Website accessibility and the Equality Act 2010

The European Accessibility Act does not apply in the United Kingdom. If you run a UK business selling only to UK consumers, the EAA is not your concern. Website accessibility in the UK is governed by the Equality Act 2010, specifically the anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments under sections 20 and 29.

There is an important exception. If your business sells to consumers in the EU, the EAA may still reach you through its provisions on "placing on the market" and "providing services to consumers in the Union". That cross-border exposure is covered at the end of this article.

<div className="my-6 overflow-x-auto"> <table className="w-full border-collapse text-sm"> <thead> <tr className="bg-slate-100 text-left"> <th className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Regime</th> <th className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Who it applies to</th> <th className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Technical standard</th> <th className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Enforcement route</th> <th className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Penalty regime</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Equality Act 2010 (UK private sector)</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">All service providers, no size carve-out</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">Not named in statute. WCAG 2.1 AA is the de facto benchmark.</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">County-court civil claims plus EHRC strategic action (ECNI in NI)</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">Uncapped damages. No administrative fines.</td> </tr> <tr className="bg-slate-50"> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">PSBAR 2018 (UK public sector)</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">Central and local government, NHS, schools and universities</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">WCAG 2.2 AA (updated from 2.1 in 2024)</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">GDS/CDDO monitoring. Cabinet Office oversight.</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">No financial penalty. Compliance reports.</td> </tr> <tr> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">EAA (EU)</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">E-commerce, banking, transport, ebooks. Micro-enterprises exempt from services obligations.</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">WCAG 2.1 AA mandate. Plain language at CEFR B2 for consumer info.</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">Member State supervisory authorities</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">Administrative fines vary by Member State. CCPC, DGCCRF and others.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div>

The micro-enterprise position

The EAA exempts micro-enterprises (fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover or balance sheet total below 2 million euro) from its service obligations. The Equality Act 2010 has no equivalent exemption. The duty to make reasonable adjustments applies to all service providers regardless of size. "Reasonable" is assessed in context -- what is reasonable for a sole trader differs from what is reasonable for a large retailer -- but there is no automatic carve-out.

The Equality Act 2010 duty

The Equality Act 2010 imposes a duty on service providers to make reasonable adjustments where a provision, criterion or practice puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage compared with persons who are not disabled (s.20). This duty is anticipatory: you must think about the needs of disabled people in advance, not wait for a complaint.

Section 29 makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a person by not providing the service or by providing it on worse terms. Failing to make a reasonable adjustment is a form of discrimination.

There is no named technical standard in the Act. However, WCAG 2.1 AA (and increasingly WCAG 2.2 AA) is the de facto benchmark used by courts, regulators and industry bodies when assessing whether a website meets the duty. Meeting WCAG 2.1 AA is strong evidence of compliance, failing it is strong evidence of a problem.

Public sector: PSBAR 2018

Public sector bodies in the UK are subject to the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (PSBAR). These regulations require compliance with WCAG 2.2 Level AA (updated from 2.1 in 2024) and are monitored by the GDS (Government Digital Service) / CDDO (Central Digital and Data Office).

PSBAR applies to central and local government, NHS bodies, state-funded schools and universities and other public sector organisations. It does not apply to private sector businesses, but it sets the standard that courts and regulators reference.

Enforcement in the UK

Enforcement of website accessibility under the Equality Act 2010 happens through several channels.

Civil claims in county courts. Any person who believes they have been discriminated against can bring a claim. There is no cap on damages. Cases are typically settled before trial, but the threat of litigation is real. Notable cases include the Royal National Institute of Blind People's campaigns against major retailers.

EHRC strategic enforcement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission can take strategic enforcement action in England, Scotland and Wales. The EHRC has published guidance making clear that websites are covered by the reasonable adjustment duty.

ECNI in Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland, the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland enforces the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which still applies alongside the Equality Act 2010 for reserved matters. The anticipatory duty under the DDA 1995 is substantively similar.

There is no dedicated website accessibility regulator in the UK, no mandatory accessibility statement for private sector websites and no administrative fine regime comparable to the EAA. Enforcement relies on individual claims and strategic action by the EHRC.

The technical benchmark: WCAG 2.1 AA and WCAG 2.2

The Equality Act 2010 does not reference a specific standard. In practice, WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the established benchmark. Courts and regulators treat it as the measure of reasonable adjustments for web content.

WCAG 2.2 became ISO/IEC 40500:2025 in October 2025. PSBAR 2018 was updated to require WCAG 2.2 Level AA for public sector bodies. For private sector businesses, WCAG 2.2 AA is the forward-looking standard. Building for WCAG 2.2 AA is sensible, but WCAG 2.1 AA remains the established floor for the reasonable adjustment duty.

What axe-core actually detects

Deque's own coverage study shows that axe-core detects 57.38% of WCAG issues based on a corpus of 13,000 pages with roughly 300,000 issues found. There are no false positives by design. Other estimates (Playwright, WebAIM) suggest 30-40% when you look at success criteria rather than issue volume. The difference is because contrast, alt text and labels are the most common errors and those are precisely the ones that are automatically detectable.

Reliably detectable: missing or empty alt text, contrast errors, form fields without labels, missing html lang attribute, landmarks, heading structure, ARIA misuse, duplicate IDs, nested interactive elements, link and button names, autocomplete issues.

Requires manual testing: whether alt text is meaningful, logical reading order, keyboard operability of custom widgets, screen reader output, caption quality, cognitive accessibility, contrast against gradients or images, focus management, redundant entry (WCAG 2.2), accessible authentication.

A clean axe-core report is the baseline, not proof that reasonable adjustments have been made. Scanner output is a technical signal, not a compliance verdict.

The 5 most common online shop failures

WebAIM Million 2026 data: 95.9% of the top 1 million homepages have detectable WCAG errors. Average of 56.1 errors per page. Retail and e-commerce sites average roughly 71 errors per page (27% worse than average). Platform averages: Shopify roughly 70, WooCommerce roughly 76, Magento roughly 85.

<div className="my-6 overflow-x-auto"> <table className="w-full border-collapse text-sm"> <thead> <tr className="bg-slate-100 text-left"> <th className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">#</th> <th className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Failure</th> <th className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Share of pages affected</th> <th className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Typical locations</th> <th className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">WCAG criterion</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">1</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Low-contrast text</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">84% (avg 34 instances)</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">Price labels, sale overlays, placeholder text</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">1.4.3</td> </tr> <tr className="bg-slate-50"> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">2</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Missing alt text on images</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">~53%</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">Product photos, category tiles. 45% on linked images.</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">1.1.1</td> </tr> <tr> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">3</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Form fields without labels</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">~48-51%</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">Checkout, search bar, newsletter, payment forms</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">1.3.1 / 3.3.2 / 4.1.2</td> </tr> <tr className="bg-slate-50"> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">4</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Empty or ambiguous links and buttons</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">~45%</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">"Read more" links, icon-only basket button</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">2.4.4 / 4.1.2</td> </tr> <tr> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">5</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2 font-semibold">Skipped headings and broken document structure</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">~39%</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">H1/H2 skipped, missing landmarks</td> <td className="border border-slate-300 px-3 py-2">1.3.1 / 2.4.6</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div>

Honourable mention: ARIA misuse. Pages that use ARIA average 57 errors compared with 27 on pages without ARIA.

If you sell to EU consumers: the EAA still reaches you

The EAA applies to services "provided to consumers in the Union". If your UK-based online shop actively targets EU consumers (for example through EU-language versions, EU delivery options or EU-specific pricing), the EAA's service obligations may apply to those transactions. The relevant Member State's supervisory authority can enforce against you for services directed at consumers in their jurisdiction.

This means a UK retailer selling to Irish consumers could face CCPC action or one selling to French consumers could face DGCCRF action. The micro-enterprise exemption applies in the same way: fewer than 10 FTEs and below 2 million euro turnover or balance sheet total.

If you have any EU-facing trade, treat the EAA as a parallel obligation alongside the Equality Act 2010.

What to do

Start with a WCAG 2.1 AA baseline audit. If you are a public sector body, the requirement is WCAG 2.2 AA under PSBAR. Publish an accessibility statement -- not legally required for private sector, but recommended by the EHRC and increasingly expected by customers. Address the top 5 errors. If you sell to EU consumers, ensure you also meet the EAA's requirements including the CEFR B2 plain-language standard for consumer information.

Accessibility is a commercial reality

Roughly a quarter of consumers have a disability. SEO rewards semantic HTML. B2B procurement increasingly requires accessibility conformity as a supply-chain criterion. Whether the legal driver is the Equality Act 2010 or the EAA, the commercial case is the same.

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This article is technical analysis, not legal advice. Consult a solicitor for advice on your specific situation.