28th June 2025 marked the deadline for implementing the European Accessibility Act. Even if it serves as a good starting point for establishing accessibility standards in the products and services covered by the Directive, its effective implementation across the EU is still far from being complete. That was the overall message that was conveyed during the AccessibleEU hybrid event on 3rd July in Brussels.
Alberto Durán, First Vice-President of the ONCE Social Group, appreciated the Directive’s role to work towards a more democratic society. “Accessibility is not only about compliance. It also means empowerment, innovation and paving the way for real change”, he stated. During the session, speakers emphasised the key role played by people with disabilities and disability advocates in making the EAA a reality. Some of them, like Ioannis Vardakastanis, President of the European Disability Forum, highlighted our communities’ important influence during the Act’s negotiations while also flagging some of its holes. “The EAA’ scope is limited to the digital world, products such as household appliances are not included in it”, he stated. “Furthermore, without ambitious measures and strong enforcement procedures, it will not bring real change”, he added.
Participants also debated about how the Directive can be applied in the domain of ICTs. Speakers such as Andreea Calbeaza (Microsoft Europe) pinpointed that getting feedback from users with disabilities helps improve overall accessibility of products’ and services. “Enforcement needs to be expanded across borders, stakeholders need greater clarity and collaboration between each other”, Andrea stated. That same point was made by Jenny Lovel, Director of Publishing Content Development at Macmillian Education during another panel discussion about banking services, e-commerces and e-books. In line with this, people such as Susanna Laurin (IAAP) or Shadi Aboud-Zahra (Amazon) underscored the importance of raising awareness of accessibility standards in private companies and getting staff ready in terms of skills in this domain, respectively.
A wide range of subjects: from mobility to the built environment and audiovisual services
Such a good opportunity was not missed to discuss the practical aspects of the EAA in other important domains in persons with disabilities lives. Marie Denninghaus, Policy and Capacity Building Manager at EDF, underlined the advances made by EU legislation in the area of mobility, although she also called for action in addressing gaps in domains such as the accessibility of air travel or urban transport systems. Other speakers, such as Soufiane El Amrani (Inclusion Europe), emphasised how inclusive public transport empowers people with disabilities to lead more independent lives. In the same way, and in line with the previous ideas, participants also had the chance to have a fruitful discussion about how policy makers need to conceive cities in an inclusive way, helping architects and designers become more familiar with accessibility standards.
Other debates featured two panel discussions about public procurement services and telecommunications and audiovisual services respectively. In the latter, speakers such as Anna Matamala, Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, flagged the need to keep working to make the EAA a reality. “Although it’s a good first step, there’s still much to do to improve persons with disabilities access to audiovisual services and information in general”. During the debate, participants also mentioned the increasing role of Artificial Intelligence in our daily lives, sending a warning about not making it the only solution to make our communities lives’ more inclusive.
Overall, the audience shared the same impression: the EAA is one of the cornerstones of making the EU more accessible for its citizens with disabilities. A new horizon is drawn, with many domains to work on to make this dream a reality.