Web Accessibility Directive:
Frequently Asked Questions

These are frequently asked questions and answers on the EU Web Accessibility Directive.

The objective of this website is to support the implementation of the Directive and to provide reliable information and resources to those involved in buying, designing and monitoring websites or mobile applications, as well as users. This website is maintained by the Web Accessibility Initiative - Communities of Practice (WAI-CooP) Project.

3. What are the accessibility rights of persons with disabilities?

The rights of persons with disabilities are enshrined in the United Nations Convention for the right of persons with disabilities (UNCRPD).

Several articles in the UNCRPD relate to accessibility rights, including:

The UNCRPD was ratified by the European Union, as well as all EU member states. They therefore committed to taking appropriate measures to:

State Parties have also undertaken to refrain from engaging in any act or practice that is inconsistent with the UNCRPD and to ensure that public authorities and institutions act in conformity with it.

In the EU, the Web Accessibility Directive sets out what public sector bodies must do to ensure that their websites and mobile applications are accessible. The European Commission provides more information about the Web Accessibility Directive on their website.

6. What is the European Accessibility Act and how does it relate to the Web Accessibility Directive?

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is a new piece of EU law. Its objective is to remove accessibility barriers to a range of goods and services traded in the internal market. It will make it easier for persons with disabilities to find accessible products and services.

The EAA sets new EU-wide minimum accessibility requirements for a range of products and services. It is a directive, which means that it sets binding accessibility goals for EU Member States, who can decide how they achieve these goals.

The EAA is aligned with and complements other EU legislation tackling accessibility, such as the Web Accessibility Directive. While the Web Accessibility Directive applies to websites and apps of public sector bodies, the EAA applies to the private sector and covers a wider range of products and services.

The EAA came into force on 27 June 2019 and Member States had 3 years to transpose it into national law. This means that they were required to introduce new and/or update existing national legislation to comply with the EAA by June 2022. Businesses now have a maximum of 3 years to prepare as they will need to comply with the EAA by no later than June 2025, when it will be fully in force.

The products and services covered by the EAA include:

With regards to websites and mobile applications, the EAA has the same accessibility requirements as the Web Accessibility Directive.

Find out more about the EAA in the European Disability Forum toolkit on the transposition of the EAA.

The 'AccessibleEU Resource Centre' has resources on accessibility of the built environment, transport, as well as information and communication technologies.

20. What do I need to know about the accessibility statement?

The Web Accessibility Directive requires public sector bodies to provide and regularly update a ‘detailed, comprehensive and clear’ accessibility statement on their website or mobile application.

The accessibility statement must include the following information:

The accessibility statement can also include optional content, for example:

The declarations made in the accessibility statement should be accurate and based on one of the following:

  1. an actual evaluation of the website's or mobile application's compliance with the requirements of the Directive, such as a self-assessment done by the public sector body or an assessment carried out by a third party, for example a certification;
  2. any other measures, as deemed appropriate by the Member States, which provide equal assurance that the declarations made in the statement are accurate.

The statement should indicate the method used.

There is a model accessibility statement in an implementing decision published by the European Commission. It provides more detail on mandatory and optional content requirements.

The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has more general information about accessibility statements and why they are helpful, as well as an accessibility statement generator.

27. What is the feedback mechanism and how to use it?

The Web Accessibility Directive requires public sector bodies to include a feedback mechanism in the accessibility statement on their website or app.

The feedback mechanism should provide a means for users to contact the public sector body directly to let them know about an accessibility issue and request alternative formats for inaccessible content. This can be inaccessible content that is listed in the accessibility statement, content that is excluded from the scope of the Web Accessibility Directive, or content that the user has come across while browsing the website or using the app.

The feedback mechanism is useful for users, but also for public sector bodies as it enables them to get useful information to address issues on their website or app.

The Web Accessibility Directive states that in response to a ‘legitimate and reasonable’ request, the public sector body should provide information ‘in an adequate and appropriate manner within a reasonable period of time’.

If there is no accessibility statement available, you can try other ways to contact the website owner.

29. How is the Web Accessibility Directive enforced?

Member States have to ensure there is an ‘adequate and effective’ enforcement procedure enabling people to submit complaints to a national body responsible for the enforcement of the Web Accessibility Directive.

There are designated national enforcement bodies for the directive in all Member States.

Information about the enforcement procedure and the national enforcement body must be included in the accessibility statement.

The enforcement procedure should guarantee compliance with the directive’s accessibility requirements, an effective handling of notifications of inaccessible content or requests for accessible content received through the feedback mechanism, and the review of the 'disproportionate burden’ assessments carried out by public sector bodies.

This enforcement procedure is a nonjudicial procedure. Persons with disabilities also have the right to go to court to seek redress if they wish to do so.

30. What is the 'disproportionate burden' clause?

The Web Accessibility Directive states that delivering accessibility requirements should not impose a ‘disproportionate burden’ on public sector bodies.

In order to assess the extent to which complying with the accessibility requirements in the directive imposes a disproportionate burden, a public sector body must take account of relevant circumstances, including:

According to the directive, measures that would impose a disproportionate burden should be understood as measures that would impose an ‘excessive organisational or financial burden’ on a public sector body, or would ‘jeopardise the body's capacity to either fulfil its purpose or to publish information needed for or relevant to its tasks and services, while taking into account the likely resulting benefit or detriment for citizens, in particular persons with disabilities’.

Public sector bodies can carry out an initial assessment to decide whether complying with the accessibility requirements in the Web Accessibility Directive constitutes a ‘disproportionate burden’. Only legitimate reasons should be taken into account in any assessment of the extent to which the accessibility requirements cannot be met because they would impose a disproportionate burden. The Web Accessibility Directive states that ‘lack of priority, time or knowledge’ should not be considered legitimate reasons. It also states that there should not be any legitimate reasons for not procuring or developing software systems to manage content on websites and mobile applications in an accessible manner, since sufficient and advisory techniques are available to make those systems meet the accessibility requirements in the directive.

If public sector bodies make use of the ‘disproportionate burden’ clause, they have to explain in the accessibility statement which parts of the accessibility requirements could not be complied with and provide accessible alternatives.

31. What are the exemptions in the Web Accessibility Directive?

There are several exemptions in the Web Accessibility Directive – some are temporary and some are permanent. Some exemptions restrict the scope of the directive and some exemptions focus on specific types of content.

Exemptions are listed in article 1 of the Web Accessibility Directive.

However, it is important to note that Member States can decide not to make use of exemptions.

Exemptions relating to the scope:

Exemptions regarding specific types of content:

Users can request access to content that is not accessible through the feedback mechanism available on the accessibility statement of the website or mobile application.

32. Can Member States go beyond the minimum requirements in the Web Accessibility Directive?

Yes, Member States may keep or introduce measures which go beyond the minimum requirements for accessibility of websites and mobile applications established by the Web Accessibility Directive as it is a ‘minimum harmonisation’ directive. This means that it only sets out the absolute minimum requirements that have to be met by public sector bodies for their websites and mobile applications.

If there are better provisions already in place in a Member State, these provisions do not have to be amended.

Governments can decide to implement new provisions that go beyond what is in the directive, for example they can choose a wider scope.

The directive also states that Member States should be encouraged to extend the application of the directive to private entities that offer facilities and services which are open or provided to the public, including in the healthcare, childcare, social inclusion and social security areas, as well as in the transport sector and the electricity, gas, heat, water, electronic communication and postal services.

33. What does the Web Accessibility Directive say about training and awareness-raising?

The Web Accessibility Directive states that Member States have to ‘promote and facilitate’ training programmes relating to the accessibility of websites and mobile applications for relevant stakeholders and staff of public sector bodies. These training programmes should be designed to train them how to create, manage and update the accessible content of websites and mobile applications.

Relevant stakeholders include organisations representing the interests of persons with disabilities, organisations of older people, as well as others, such as social partners or industry involved in the creation of accessibility software relating to websites and mobile applications.

Member States also have to take necessary measures to raise awareness of the accessibility requirements in the Web Accessibility Directive, of their benefits to users and owners of websites and mobile applications, and of the possibility of giving feedback in the case of any failure to comply with the requirements of the directive.

The directive states that Member States, in close cooperation with the Commission, should promote the use of authoring tools that allow better implementation of the accessibility requirements. Such promotion could take passive forms, such as publishing a list of compatible authoring tools, or active forms, such as the requirement to use compatible authoring tools or to fund their development.

When they report to the European Commission on their monitoring of the implementation of the Web Accessibility Directive, Member States have to provide information about training and awareness-raising activities.

34. What third-party content on a website must be accessible?

Article 1 or the Web Accessibility Directive states that third-party content can only be exempt if it is 'neither funded nor developed by, nor under the control of, the public sector body concerned'.

Therefore, third-party content on a website must be accessible if any of the following situations applies:

Examples of third-party content that meets at least one of the above criteria include:

35. How is compliance with the Web Accessibility Directive assessed?

The European Commission explains how to assess the compliance status of a website or mobile application in the annex of its implementing decision establishing a model accessibility statement. The compliance status describes how the website or mobile application complies with the standards and/or technical specifications, or the national legislation transposing the Web Accessibility Directive.

There are three different statuses: 'fully compliant', 'partially compliant' and 'not compliant'.

A website or mobile application is deemed to be 'fully compliant' if all requirements of the standard or technical specification, or the national legislation transposing the Directive, are fully met without exceptions.

A website or mobile application is deemed to be 'partially compliant' if most requirements of the standard or technical specification, or the national legislation transposing the Directive, are met.

A website or mobile application is deemed to be 'not compliant' if most requirements of the standard or technical specification, or the national legislation transposing the Directive, are not met.

Where the website or mobile application is either 'partially compliant' or 'not compliant', the accessibility statement should include details of the content, or functions, that are not accessible; this should be explained in simple, non-technical terms.

The compliance status must be mentioned in the accessibility statement.

Find out more about accessibility statements.

Contact our helpdesk if you have further questions or comments on this FAQ.