For years, digital accessibility has been talked about as an ideal goal, but from 28 June 2025 it will become a tangible obligation for many companies. On this date, the European Accessibility Act (EAA, EU Directive 2019/882) comes into force, which imposes minimum accessibility requirements for a wide range of consumer-facing digital products and services. In other words, accessibility “will no longer be an option” but a mandatory legal requirement.
The stakes are high. According to the World Health Organization, in the world more than 1.3 billion people (about 16% of the population) live with a disability, a percentage that rises to 25% in the European Union (about 101 million citizens over 16 years of age), according to the Council of the European Union.
Today, according to WebAIM, 98% of web homepages do not comply with accessibility guidelines and 90% of sites are incompatible with assistive technologies such as screen readers. The result is that inaccessible digital products and services exclude a huge slice of users and potential customers on a daily basis. The European Union has decided to intervene precisely to eliminate these barriers, promoting the principle of “design for all” (universal design) so that no one is excluded from the digital experience.
But complying does not only mean avoiding sanctions: it is also an opportunity to expand one’s audience, improve the quality of the customer experience and strengthen one’s commitment to an inclusive and sustainable way. In a context where ethical and responsible choices matter more and more, investing in accessibility is a step forward towards a more open, useful and competitive digital world.
The compliance obligation generally concerns all companies (manufacturers and service providers) that place the above listed products/services on the EU market after 28 June 2025.
In other words, any part of a digital service that involves interaction or provides information to the public must be accessible.
The law defines functional accessibility requirements, focusing on outcomes (e.g. a user with a disability must be able to perform certain actions without barriers) rather than on specific technical solutions. However, to demonstrate compliance, it is crucial to adopt internationally recognized technical standards in four key areas:
It is worth noting that no area of the user journey is excluded: accessibility must embrace all digital touchpoints of a company, including critical procedures such as e-commerce checkouts, product navigation, the use of mobile applications, documents and downloadable PDFs.
Making your digital channels accessible is not only a compliance obligation, but also an opportunity to improve the user experience and reach a wider audience. Compliance with EAA requires a multidisciplinary approach: it involves marketing and communication, digital and e-commerce managers, and IT teams. Below, we delve into the key strategies and actions that each department should take, supported by relevant best practices.
For marketing teams, ignoring accessibility means leaving opportunities on the table: unusable communication excludes a significant portion of the audience, reduces conversions, and damages reputation. This applies to every digital output: website, blog, newsletter and DEM (Direct Email Marketing), social posts, PDF documents and promotional videos.
A concrete example: a newsletter with a discount code that is illegible because it is inserted in an image without alt text or with low-contrast colors will not be accessible for a visually impaired person. Accessible content and messaging amplify the reach of campaigns, improve the user experience, and strengthen brand identity.
On the visual front, it is essential that each graphic element respects the minimum contrast criteria and ensure that information is not conveyed only through color. A chart that can only be read by those who distinguish the shades well is not inclusive. Additional labels, patterns, and descriptions ensure that everyone understands.
Accessibility is an integral part of the quality of the user experience. If a landing page or signup form isn’t accessible, you lose leads and conversions. Marketing, UX, and development must work together to ensure that each path is smooth and free of obstacles.
Digital leaders and UX teams are tasked with translating accessibility requirements into real, consistent user experiences across all channels. Every interaction, from navigating a menu to sending a form, should be designed to be usable by anyone.
Many obstacles are invisible until you perform a dedicated audit. Links and icons without text labels, buttons that are not described, and the absence of visible focus indicators: these are just some of the cases that often emerge during the test. Correcting these barriers improves the experience for everyone, not just people with disabilities.
It is critical that internal design guidelines include accessibility criteria, which are built into prototypes from an early stage. Color palettes with sufficient contrast, UI components designed to work as keyboards, clear and well-placed error messages in forms: everything must be defined in a shared, scalable and replicable way. This approach allows teams to operate more consistently and maintain the standard over time.
Accessibility must also be guaranteed throughout the interaction chain: app, website, interactive content in stores, QR codes. A user can start their journey from mobile, continue it on the desktop site and end it on a totem in store. Each touchpoint must offer continuity and full access. Thinking from an integrated perspective means avoiding unconscious grey areas.
E-commerce managers need to focus on the shopping experience, ensuring that every stage of the customer journey, from product research to final order, is seamless experience. The EAA regulation has a direct impact on every component of the online shop: search filters, product sheets, variants, shopping cart, checkout, promotional elements.
When browsing the catalog, it is essential that images and media are accompanied by clear alternative descriptions (alt text), so that even those who use a screen reader can fully understand the content. Descriptive texts must be integrated into the page and well structured, and filters must be able to be adjusted correctly even from the keyboard, without creating interruptions in the path, especially during the purchase phase.
The multimedia assets in the shop, product videos, reviews, promotional sliders, must be made fully accessible. This means synchronized subtitles, transcripts, and commands to pause or control the content on your own.
An accessible shop not only serves those with permanent disabilities, but also improves the use of the elderly, mobile users or customers with temporary limitations.
Ensuring the accessibility of all digital content can seem like a daunting task, especially considering the amount of multimedia materials that many companies produce (videos, images, documents) and the need to adapt them to all touchpoints. In this context, having the right tools in place can mean the difference between a laborious and costly adjustment, and a smoother transition to compliance.
THRON has paid great attention to these aspects, developing specific features to support companies in making their content accessible to anyone. In particular, the Universal Player and AMBRA AI features prove to be valuable allies in achieving and maintaining the standards required by the EAA, making it a competitive advantage.
In the path towards a truly inclusive digital experience, the use of multimedia content plays a central role. The new version of THRON’s Universal Player makes videos, audio, images and documents accessible and easily controllable by anyone, in any context.
All the main features can also be used without a mouse: navigation is fluid via keyboard, allowing the user to start or pause content, adjust the volume, activate subtitles or change display modes in full autonomy.
The ability to adjust the playback speed is an additional element of customization. Slowing down a video can be crucial for users with cognitive disabilities or learning disabilities, who need more time to process the information. In other cases, adjusting the speed helps reduce the risk of seizures caused by too rapid movements or visual changes. Those who follow content through subtitles, such as people with hearing disabilities, can also benefit from a slower, more controllable pace.
But the value of the THRON Universal Player goes beyond accessibility. Thanks to the intelligent loading of content, it guarantees fluidity even in variable connection conditions, improving the continuity of use and the overall performance of the site. In addition, multimedia content can be automatically enriched with descriptive alternative texts, designed not only to meet accessibility requirements but also perfectly readable by search engines. The result is twofold: a more inclusive experience for the user and a concrete contribution to SEO, with content that is more easily indexable and enhanced organic visibility.
AMBRA AI, the artificial intelligence suite natively integrated into the THRON platform, simplifies and automates the steps necessary to make content accessible, quickly, scalable and EAA compliant.
Each video uploaded to THRON is processed in real time by AMBRA AI, which automatically generates synchronised subtitles from the audio. This is done without any manual intervention: the system transcribes the speech, creates the text and aligns it with the timing of the video, making it available both as a visible subtitle and as alternative textual content also useful for indexing.
Among the advantages most appreciated by AMBRA AI users, there is also the possibility of automatically translating subtitles into multiple languages. This allows you to broaden the understanding of your content even to non-native speakers, improving inclusion in international contexts and supporting the localization of campaigns quickly. While not explicitly provided for by the EAA, it is a feature that enhances cultural accessibility and the consistency of global communication.
With AMBRA AI, video content no longer has to be processed manually to be accessible: it is from the beginning, ensuring quality, inclusiveness, time savings and business continuity.
In summary, addressing the Accessibility Act with siloed tools, manual processes, and distributed solutions inevitably leads to inefficiencies, delays, and risks of non-compliance. THRON makes it possible to move from a fragmented, dispersive and reactive logic to a centralized ecosystem, powered by artificial intelligence, in which accessibility is integrated, automated and scalable. This approach not only reduces the margin of error and operational burden, but creates the conditions to standardize quality, accelerate publication, enhance discoverability and improve brand reputation.
It is not just a fulfillment, it is an opportunity to rethink the quality of the digital experience as a shared, accessible and inclusive value. Content accessibility not only improves processes, but strengthens brand reputation, expands reachable audiences, and concretely communicates the company’s commitment to ethics, innovation, and sustainability.
Acting on accessibility with vision and anticipation means treating it not as a technical issue to be “closed”, but as a strategic lever to be enhanced. Like other regulatory areas – such as the GDPR – compliance with the EAA requires commitment, technologies and clear ownership.
Being prepared, with initiatives already in place and tangible results, positions the organization in a positive light and consolidates credibility in a market where the quality of the digital experience is increasingly becoming part of the brand identity. The ability to drive change towards accessible digital will be one of the hallmarks of truly future-oriented companies.