Accessibility to products and services for people with a disability and older people

Why EU rules on accessibility requirements

The EU aims to make various products and services more accessible for older people and people with disabilities, while respecting the principle of equal treatment.

Improving the functioning of the internal market for specific accessible products and services, serves both the needs of these consumers and industry. An environment where products and services are more accessible allows for more inclusion and participation of citizens in society.

Current national accessibility requirements relating to specific products and services differ from member state to member state, leading to a fragmentation of the single market. 

The demand for accessible products and services is already high and the number of citizens with disabilities or functional limitations will increase significantly with the ageing of the EU's population.

In order to establish common accessibility standards the EU adopted two directives:

• the European accessibility act (2019), defining minimum accessibility requirements for key products and services
• the public sector web accessibility directive (2016), defining standards to make digital products and services more accessible to all users

Accessibility of products and services

The European accessibility act includes accessibility requirements for key products and services such as:

• phones, computers, payment terminals or self-service terminals for buying passenger transport tickets
• consumer banking services
• electronic communications services, including for example phone and Internet services
• the 112 emergency number calls
• access to audiovisual media services
• e-books
• e-commerce

The European accessibility act (directive 2019/882) was adopted in 2019. The new rules bring benefits not only to tens of millions of Europeans with disabilities, but also to many older people in the EU.

Products

Products should respect the following:

• common accessibility requirements on the user interface and functionality design of products
• more specific accessibility requirements for some electronic consumer equipment
• packaging, installation instructions and other product information on consumer products should also be accessible

Services

The directive also includes some service-specific requirements:

• common requirements in particular on webpages
• support services should also be accessible

Examples of specific accessibility requirements in self-service terminals, are:

• ticketing machines or ATMs, will have to provide the possibility to use personal headsets so that visually impaired persons be able to follow audio instructions
• if self-service terminal provides for visual modes of operation, it shall provide at least one mode of operation that does not require user perception of colour

Making the rules work

The European accessibility act is a directive, which means it sets binding accessibility goals but leaves to the single member states to decide how they want to reach them.

The act is applicable as of 28 June 2025. 

The EU has also left room for some exceptions. For example, micro-enterprises with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover below €2 million - that provide services are exempted from the directive and those providing products will be exempted from some obligations.

Web and app accessibility 

The public sector web accessibility directive (2016/2102) established standards to make digital products and services more accessible to all users. It has also set up a monitoring mechanism and also introduced a conformity check.

These new elements apply to website and mobile apps of administrations, public hospitals, courts and other public bodies.

In practice, this means that users are able to request specific information if content is inaccessible and to report compliance issues simply by clicking on a feedback link.

The directive entered into force in December 2016.

• Accessible websites and apps for all: Council adopts first-ever EU-wide rules (press release, 18/07/2016)

In the Council

After the Commission presented its proposal in December 2015 the Council's Working Party on Social Questions (SQWP) examined the text in detail.

The Slovak presidency advanced the discussions on the directive and adopted a step by step approach in modifying the text, focusing in particular on:

• clarifying the scope
• improving the legal clarity in the text
• avoiding possible overlaps or conflicts with existing EU legislation

• Progress report, 18 November 2016
• Working Party on Social Questions (background information)

During discussions, both at technical and political levels the Maltese presidency prepared drafting suggestions to address some concerns from delegations, among these were the need to:

• concentrate on selected products and services
• not set new accessibility requirements, where earlier EU legislation already sets accessibility requirements
• agree to keep the same structure of as proposed by the Commission
• provide more clarity concerning which aspects should be included in the audiovisual media services directive and which ones in the accessibility act
• omit specific accessibility marking for fear of administrative and financial burdens

The presidency made a substantial step towards a Council position on the directive.

• Progress report, 1 June 2017

After intense discussions and re-drafting the Council agreed its position (general approach) on the accessibility directive in the Estonian presidency. During discussions delegations commented on the wide range of the proposal, numerous links with other EU legislation and gaps in the impact assessment.

The most important political issues were solved in the last trilogue, its scope in particular in areas such as:

• transport and tourism
• accommodation
• food services
• built environment
• related EU acts
• micro-enterprises

• Accessibility for products and services: Council agrees its position (press release, 7 December 2017)

Negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament started in March 2018 and ended with a provisional agreement in November 2018.

The Council's Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) approved the provisional agreement on 19 December 2018.  

The Council adopted the accessibility act on 9 April 2019, following the adoption of its position at first reading by the Parliament on 13 March 2019.

The directive entered into force in June 2019.

• Improving accessibility to products and services for disabled and elderly people: Council adopts the accessibility act (press release, 9 April 2019)
• More accessible products and services for EU citizens: Council approves the provisional agreement with the European Parliament (press release, 19 December 2018)

Council's website accessibility policy 

Also this website is a public website, and the General Secretariat of the Council works to ensure that it is user-friendly. This is in accordance with the EU web accessibility directive (2016).

Web accessibility aims to make web texts, images, forms and navigation accessible and understandable to the general public. 

In order to meet evolving web accessibility criteria, it takes into account aspects such as: 

• 'alt tags' - image descriptions which help users working with screen readers to understand what the pictures are about
• contrast between text and background - which is adjusted to be readable
• navigability - keyboard-only navigation is available for users who have problems using a mouse

We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website. For more information:

• Council's website accessibility policy
• EU web accessibility directive (Official Journal of the EU)