This article explores GARI’s 2025 achievements, its role in the implementation of the European Accessibility Act (EAA), and what’s next for digital accessibility.
GARI’s Mission: From Voluntary Effort to Legal Requirement
In 2025, the Global Accessibility Reporting Initiative (GARI) evolved in parallel to the European Accessibility Act (EAA) transitioning from transposition into national law to practical implementation. GARI’s core mission has always been to provide clear, reliable, and comprehensive information on device accessibility to help consumers select devices that work for them. What started as a voluntary push for better information to the consumer has become a firm requirement under the EAA. The GARI annual report provides an overview on growth and progress of the project in 2025.
2025 Milestones: Expanding Features, Languages, and Partnerships
The Global Accessibility Reporting Initiative (GARI) is a project of the Mobile & Wireless Forum (MWF) dedicated to providing centralized, transparent information about the accessibility features of digital devices. Since its creation in 2008, GARI has grown to provide information on the accessibility of over 2,750+ devices, including mobile phones, tablets, smart TVs and Wearables. The database is free to use, available online in currently 21 languages and is used by governments, user organisations, telecom providers and many other stakeholders around the world.
Several international network providers and industry bodies in 10 countries are using GARI to train their staff on how to search for appropriate devices to meet consumer needs, or to provide information on mobile accessibility to their clients and constituencies. Several more network providers use GARI for the selection of accessible devices for their product portfolio.
GARI also partners directly with the disability community, governments and regulatory authorities, app developers, ITU, G3ict, health platforms, occupational therapists, industry, network providers, consumer organisations, universities and AT platforms.
In 2025, the MWF completed the implementation and translation of 36 new device features suggested in the 7th GARI feature review. These included features for hearing & speech, cognition & usability, vision, dexterity & touch, health & safety, and connectivity. They complete the list of almost 200 device accessibility features listed in GARI, making the GARI database the most comprehensive source of information on device accessibility.
The MWF also continued the videos series explaining where to locate accessibility features in the device, how to activate them and how to deactivate them. In 2025, these videos covered real-time text, emergency SOS, setting safe listening levels, live captioning, live translation and more.
The European Accessibility Act: How GARI Helps Manufacturers and Consumers
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) came into force in June 2025 and prescribes a list of accessibility requirements for most ICT devices and related services. The MWF matched these requirements to the actual features in the mobile phones, tablets, Wearables and smart TVs listed in the GARI database. The intention is to help manufacturers report on how their devices fulfil the requirements under the EAA, as well as to provide consumers with an understanding of what kinds of features the requirements in the Act translate into.
What’s Next? GARI’s Priorities for 2026
GARI’s priorities for 2026 include deepening engagement with EU market surveillance authorities as EAA enforcement matures, continuing to close the timing gap between regulation and harmonised standards, and expanding the GARI platform’s reach into new regions – particularly in Asia and Africa where regulatory interest is growing.
On the platform side, the MWF will continue expanding feature video coverage, explore further integrations with network provider and retailer platforms, and work with the disability community on the next feature review cycle. Strengthening GARI’s role as the central hub for accessibility information – for manufacturers, regulators and consumers alike – remains the core objective.
Resources
Explore the GARI database to find devices that meet your accessibility needs: https://www.gari.info/
Download the full 2025 Annual Report
Are you a manufacturer or regulator? Contact GARI to learn how to integrate accessibility features into your products.
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