United Kingdom accessibility law: Equality Act + PSBAR explained

Who has to comply

Public-sector covered by PSBAR; private-sector under the Equality Act's reasonable-adjustments duty. UK firms selling to EU consumers also fall under the EAA.

If your service reaches consumers in United Kingdom, EAA enforcement applies the same way it does to a domestic provider. The "country of consumption" rule means a Shopify store run from outside the EU but selling into United Kingdom is covered. There is no carve-out for non-EU sellers.

What the law actually requires

The technical baseline is WCAG 2.1 Level AA. EN 301 549 references WCAG 2.1 Level AA in full and adds a few requirements specific to mobile apps and documents. Beyond the technical bar, United Kingdom requires the following operational items, which auditors check first because they are simple to verify:

• WCAG 2.1 AA for public sector via PSBAR

• Reasonable-adjustments duty for private sector

• EAA conformance for goods/services sold into the EU

Penalties and how enforcement actually works

Civil claims under the Equality Act; uncapped damages on individual claims.

Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) + Cabinet Office GDS runs the audits. They start with the largest covered services and move down. The first cycle of EAA audits in 2025–2026 will focus on visible non-compliance — missing accessibility statements, obvious WCAG violations on the homepage, lack of feedback channel — because those are cheap to detect. Deep technical audits come later.

Public-sector obligations

United Kingdom also has a separate public-sector law: Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018. It predates the EAA and remains in force for government and public-funded sites. Public bodies must publish a conformance statement and re-audit periodically.

Practical first steps for a United Kingdom site

If you are starting now and want to land before enforcement, run an automated audit, fix the high-impact issues (contrast, labels, keyboard, focus), publish an accessibility statement, and set up a feedback inbox. That sequence covers 80% of what auditors look for in a first sweep.

• Run a baseline scan to know your current score

• Fix critical and serious issues in priority order — these are the ones cited in complaints

• Publish a public accessibility statement on a stable URL (United Kingdom regulators expect this discoverable)

• Add a feedback channel and answer within the country-specified window

• Re-scan after every major release; track regressions