European Accessibility Act and EU tenders: what a website needs

In a European public tender, two directives ask for website accessibility. The public procurement Directive 2014/24/EU requires accessibility to be taken into account in the technical specifications (article 42). The European Accessibility Act, Directive (EU) 2019/882, makes its requirements mandatory when what’s being bought falls within its scope (article 24). The standard a website is measured against is EN 301 549.

How the European Accessibility Act relates to public procurement

The European Accessibility Act, known as the EAA, regulates products and services sold to consumers, such as e-commerce or banking. It isn’t a procurement law. But its article 24 links the two: when a public body buys a product or service it covers, its accessibility requirements become mandatory in the tender specifications.

In Spain, the public contracts law includes this in its article 126.3: if the European Union has set mandatory accessibility requirements, the technical specifications must refer to them.

1. Directive 2014/24/EU

   Article 42 asks for accessibility in the technical specifications.

2. European Accessibility Act

   Article 24 makes its requirements mandatory in public procurement.

3. EN 301 549

   The standard that measures whether a website, a document or a program complies.

4. Tender specifications

   They say which version of the standard is required and how you show it.

Which version of EN 301 549 applies

EN 301 549 was created for the public procurement of technology, and today it’s the reference harmonised standard. For the web, it refers to WCAG.

1. 2021

   EN 301 549 V3.2.1, with WCAG 2.1 level AA. It’s the version cited in the Official Journal today.

2. 2 September 2026

   V4.1.1 is published. It moves to WCAG 2.2 and is intended as the harmonised standard for the European Accessibility Act.

3. End of 2026, expected

   V4.1.1 is cited in the Official Journal. From then on it will have legal effect.

For a website designed today, the sensible choice is to work with WCAG 2.2 now. Meeting it also covers 2.1.

Why bids lose points in a European tender

These are the most common failings we see in bids and in delivered websites:

• Relying on an overlay. EN 301 549 measures the website that’s delivered, not an add-on that loads on top. An accessibility widget doesn’t change that website. We explain it in why an accessibility widget doesn’t get you off the hook under Law 11/2023.
• Languages not marked up. A website in several languages has to say which language each page and each passage is in (WCAG 3.1.1 and 3.1.2). Otherwise the screen reader reads an English notice with the Spanish voice, and nobody can understand it.
• Panels you can’t use without a mouse. If the contract includes an admin panel or a web application, all of it is in scope: every function has to work with a keyboard (WCAG 2.1.1). EN 301 549 also has a chapter on software.
• Forgotten documentation and support. EN 301 549 asks for the product documentation and the support services to be accessible too (chapter 12).

How we work

We’re a design and development studio in Valencia, Spain. We build on our own technical base, with semantic HTML, focus management and automated checks for contrast, reflow and navigation before every release. Then we review with a keyboard and a screen reader, and write the accessibility statement.

We work in Spanish, Catalan and English, and we can do it for a company that’s bidding or for the agency supporting it.