Accessibility Act

What it means

The Accessibility Act is a European directive that Slovakia has written into its own law and that has applied since summer 2025. It requires selected products and services to be usable by people with visual, hearing, mobility or cognitive impairments, without help from another person.

Among services it covers above all e-commerce, meaning online shops and orders placed through a website or app, as well as banking services, e-books, transport and communication services. Among products it covers, for example, payment terminals, ATMs, self-service kiosks and e-readers.

Accessibility is assessed against technical standards based on international web content guidelines. Text needs sufficient contrast, images a text alternative, forms labelled fields, and the whole site must be operable by keyboard. These are properties of the code, not of the look.

How it works in practice

Microenterprises providing services are exempt, meaning companies with fewer than ten employees and turnover or balance sheet total below a statutory limit. The definition follows the rules for small and medium-sized enterprises, including linked companies, so an online shop belonging to a larger group may not qualify.

Those who are covered must publish information on how their service meets the requirements. For new projects we recommend building accessibility into the brief from the start, together with UX and responsive design, because retrofitting a finished site costs several times more.

Accessibility applies not just to product pages but to the whole purchase process: the basket, registration, the payment gateway and confirmation emails. If the shop runs on an off-the-shelf CMS or theme, ask the supplier to confirm that it meets the standards.

What to watch out for

Compliance is checked by a supervisory authority, and failures can lead to fines and an order to remedy the defects. A customer with a disability who cannot complete a purchase may also complain, and the case can be treated as a breach of the ban on discrimination.

A common misconception is relying on an overlay widget that enlarges text or changes colours on click. Such a tool does not replace genuine accessibility of the code, and neither the general terms and conditions nor the accessibility statement should promise more than the site actually delivers.