European Accessibility Act Goals and Benefits
Around 80 million people in the EU are disabled to some degree. Making everyday products, services and settings accessible is a crucial step in ensuring people with disabilities can fully and equally participate in society. (We recognise there is no single preferred terminology in relation to disability and use ‘people with disabilities’ and ‘disabled people’ interchangeably on our website.)
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) comes into law in Ireland on 28 June 2025. It aims to improve the market for a range of digital products and services within the EU by removing the barriers created by different accessibility rules across member states.
Aims of the EAA
The EAA aims to help consumers by:
- making accessible products and services more available across the European Union (EU)
- making sure that accessibility requirements are consistently applied to the manufacturing and sale of certain products and services across the EU
- requiring that public procurement (e.g., government contracts) include accessibility requirements
- making sure that the EAA-related products and services bought by public organisations meet the EAA’s accessibility requirements.
Benefits of the EAA
The benefits of the EAA for disabled people and elderly people include:
- more accessible products and services in the market
- more competitively priced accessible products and services
- fewer barriers when accessing transport, education and employment
- an increase in jobs that require expertise in accessibility.
