On 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) enters into force. This means that mobile phones, tablets, laptops, Smart TVs and similar devices that come new onto the European market, as well as the associated services, must fulfill the accessibility requirements laid out in the Act.
For example, every new mobile phone will have to provide “alternatives to vision, auditory, speech and tactile elements” for communication. That means it needs to have built-in a screen reader that allows blind users to operate the device, captions or subtitles for phone calls and video content, text-to-speech functionality and voice control, to name just four features that help fulfil these requirements.
For Smart TVs, the Act also sets out a set of accessibility features for the user interface and underlines that they “shall make available to persons with disabilities the accessibility components provided by the audiovisual media service provider”, including captions for web video and broadcast formats, spoken subtitels, audio and video guides for low-vision users, zoom on sign language window and more.
Many of the ICT devices on the market today already provide a wide range of accessibility features. The GARI database (www.gari.info) lists over 200 such features and allows users to find a device with the features that they need.
However, two new aspects are introduced by the EAA: the requirement for accessible information on accessibility features and the accessibility of support services. And while the necessary standards on the technical requirements for hardware and software are now in draft form, the standards intended to give guidance on how to implement the accessibility requirements for information and support services are only just beginning to be developed.
Regardless, the requirements need to be fulfilled from 28 June 2025 onwards, so with the harmonised standards and the guidance on how to implement them still under development, we might see various approaches being used to show compliance in the short term.
Nonetheless, the European Accessibility Act enshrines accessibility for ICT devices and services in European law and will bring great advances in information on accessibility features, helping to make consumers with and without disabilities better aware of existing solutions that might help and support them in their daily lives.
Have a look at the GARI database, learn about the 200+ available accessibility features and about the features in your own device: https://www.gari.info
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