The European Accessibility Act, Directive (EU) 2019/882, has applied since 28 June 2025. One requirement inside it gets missed even by businesses that have otherwise worked on their site’s accessibility: a published accessibility statement, in a specific format, covering specific things.
What the Directive actually says
Article 13(2) requires that this information "shall be made available to the public in written and oral format, including in a manner which is accessible to persons with disabilities." It is not enough to be accessible in substance, the statement about your accessibility has to itself be accessible.
What Annex V requires it to cover
- A description of the service and how it meets the Directive’s accessibility requirements.
- Where a specific requirement was judged a disproportionate burden under Article 14, which one, and why.
- Contact details for someone who can respond to accessibility questions or complaints.
Who this applies to
The EAA reaches specific sectors rather than every website outright: e-commerce, banking and payment services, transport ticketing, telecommunications and e-books are named directly. A small business selling physical products through its own site, running bookings, or offering any of those regulated services should assume the statement requirement applies and work backward from there, rather than assume it is exempt.
A starting point
- Check which of the named sectors, if any, your site falls under.
- If one applies, draft a statement covering what Annex V asks for, rather than a generic one-line disclaimer.
- Publish it somewhere easy to find, not buried three clicks from the homepage, since the point is that people can actually read it.
AuditMerlin does not check for an accessibility statement itself, but its free scan does run 11 WCAG 2.2 AA markup checks alongside its security and AI Act checks, a reasonable technical starting point before you write the statement you now know you need.