The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is no longer a deadline on the horizon. It’s the law. Since June 28th, 2025, businesses serving the EU must ensure their websites and digital services are accessible. 

For millions of WordPress site owners, agencies, and developers, this is a turning point. If your website offers products or services to anyone in the European Union, the EAA applies to you. The grace periods and transition timelines that once seemed so distant are now active, and the question is no longer if you must comply, but how you will act now that accessibility is required.

This guide breaks down the timeline, enforcement process, and the five practical steps you can take to make your WordPress site more accessible right now. 

Understanding the Timeline & Grace Periods

The deadline has passed, but the EAA isn’t a simple on/off switch. It uses a phased approach with different rules for new and existing services.

New Products and Services: Compliance from Day One

Any new product or service launched after June 28, 2025, must be accessible at launch

  • Launching a new e-commerce site in October? It must meet accessibility standards immediately.
  • Shipping a new plugin in November? It must be accessible out of the box.

There is no grace period for new offerings. The expectation from regulators is clear: if you are building something today, you must build it for everyone. This is a crucial shift. It forces accessibility to be a core part of the planning, design, and development process, rather than an afterthought. For WordPress professionals, this makes accessibility a foundational requirement, on par with security and mobile responsiveness.

Existing Services: The Transition Period 

This is where things get more nuanced. For services that were already in place before the June 28, 2025 deadline, the EAA provides a transition period. These services must become fully compliant by June 28, 2030.

But calling this a “grace period” is misleading. It’s not a free pass to delay, it’s a transition window meant for steady progress.

Here’s what that really means:

  1. Waiting puts you at a disadvantage. Accessible sites reach more users, rank better in search, and strengthen brand trust. Delaying until the last minute means missing out on years of benefits.
  2. Complaints can still trigger action: If a user with a disability files a complaint against your website in 2026, authorities won’t wait until 2030. They will investigate and expect to see a clear plan and evidence of improvements. Having a clear roadmap, showing documented progress, and demonstrating a commitment to accessibility will be your best defense. Doing nothing leaves you exposed.
  3. Major updates may reset your deadline: The transition period often doesn’t apply if you make “substantial modifications” to your existing service. What counts as substantial? This can be a gray area, but a complete website redesign, a major overhaul of your e-commerce platform, or a significant change in functionality could be interpreted as creating a “new” service. In that case, you would be required to meet full compliance immediately, not by 2030.

The bottom line: the 2030 deadline is the latest possible date, not the time to start. The law expects consistent, good-faith progress beginning now.

What Happens If You’re Still Not Compliant?

The EAA is in effect, and ignoring it carries real consequences. While enforcement varies by EU member state, the process follows a common pattern. It’s not about “accessibility police” knocking at your door,  it’s a structured, consumer-driven system designed to push businesses toward compliance.

How Non-Compliance Gets Flagged

There are two main ways your site can come under scrutiny:

  1. Consumer Complaints: The most common trigger is a user with a disability who can’t access your site to complete a purchase, use a service, or find information.. Under the EAA, they now have a clear legal path to file a complaint with the designated national authority in their country.
  2. Market Surveillance: Regulators also run proactive audits, especially in high-impact sectors like e-commerce, banking, and travel. Your site may be flagged during one of these routine checks.

What Happens Next?

You won’t immediately receive a massive fine in the mail. The goal of the EAA is to achieve accessibility, not to punish businesses. 

If your site is flagged, enforcement usually unfolds in stages:

  1. Notice of non-compliance: The first step is almost always a formal warning. A national authority will contact you, detailing the specific accessibility issues found on your website. They will provide a clear explanation of which parts of the EAA you are violating.
  2. Deadline to fix Along with the warning, you will be given a reasonable period of time to remediate the issues. This isn’t the five-year transition period; this is a much shorter, specific deadline to fix the problems that were identified. The length of this period can vary depending on the complexity of the issues.
  3. Escalation: This is where the real consequences kick in. If you ignore the warning and fail to make the required changes within the given timeframe, penalties will follow. 

Potential Penalties:

The EAA requires penalties to be “effective, proportionate, and dissuasive,” meaning they have to be significant enough to make you take compliance seriously. In practice, that can mean:

  • Substantial Fines: This is the most common penalty. The amount can vary dramatically from one country to another, ranging from a few thousand Euros to a percentage of your annual turnover. For a small business, even a minor fine can be a significant financial blow. For larger companies, the fines can be massive.
  • Service Bans or Restrictions: In more severe cases, authorities can order you to stop offering your service to consumers in their country until you are compliant. For an online business, being blocked from an entire EU country is a devastating blow.
  • Withdrawal of Products from the Market: If you sell a digital product (like a WordPress plugin) that is found to be non-compliant, you could be forced to pull it from the market.

Personal and Criminal Liability: In some member states and for certain repeated or severe violations, there can be implications of personal liability for company directors. While rare, it underscores the seriousness with which this legislation is being treated.

Beyond Legal Risks

Official penalties are serious, but the reputational impact can be just as damaging. Being publicly named as inaccessible undermines customer trust and can harm your brand for years. In today’s market, exclusion isn’t just non-compliance, it’s bad business. 

Why WordPress Users, Agencies, and Plugin Makers Must Act

The EAA is a broad legislation, but it has very specific and immediate implications for the entire WordPress ecosystem. Whether you’re a small business owner, a freelance developer, or a large agency, you share responsibility for compliance.

For WordPress Site Owners

If your site serves EU users, compliance is no longer optional. This applies whether you sell products, offer services, or even just target an EU audience with your content.

Here’s what this means for you in practical terms:

  • You’re accountable: Fines and penalties will be directed at your business, not the tools you use. 
  • Every touchpoint matters: It’s not just about your homepage. Accessibility must extend across the full user journey: from product pages and contact forms to checkout and support. 
  • Third-party tools count: Do you use a third-party booking plugin? An e-commerce extension? A form builder? You are responsible for ensuring that these tools do not introduce accessibility barriers on your site. You need to choose your themes and plugins wisely.

Accessibility is now a core business requirement, not a feature you can decline.

For Agencies and Freelancers

As a web professional, your role has become even more critical. Clients are relying on you to deliver not just beautiful and functional sites, but compliant ones. That responsibility is also an opportunity.

  • Protect your clients: Many won’t know the details of the EAA or its technical requirements. Educating them and building accessible sites safeguards their business and your professional reputation. 
  • Stand out in the market: Agencies offering proven accessibility expertise will win more competitive projects.
  • Adapt your workflow: Accessibility needs to be embedded into design, development, and QA — from theme selection to plugin vetting and testing.

For agencies, the EAA is a call to level up your skills and differentiate your service offerings. It’s a chance to lead the way and become a trusted partner for clients navigating this new legal landscape.

For Plugin and Theme Developers

Themes and plugins are central to compliance. The code you ship directly affects whether a site meets the law.

  • Part of the compliance chain: If your plugin outputs inaccessible elements, like unlabeled form fields or non-keyboard-friendly sliders, you’re creating risk for your users.
  • Market demand is shifting: Agencies and site owners are actively seeking accessibility-ready tools. Documenting compliance (e.g. with an Accessibility Conformance Report) is becoming a selling point.
  • Risk of being dropped: Products that block compliance will be abandoned. Accessibility isn’t just good practice, it’s critical for long-term adoption.

As accessibility expert Itamar Haim notes, “For developers in the WordPress space, the EAA isn’t a burden; it’s a market opportunity. The creators who embed accessibility into the core of their products won’t just be compliant, they will become the default choice for a new generation of builders who see inclusivity as non-negotiable.”

5 Practical Steps for WordPress Site Owners

Action is required, but what does that look like in practice? The good news is that you can make significant progress by following a structured, step-by-step approach. Here are five practical things every WordPress site owner should be doing right now:

Step 1: Audit Your Website

You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken. The first step is to get a clear picture of your website’s current accessibility status. A thorough audit is a combination of automated scanning and manual testing.

  • Automated Scans: Automated tools are great for catching common, code-based issues. They can quickly scan your entire site and identify problems like low color contrast, missing alt text for images, or form fields without proper labels. There are many tools available, including browser extensions and specialized plugins. For WordPress users, a tool like the Accessibility Assistant from Ally by Elementor is designed to integrate directly into your workflow. It scans your pages against WCAG 2.1 AA standards (the technical standard behind the EAA) and gives you a clear report of violations.
  • Manual Testing: An automated tool can’t tell you if the user experience actually makes sense. Manual testing is crucial for uncovering usability issues. Here’s a simple checklist to get started:
    • Keyboard Navigation: Can you navigate your entire website using only the Tab key? Can you access every link, button, and form field? Is your focus always visible so you know where you are on the page?
    • Screen Reader Testing: Use a screen reader (like NVDA for Windows, VoiceOver for Mac, or TalkBack for Android) to navigate your site. Does the content make sense when read aloud? Are images described properly? Are links and buttons clearly labeled?
    • Check Your Content: Is your heading structure logical (H1, then H2, then H3)? Is your link text descriptive (e.g., “Read our full accessibility report” instead of “Click here”)? Is your content written in plain language?

The result is a prioritized to-do list for accessibility fixes.

Step 2: Fix High-Impact Issues

You don’t have to fix everything at once. Start with the issues that have the biggest impact on usability. 

Here are some high-impact areas to focus on first:

  • Missing Alt Text on Informative Images: If an image conveys important information, it must have descriptive alternative text for screen reader users. This is one of the easiest and most critical fixes you can make.
  • Low Color Contrast: Text that is hard to read against its background is a barrier for users with low vision. Use an online contrast checker to ensure your text meets at least a 4.5:1 contrast ratio.
  • Vague Link Text: Fix all instances of “click here,” “learn more,” or “read more.” Make sure the link text itself describes where the user will go.
  • Missing Form Labels: Every field in your contact forms, login forms, and checkout process must have a properly associated label. This is essential for screen reader users to understand what information is required.
  • Ensure Keyboard Accessibility: Make sure every interactive element on your site can be reached and operated with the keyboard.

These quick wins deliver immediate improvements for the largest number of users.

Step 3: Publish an Accessibility Statement

An accessibility statement is a public declaration of your commitment to inclusivity. It’s also a key requirement under the EAA. Your statement should be easy to find (usually in the website footer) and should include:

  • Your commitment to accessibility.
  • The conformance standard you are aiming for (e.g., WCAG 2.1 Level AA).
  • Any known accessibility issues you are currently working on.
  • Contact information for users to report accessibility problems.

This statement does two important things. First, it’s a sign of transparency and good faith, which can be very important in the eyes of both users and regulators. Second, it provides a valuable feedback channel, allowing you to learn directly from users who are experiencing barriers.

Step 4: Evaluate Your Themes and Plugins

Your theme and plugins shape the accessibility of your site.

  • Themes: Start with an accessibility-ready theme that has solid, semantic HTML structure, proper heading hierarchies, and keyboard navigation support. If your current theme has major accessibility flaws, you may want to consider switching.
  • New plugins: Before installing a new plugin, check its documentation for any mention of accessibility. Contact the developer and ask about their commitment to WCAG standards. Practice caution with plugins that rely heavily on visual-only interactions, such as sliders or pop-ups that can’t be operated with a keyboard.
  • Existing plugins: Review the plugins you already have installed. Are they creating accessibility problems? For example, is your social sharing plugin creating buttons that aren’t keyboard accessible? Is your form builder creating unlabeled fields?

You need to be a discerning consumer of WordPress tools. Choosing accessible products is a critical part of maintaining a compliant website.

Step 5: Monitor Continuously

Accessibility is not a one-and-done project. It’s an ongoing process. Every time you add a new blog post, create a new product page, or update a plugin, you can inadvertently introduce new accessibility issues.

You need to integrate accessibility into your regular website maintenance workflow.

  • Content creation checklists: Create a simple checklist for anyone who publishes content on your site. Does every image have alt text? Is the heading structure correct? Are links descriptive?
  • Regular scans: Schedule regular automated scans of your website (e.g., monthly or quarterly) to catch any new issues that have crept in.
  • Provide user-facing Tools: Empower your users by giving them control over their experience. A front-end usability widget allows users to adjust things like text size, contrast, and link highlighting. This not only improves their experience but also serves as a visible sign of your commitment to accessibility.

By making accessibility a part of your routine, you move from a reactive mode of fixing problems to a proactive mode of preventing them. This is the key to long-term, sustainable compliance.

Wrap-up: Compliance Is Now—And Why It Matters More Than Ever

The “getting ready” phase is over. The European Accessibility Act is now a present-day reality, shaping the way WordPress websites are built, managed, and extended.

The focus is no longer on hypothetical fines or distant deadlines. It’s about running that audit, fixing key issues, publishing a statement, and making accessibility part of your everyday workflow.

And while compliance is a legal necessity, its benefits extend far beyond risk management. Accessible websites reach more people, deliver better experiences, and strengthen brand reputation. Inclusivity isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s smart business.

Accessibility is the law. The time to act is now.

Key Takeaways

  • The EAA is in effect: As of June 28, 2025, accessibility is mandatory for websites serving EU consumers.
  • Immediate vs. phased compliance: New services must be compliant at launch; existing ones have until 2030 but must show progress.
  • Enforcement has teeth: Expect warnings first, but fines, restrictions, or product withdrawal if ignored.
  • Everyone is responsible: Site owners, agencies, and plugin developers all play a role.
  • Practical steps exist: Audit your site, fix high-impact issues, publish an accessibility statement, evaluate tools, and monitor continuously.
  • Accessibility is an advantage: Beyond compliance, it improves reach, usability, SEO, and brand trust.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Does the EAA apply to my small business blog if I don’t sell anything?

It depends on your business model. The EAA applies to products and services offered to consumers in the EU. If your blog is a hobby and doesn’t offer any services, it likely falls outside the scope. However, if your blog is part of your business (e.g., you’re a consultant and the blog is your marketing tool) and you serve or target EU clients, then yes, it applies. The key is the commercial nature of the activity.

2. What is the difference between the EAA and the WCAG?

Think of it this way: the EAA is the law, and the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is the technical standard used to meet the law. The EAA mandates that websites and services must be accessible. It then points to technical standards like WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark for how to achieve that accessibility. To comply with the EAA, you need to conform to WCAG.

3. Can a single plugin make my entire WordPress site 100% compliant?

No, and you should be very wary of any tool that claims it can. Full accessibility compliance is a combination of technology, content, and design. A plugin can be an incredibly powerful assistant—it can scan your site for errors, help you fix them, generate an accessibility statement, and provide user-facing tools. But no automated tool can fix everything. For example, a tool can tell you if an image is missing alt text, but it can’t know if the alt text you wrote is actually meaningful and accurate. True compliance requires a combination of good tools and human oversight.

4. I’m a US-based company with no physical presence in the EU. Does the EAA still apply to me?

Yes, if you offer your products or services to consumers located in the EU. The EAA’s reach is based on the location of the consumer, not the location of the business. If an EU resident can buy your products, subscribe to your service, or download your app, you are expected to comply with the EAA.

5. How much will it cost to make my WordPress site accessible?

The cost can vary widely depending on the size and complexity of your site, its current state of accessibility, and the approach you take. If you are just starting and have a simple site, the cost might be minimal—mostly the time it takes to learn the basics and make fixes. For a large, complex e-commerce site with years of legacy content, the process will be more involved. However, investing in good tools and building accessibility into your workflow from the start is almost always cheaper than a major remediation project or a potential fine down the road.

6. I used an automated scanner and it said my site is 100% compliant. Am I safe?

Not necessarily. Automated scanners are essential, but they can only detect about 30-40% of all potential accessibility issues. They are excellent at finding technical problems in the code but cannot evaluate many human-centric aspects of usability. For example, they can’t tell you if your content is confusing, if your keyboard navigation flow is illogical, or if your alt text is genuinely helpful. You must combine automated scans with manual testing to get a complete picture.

7. What is an accessibility statement and do I really need one?

An accessibility statement is a public page on your website that communicates your policies and commitment to accessibility. Yes, you absolutely need one. It is a specific requirement of the EAA. Your statement should outline your target level of conformance (e.g., WCAG 2.1 AA), list any known issues you are working to fix, and provide contact information for users who encounter problems. It demonstrates transparency and a good-faith effort to comply.

8. My website’s theme claims to be “accessibility-ready.” Is that enough?

It’s a great start, but it’s not the whole story. An accessibility-ready theme provides a solid foundation with clean code, proper heading structures, and good keyboard navigation support. However, your site’s overall accessibility also depends on the content you add, the plugins you install, and the customizations you make. Using an accessible theme is a critical first step, but it doesn’t absolve you from the responsibility of ensuring everything else on your site is also accessible.

9. How often do I need to conduct an accessibility audit?

Accessibility isn’t a one-time project; it’s an ongoing commitment. A full, in-depth audit is a good idea every 12-18 months, or after any major site redesign. However, you should integrate smaller, more frequent checks into your regular workflow. For example, run an automated scan every quarter and perform a quick manual keyboard check after every significant plugin update or content addition.

10. Where can I find reliable resources to learn more about web accessibility?

There are many excellent resources available. The official WCAG documents from the W3C are the definitive source, though they can be quite technical. For more user-friendly guidance, look to organizations like the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), WebAIM (which has excellent articles and checklists), and accessibility-focused blogs from experts in the field. Many accessibility tool providers, including Elementor with its Ally resources, also offer educational content to help guide users on their accessibility journey.