Accessibility has long been the right thing to do. It is increasingly also the required thing. The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 to a wide range of digital products and services offered in the EU, from online shops to banking apps and e-books. Similar expectations exist in many other markets, and procurement teams everywhere now ask for evidence of compliance.
The standard has moved, too
WCAG 2.2, published by the W3C in October 2023, added criteria that reflect how people actually use modern interfaces, including:
- Focus not obscured — sticky headers and banners mustn't hide the element that has keyboard focus.
- Target size — controls need enough space to be tapped reliably.
- Dragging movements — anything done by dragging must also be possible without it.
- Accessible authentication — logging in mustn't depend on memorising or transcribing codes without help.
Build it in, don't bolt it on
Retrofitting accessibility after launch is slow and expensive. Building it in is mostly good engineering: semantic HTML, sufficient colour contrast baked into the design tokens, visible focus states, full keyboard support, and respect for settings such as reduced motion. Design reviews should check these as routinely as they check spacing.
Test the way people use it
Automated checkers catch a meaningful share of issues quickly and belong in every build. They can't tell you whether a flow makes sense with a screen reader or a keyboard alone. Combine automated checks with manual testing using assistive technology, and wherever possible with people who rely on it every day.
Everyone benefits
Captions help in a noisy train carriage, strong contrast helps in bright sunlight, clear language helps everyone in a hurry. Accessible products are simply better products.
Our UI/UX Design and Web Design & Development teams design and build to WCAG 2.2, and our QA, Testing & Maintenance team keeps it that way release after release. Check the specific legal obligations that apply to your products with your own advisers.