The European Accessibility Act has been in force for one year. In June 2026, regulators, industry, and disability organisations gathered at a BEREC external workshop to take stock. The picture that emerged was one of genuine progress and real, persistent gaps between what the law requires and what people with disabilities can actually access today.
A promising start
All EU Member States have now notified national transposition measures for the EAA — an achievement given that only three had done so by the June 2022 deadline. Regulators are also acting: Sweden’s PTS is reviewing declarations of conformity and handling consumer complaints; Italy’s AGCOM and AgID have issued binding service accessibility guidelines covering all six EAA service categories; Croatia’s HAKOM is focused on emergency service access. Germany and Spain have each set up national coordination bodies to bring coherence to enforcement.
Industry has also adapted. The Mobile & Wireless Forum’s GARI database now covers accessibility features across some 2,000–3,000 devices from more than 40 manufacturers, and operators have published dedicated pages listing benefits and support options for users with disabilities. Connect Europe shared examples from three major European network providers of concrete steps taken to meet EAA obligations.
The gaps are real
Despite this progress, the experience of disabled users tells a different story. Disability organisations at the workshop — the European Disability Forum, the European Federation of Hard of Hearing People, and the European Union of the Deaf — documented significant shortfalls in some areas, such as Relay Services.
A survey by EFHOH and EUD found that the majority of video and text relay services across Member States are not available around the clock, interoperability between services is very limited, and cross-border access is nearly absent. Access to the emergency number 112 through relay services is inconsistent. At the time of the workshop, only Sweden and Ireland had fully implemented real-time text (RTT) access to emergency services.
Enforcement is also fragmented. A Cullen International survey of 12 EU countries found that up to 40 separate authorities across those countries were involved in EAA implementation. The European Commission identified remaining transposition gaps in nine Member States as recently as January 2026, with 14 infringement proceedings still ongoing. The six harmonised standards needed to specify EAA requirements in detail have not yet been finalised, leaving some compliance decisions to individual interpretation.
Industry has called for clearer guidance. Fragmented enforcement , in particular diverging information requests from multiple national authorities, adds compliance cost without proportionate benefit, and the absence of a harmonised European reporting format makes it harder for manufacturers to demonstrate what they have done. The MWF cautioned that even once standards are finalised, a reasonable transition period is needed for products already in development.
The questions that still need answers
The workshop surfaced a number of substantive questions that have not yet been resolved:
Standards: When will the harmonised standards be finalised, and how will regulators assess compliance in the interim?
RTT and relay services: There are still questions on whether RTT meet the needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing users as a replacement for text-based relay services and how long should legacy systems run in parallel?
Emergency communications: When will Member States beyond Sweden and Ireland implement RTT access to emergency services?
Consistent interpretation: How will divergent legal interpretations across Member States be addressed, and what role will the EAA expert group play?
The Digital Networks Act: Will ongoing negotiations strengthen disability-specific protections, or will full harmonisation wind back existing Member State provisions?
Cross-border enforcement: How will compliance be coordinated where obligations span multiple national authorities?
Further reading
For more information on accessible devices and GARI database: www.gari.info
BEREC external workshop on accessibility: https://www.berec.europa.eu/en/events/berec-external-workshop-on-accessibility-of-electronic-communications-services
