The European Accessibility Act (EAA), a directive adopted in 2019 to improve the operation of the internal market in products and services accessible to people with disabilities (https://aeur.eu/f/hlw ), comes into force on Saturday 28 June.
Nearly 100 million Europeans are affected, as well as an increasing number of elderly people.
Banking services, e-commerce sites, e-books, payment terminals, transport services, IT equipment and even the 112 emergency number will now have to comply with specific physical, digital and sensory accessibility criteria.
Companies will also have to train their staff in accessibility.
In a press release, the European Disability Forum called on the Member States to go further, in particular by strengthening procedures for monitoring and taking account of representative organisations in implementation.
The European Accessibility Resource Centre, AccessibleEU, coordinated by Fundación ONCE, will support the implementation of the directive in all Member States.
According to a press release from the European Commissioner for Equality, Hadja Lahbib, it will now be a matter of ensuring that this measure is applied, both in terms of “equity and justice” and “growth and innovation”. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)