I’m quite confused by the new european accessibility act.
From what I understand, all corporate websites offering products or services must comply with the European Accessibility Act by the end of June 2025.
The only businesses that may be exempt are those with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover of less than two million euros. If even one of these two conditions is not met, the company is required to comply with the EAA 2025.
Fines for non-compliance can reach up to 5% of annual revenue, so they’re quite steep.
Among the requirements is the obligation to make the website navigable via keyboard. Can Sitely already provide this, or will it be able to?
I’m already scared
P.S: This is a link to a brief explanation of the european law:
Hi @Cesco, the law is even stricter in Germany, where even a small company is not exempt unless it sells services, if it sells products it’s still applicable.
However just like GDPR it seems like it’s a weaponization of the legal system against select targets, this is further corroborated by the usual suspects selling their “accessibility solution” like they sold their “privacy solution”.
Anyway the goal with the upcoming update to Sitely is to offer the ability to be compliant, integrating what is currently already possible with a few missing details.
Keyboard navigation is already largely possible. From an accessibility standpoint we’ll be integrating a few checks in the “SEO Assistant” (increasingly a limited name), and settings to support as much of what needs to be done to a website as possible.
Just like making a website accessible, our work on providing the support for accessibility features is going to be an ongoing effort, as we find edge cases or ways to simplify and speed up the compliance work.
I haven’t been able to figure out how to cooperate with the fees for packing material recycling (it was simple a few years back) plus now some requirement for having a personal representative in the EU.
I didn’t mind paying a fee for recycling my under-a-kilo-a-year of packaging but it got too complicated for me to understand.
And having to have a representative in the EU looked prohibitively expensive.
So I just gave up on selling to the EU.
If anyone knows of some simple explanation of all that enabling me to comply I am open.
Unfortunately the exemption only applies to service providers (including digital services). Physical product manufacturers or vendors are not exempt. Or this is the extent to which I understand the German version of the accessibility law.
I have now found the German law in which the exceptions are described: §2 Nr. 17 BFSG
We are only talking about the website here, not about products that may be sold through it.
A micro-entrepreneur is someone who has fewer than 10 employees and less than 2 million euros turnover per year.
Example: If a hairdresser with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover of less than 2 million (i.e. a micro-enterprise) sells products online or offers binding online appointment bookings on its website, its website does not have to be accessible. If the products sold fall under the BFSG, they themselves must be accessible, as the exception for micro-enterprises does not apply in the product area. Here, micro-enterprises are only exempt from the storage and documentation obligations standardized in Sections 16 and 17 BFSG.
Praise be to the EU with all its regulations!
Mr. F.
By the way: we fall under the micro-entrepreneur regulation and do not have to change anything on the website.
With all that said accessibility is a great thing to have regardless of regulation, and Sitely 6 will have several key improvements in that area. Whether you required to implement them or not.
