to choose which level to test against, so it’s good to be aware of this.

So what should I do now?

• Test your website

Start by running a simple test on your website. There are plenty of free tools online that can give you a quick overview. Try a few different ones to better understand how they work and what the various criteria mean. Here are two we recommend, plus a link to many others:

• Accessibility Checker – our favorite, clear and informative
• Lighthouse – install the Lighthouse plugin in Chrome to test more than just accessibility
• W3C Test Tools – a filterable list with many accessibility tests

• Fix what you can yourself

Identify small adjustments you can make on your own and start there. Tackling the low-hanging fruit can make a big difference for users.

• Get help with the rest

For some issues, you may need assistance, for example, if the contrast between text and background is too low. In that case, your technical partner may need to update the CSS. You should also manually check (or ask an external partner to help with) keyboard navigation and whether forms are accessible.

It’s not enough to simply highlight incorrectly filled fields with a red border, as this doesn’t help color-blind users. A better solution is to move the input focus directly to the incorrect field, so the user doesn’t have to navigate with the keyboard.

• Automate where possible

To make a website accessible, it’s important to use ALT tags on all images. An ALT tag is a descriptive text used by assistive technologies for visually impaired users. Despite this, many websites lack these tags or have large image libraries without descriptions.

This is where generative algorithms can help. They are good at creating image descriptions, even if they sometimes miss important details or context. However, since ALT tags should be objective and neutral, this can actually be an advantage. Algorithms can help quickly and efficiently generate descriptions that meet requirements and, in the future, automatically create ALT tags as soon as a new image is uploaded.

Below is an example of an ALT text generated by ChatGPT. This functionality can easily be integrated into your workflow. It can even handle very unusual images:

Three pie charts showing the share of returned goods in the USA across different shopping contexts. The first pie chart shows a 9% return rate in physical stores, represented by a small grey segment. The second pie chart shows 15% to 30% returns for online purchases, with a larger grey segment. The third pie chart shows up to 50% returns in certain e-commerce categories, where half of the chart is grey. The rest of each pie chart is yellow and represents non-returned goods.

A black-and-white image showing a carved statue of Jesus holding a large shrimp, next to a young boy in overalls holding a chainsaw labeled ‘Chainsaw.’ The boy has a serious expression, and the environment appears rustic and rough

• Set requirements for new projects

Make sure all new projects comply with the Accessibility Directive. Talk to your suppliers and ask them to explain how they ensure this. Vague answers like “there’s a plugin for your CMS” are not enough.

Conclusion

Accessibility is not just a requirement; it’s an opportunity to make your website better for everyone.

Start today! The more accessible your website is, the better it will be for all users, regardless of their circumstances.

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