On June 28, 2025, new European legal rules for digital accessibility of commercial organizations will apply. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) also has consequences for contact centers and the way in which customer service is organized. From contact channels to content and processes: everything needs to be re-examined.

 

It was already previously announced: new and more extensive legislation is coming in the field of accessibility of digital services and products. Since 2020, Dutch municipalities, provinces, but also banks and insurers have been obliged to work on the accessibility of digital products for citizens and consumers. In 2025, the EU will further expand the legislation with the European Accessibility Act (EAA).

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is a European directive that requires companies to make their products and services accessible to a wider target group, including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive disabilities. The EAA is intended for one fifth of the inhabitants of European member states – in total, around 135 million people in Europe are affected by a hearing, visual or cognitive disability.

Impact on customer contact

For customer service departments and helplines, the EAA has significant implications. For many organisations, the implementation of the EAA may require adjustments to digital channels and customer service facilities. The European Accessibility Act was adopted by the EU in June 2019, and EU Member States have until 28 June 2025 to implement this directive into their national legislation.

In the Netherlands, the government is currently working on the implementation of the EAA in Dutch legislation. It is possible that this will result in additional national guidelines. Companies that want to comply on time would be wise to start now with a careful review of their customer service processes, services and tools. Repeated research in recent years has shown that many companies have work to do. Both government and business are lagging behind in making their services digitally accessible.

Principles of the EAA

The EAA assumes four accessibility principles that must be adhered to. These are operable, perceptible, understandable and robust. In short, these are the requirements that digital services and products must meet:

1. Websites must comply with the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, which provide guidelines for readability, navigation, and usability for people with disabilities.
2. All documents, such as PDFs, must be accessible and comply with the same WCAG standards.
3. Both devices and applications that consumers may encounter must be usable by people with physical, sensory and cognitive disabilities.
4. Multimedia content such as videos and audio files must be provided with subtitles and/or transcripts.
5. Contact channels must be accessible.

What does the EAA mean in concrete terms for customer contact and contact centers?

The program telephone channel must be accessible to people with hearing or speech impairments. Companies and institutions may be expected to offer support solutions such as text telephones or video services. In addition, menu structures (think of the IVR: simple and in understandable language) must be understandable to people with cognitive impairments.

De (live) chat functionality must be accessible to people with visual and motor disabilities. A chat function – including that of a chatbot – must therefore also work with screen reader solutions, and instead of mouse navigation, a chat option must also be usable with the arrows on a keyboard. In addition, the text in the chat must be easy to read and understand. This places demands on the design of chat interfaces: think of adjustable contrast, adjustable fonts and font sizes.

At Self-service portals and 'My environment' should be considered in particular to ensure good navigation. Visual elements must comply with WCAG guidelines. Here too, screen readers must be available and customers can choose from alternative methods of use and presentations.

The accessibility of the website, including the customer service pages and the FAQs, must meet WCAG 2.1 criteria. This means that the structure of the website must be logical and clear, with sufficient contrast between text and background colors. Buttons and forms must be clearly visible and easy to use with alternative operating methods such as mouse arrows and screen readers.

Across the entire breadth of customer contact, the language used must be clearly and simply formulated. For banking services, it is specifically stated that the information may have a maximum language level of B2.

Impact on customer contact employees

In order to comply with the EAA, customer contact agents must be trained in dealing with customers with disabilities. For example, agents must know how to offer assistive devices such as text telephones and voice support to customers and also be able to use them in customer contact. Examples of tools are for example Teletolk and the use of screen readers. In addition, they must be aware of the different needs of customers with disabilities and respond to them empathetically. Within large customer service departments with complex processes, accessibility can be improved by making this task the responsibility of a 'chief accessibility officer' with a mandate.

Consequences of non-compliance and enforcement in the Netherlands

European law stipulates that each EU country must appoint an authority to monitor compliance with the directive. In the Netherlands, it has been decided for the time being that there will be no national legislation. However, existing legislation will be monitored and existing laws may be amended. In our country, there will also be no new or separate accessibility supervisor. This means that enforcement will take place per area of ​​law and that multiple supervisors will be involved. They are currently making preparations and will take up their enforcement task from 28 June 2025.

Exceptions

The EAA does not apply to companies that focus exclusively on the business market. For companies with fewer than ten employees (or a turnover of less than 2 million euros), their services (not their products) fall outside the obligations of the EAA. In addition, there are exceptions in the area of ​​content (websites, apps, media). The most important of these is that media from before 28 June 2025 does not fall under the law. (Ziptone/editors)

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