01-07-2025
Disability groups hopeful about EU act to make smartphones, apps more accessible
Brussels wants ATMs, smartphones, websites and other services to be more accessible, and after years of campaigning, disability groups remain cautiously optimistic that change is on the way.
Under the European Accessibility Act (EEA), which was originally proposed in 2019, EU countries must strive to make their services such as websites, emergency numbers, banking, and ticket machines easier to use. Around 100 million people in the EU – roughly one in four adults – have a form of disability.
As of last Saturday, companies and public services in the EU must ensure their products or services comply with the EAA or risk fines. Train ticket machines, for example, will have to come with audio guidance.
Six years since the Commission first announced it was working on the legislation, only about a quarter of relevant EU businesses are fully compliant, Antoine Fobe from the European Blind Union told Euractiv, adding that most will be late.
Fobe welcomed the change, saying it will make a tangible difference for people with disabilities – especially those who are visually impaired – but warned that it must not become 'compliance window dressing.'
Alejandro Moledo, deputy director of the European Disability Forum, echoed the concern. The Commission needs to check that "the law is being applied on the ground," he said.
In 2024, the Commission referred Bulgaria to the EU Court of Justice for failing to transpose the EAA into national law. Ot her countries, including Germany, Croatia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Slovenia, and Greece, face additional procedures for missing parts of the criteria, Moledo said.
At a panel event hosted by AccessibleEU, manufacturers pointed to difficulties in creating a unified accessibility standard for payment systems, especially as many disabled users rely on smartphones and services like Apple Pay.
Moledo added that the law could have gone further. The current scope, he said, is narrower than what the European Disability Forum had campaigned for before 2019.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament's health committee in June backed a report from Left MEP Giorgos Georgiou calling for stronger disability rights protections – including improving access to new technologies. (de, jp)
