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Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Is Your Website EAA Compliant? Six Web Accessibility Questions To Ask
Ran Ronen, Founder and CEO of Equally AI , the solution that helps teams create, test and ship better accessibility from start to finish. getty Digital leaders across industries are racing to meet the European Accessibility Act (EAA) requirements before the June 2025 deadline. Many organizations rely on basic web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) audits and accessibility plug-ins, and with that, assume their websites are "compliant enough." In reality, surface-level fixes may create the appearance of compliance but mask critical gaps that expose your business to serious non-compliance risks. Building on my previous articles about preparing for the EAA, including a checklist to meet EAA requirements, I would like to dive deeper into six strategic questions business leaders can ask to uncover hidden compliance gaps and build sustainable accessibility practices beyond the June 2025 deadline. If you're offering digital products or services in the EU, chances are you're covered. Even if your company is outside the EU, if EU consumers use your product or service, the EAA applies to you. Only true microenterprises (with fewer than 10 employees and under €2 million in annual turnover) may qualify for exemption, but even then, regulators expect documented justification, and I'd still strongly recommend voluntary compliance. Make sure to map out your products and services against the EAA's scope and requirements and understand your obligations. If you're claiming an exemption, back it with documentation that clearly outlines your eligibility, cost-benefit analysis and evidence that alternatives were explored. Also, ensure third-party vendors (e.g., digital agencies) provide accessibility-compliant components, backed by VPATs, to avoid liability. 2. What are the penalties for non-compliance with the EAA? Fines for EAA violations vary across countries, with amounts spanning from €5,000 up to more than €500,000, influenced by factors such as the seriousness of the breach and the scale of the business and how long the issue remains unresolved. Countries like Ireland may even impose both fines and jail time of up to 18 months for serious, ongoing non-compliance. But fines are only part of the penalties. Non-compliance can also trigger other penalties like market suspensions and public disclosure by regulations, which can disrupt operations and revenue streams, leading to long-term loss of market share and damaged customer trust. To mitigate these risks, I'd advise business leaders to prioritize compliance for high-risk assets like websites, apps and digital customer touchpoints. Ensure you keep full documentation of your accessibility efforts, even partial ones, to demonstrate good faith if audited. 3. How will the EAA impact small businesses? The EAA presents a dilemma for small businesses. While true microenterprises may be exempt, most small companies are expected to comply, and accessibility audits, remediation and staff training all demand serious investment. But the opportunity is equally real. Over 101 million people with disabilities across Europe remain underserved, and EAA compliance can open up new markets and strengthen your brand. My advice? Stay lean, but be strategic. Use free or low-cost accessibility audit tools like WAVE or Lighthouse to catch high-priority issues early, but pair them with expert-led manual audits and build accessibility into your core product development cycles to stay scalable. Partnering with industry peers or accessibility consultants can also stretch your resources further and reduce long-term risk. 4. Have we localized our compliance for each EU market we serve? While the EAA sets a unified standard, enforcement varies by member state, with each country setting its own timelines, documentation formats, complaint-handling processes and penalties. A compliance strategy that passes in one country might fall short in another, so if your business operates in multiple EU markets, you must account for these local variations to avoid compliance gaps. My recommendation: Assign regional compliance leads or cross-functional teams to track country-specific updates, adapt enforcement expectations into your operating procedures and ensure continuous alignment across jurisdictions. If your team lacks in-house oversight, consider partnering with legal or compliance teams who actively monitor these changes to ensure you're covering all the bases. 5. Do we have a clear role for who owns accessibility in our organization? In many organizations, accessibility responsibilities are distributed across multiple teams without clear ownership. Product leads may focus on features, legal on policies, designers on user interface (UI) patterns, etc. Under the EAA, accessibility spans all of these areas, and without a defined owner overseeing how they connect, it is almost inevitable that there will be compliance gaps. Along with the earlier-mentioned regional compliance leads or cross-functional teams, you also want to assign someone with decision-making authority to be accountable for aligning accessibility across teams and enforcing standards that tie to EN 301 549. That person (or team) should control priorities, sign off on risk and ensure decisions are followed through. If this structure doesn't already exist in your organization, your compliance efforts will be fragmented, putting your business at higher risk. 6. Are we prepared to maintain compliance post-June 2025? Many businesses are racing toward June 2025 with short-term checklists, but few are building systems to stay compliant after that. Accessibility requirements won't stop evolving once the deadline passes. New features, team turnover and tech stack changes can all break compliance if there's no plan to maintain accessibility over time. Make sure to build accessibility into your product and content teams' daily operations. That includes setting clear review cycles (my prescribed rule of thumb is monthly for new releases, quarterly for regressions and annually for full audits), using version-controlled design systems, and budgeting for ongoing accessibility updates. Conclusion The EAA deadline is now closer than ever, and organizations must understand that beyond demanding compliance, the law will fundamentally restructure what it means to operate in the European digital economy. As such, if your business treats accessibility as a late-stage checklist, you will always be reacting—patching gaps under pressure, losing ground to faster competitors and exposing yourself to regulatory risk you didn't plan for. The smarter path is to operationalize accessibility now: Embed it into product, engineering, customer experience and legal, and assign real accountability at the leadership level. The businesses that start asking hard questions today and build systems that hold up after 2025 won't just avoid penalties. They'll be the ones that define market leadership and accountability in the next phase of digital growth. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How to protect your business website from ADA-compliancy lawsuit
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — This week, Bimal Bhojani, founder and CEO of Raining Berries, spoke out about an ongoing a lawsuit filed by a blind woman who claims that the company's website failed to provide proper accessibility for visually impaired users. The lawsuit alleged that her screen reader was unable to interact with the website, making it impossible for her to place an order for a simple cup of coffee. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now This lawsuit highlights the ongoing debate around accessibility and ADA compliance, and what some see as exploitation of the legal system by serial litigants. The woman suing Raining Berries is represented by Aleksandra Kravets, a South Florida attorney who, according to court records, has filed 129 similar lawsuits in Florida's federal courts over the past year. Bhojani says many business owners feel like they are being 'extorted' by such legal action and pressure to settle the lawsuits to avoid expensive litigation. Raining Berries CEO calls ADA lawsuit a 'shakedown' 'I think people are feared, they're distraught, a lot of people are worried about losing their businesses,' Bhojani said, reflecting the growing anxiety among small business owners facing similar lawsuits. Bhojani, who insists his company's website complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), says he plans to fight the lawsuit in court. He holds a Certificate of Accessibility from a website company called Equally AI, which he believes demonstrates that the Raining Berries website meets required accessibility standards. To get a broader perspective on the issue, we spoke with Anastasia Protopapadakis, an ADA defense attorney with the Miami firm Gray-Robinson, with years of experience defending businesses against what some have referred to as 'serial' ADA lawsuits. Protopapadakis said that in her experience, no business owner intentionally creates barriers for disabled customers. However, Protopapadakis also acknowledged that businesses often settle these lawsuits because it can be less costly than going to trial. She explains that plaintiffs in ADA lawsuits are entitled to an injunction, and if granted, they can also receive attorney's fees. For businesses unsure of their full compliance with accessibility standards, the risk of a lawsuit is high, and that's why the majority of cases settle out of court. 'If there is an issue on the website or in a physical space, that plaintiff is entitled to an injunction, and if they get an injunction, they get attorney's fees,' Protopapadakis explained. 'Unless you are absolutely 100 percent sure that you are 100 percent compliant, and are going to be able to support that with evidence before a court, the likelihood is that there might be an issue on the website.' Protopapadakis said federal laws need to change to ensure businesses are better informed about their responsibilities before lawsuits are filed. She suggests that businesses be proactive in ensuring accessibility, recommending regular audits of their websites using automated tools and live users to check for potential issues. In most cases, private businesses can't be sued for damages, Protopapadakis said. Businesses are sued for attorney fees and compliance. Businesses who agree to settlements or lose their cases must pay attorney fees. Experts say these lawsuits are typically settled for between a couple of thousand dollars and $20,000, but could cost much more if defendants chose to fight in court. Further frustrating businesses, there are no federal regulations to give businesses a check list of what they must do to make their websites ADA accessible. The ADA was established in 1990, before websites like we have today. One thing is clear, though, courts have ruled that most websites must be accessible under the ADA. While there are no clear regulations pertaining to websites in the ADA, courts have recognized web accessibility standards called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG), created by an international consortium of volunteers. Some of the requirements: Content must be coded for audio translation by screen-reader software. There must be on-screen captions in videos for screen-reader software to read to the blind and descriptions for the deaf. Sites must include accessible drop-down menus for those who use a keyboard as an alternative to a mouse. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
