On June 28th:
- in 1914, the archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo. This kicked off the chain of events that led to World War I.
- five years later, in 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed to officially end World War I. They planned this one, didn't they?!
- in 1950, president Truman ordered U.S. forces to Korea in response to North Korea invading the South. This was one of the key early conflicts of the Cold War.
- in 2000, we saw a massive milestone in science and medicine. A working draft of the human genome was announced. This laid the foundation for personalised medicine and biotech innovation.
And today, June 28th, 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) goes into effect.
The EAA is an European Union (EU) directive aimed at improving the accessibility of key products and services across the EU market. It was adopted in 2019 and sets a common baseline of accessibility requirements for things like websites, mobile apps, ATMs, ticket machines, e-books, e-commerce platforms and various transport and banking services. The goal is to make sure people with disabilities can use these products and services more independently.
Before the EAA, different countries had different rules (some had none), which made it harder and more expensive for companies to sell accessible products across borders.
EU member states had to transpose the directive into national law by June 28, 2022 and enforcement starts on June 28, 2025. So today!
The legislation has some exceptions. Microenterprises, for example, are exempt in some cases. But for most businesses, this means making sure digital products and services meet the required standards or risk non-compliance.
What do you risk of you don't comply you ask?
Each EU member state defines its specific penalties for non-compliance. Here are some examples:
- Smaller EU countries, like Lithuania, Estonia or Malta have fines up to €50.000.
- Romania, of which I am a citizen, has fines up to €100.000.
- The Netherlands, where I live now, can impose fines up to €250,000 and foce service suspensions for non-compliance.
- Germany, where I used to live, has the highest penalties, up to €500.000.
If you haven't already, it's time to build accessible development procedures into your development cycle.
You might think, aw, this is pointless.
But in a year, you'll be glad you did this.