Accessibility & Inclusion: Preparing for the European Accessibility Act

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) came into force on 28 June 2025. Although the UK has left the European Union, UK organisations that provide covered products or services to consumers in the EU can still fall within its scope. For charities, membership organisations, awarding bodies and professional associations with international audiences, that makes accessibility a commercial and operational consideration as well as a UK equality obligation.

The exact legal position depends on the service and market, but the strategic point is broader: organisations should not wait for a complaint or procurement requirement before making digital services usable by more people. Accessibility improves clarity, reduces friction and often makes a service better for everybody.

Accessibility is more than a compliance score

WCAG provides the most widely used technical framework for digital accessibility. Its principles require content and interfaces to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. WCAG 2.2 AA is a sensible current baseline for organisations improving websites, portals and digital services.

But passing an automated scan is not the same as providing an accessible experience. Automated tools identify only part of the picture. Keyboard use, focus order, form behaviour, error messages, content clarity, document accessibility and screen-reader interpretation all require human judgement and testing.

That is why accessibility needs ownership across design, development, content and operations rather than being delegated to a final technical audit.

The 5A framework

Acknowledge

Accept accessibility as a strategic responsibility. Understand who may be excluded by current services, which legal and contractual obligations apply, and where accessibility affects participation, membership, learning or assessment.

Audit

Review the most important user journeys, not just the homepage. Combine automated checks with manual testing. Include downloadable documents, authentication, forms, payment, portals and third-party services where they are part of the journey.

Adjust

Prioritise barriers by user impact and frequency. Fix critical blockers first, then establish a manageable backlog. Avoid waiting for a complete redesign when meaningful improvements can be made now.

Adopt

Build accessibility into normal delivery. Add requirements to procurement, design standards, content workflows, QA and definition-of-done criteria. Train the people who create and approve digital content.

Advocate

Make accessibility visible internally and externally. Give users a clear way to report problems. Publish an accessibility statement that reflects reality, including known limitations and the work being done.

Publishing late is still better than doing nothing

For organisations addressing the EAA after June 2025, the useful response is not to pretend the deadline did not pass. Be clear about current compliance, identify affected services, document decisions and create a prioritised remediation plan.

That same principle applies more broadly. Accessibility is rarely solved in one project. Websites change, content grows and new suppliers are introduced. The objective is to establish an operating habit that catches barriers earlier and improves them continuously.

Inclusion has a measurable cost and benefit

Inaccessible services can reduce reach, suppress conversion, generate avoidable support contacts and exclude people who would otherwise participate. In the charity sector alone, research has repeatedly highlighted the scale of income that can be lost when donation journeys are inaccessible. For awarding and professional bodies, the equivalent cost may appear as abandoned registrations, difficulty accessing learning or assessment, lower renewal or additional administrative support.

The strongest business case is therefore not a fear of enforcement. It is the value of making important services available to the widest reasonable audience, while reducing the cost of avoidable friction.

Kingsbury can help assess the journeys that matter most, turn findings into a practical roadmap and embed accessibility into governance.