In marketing, we’re trained to focus on what moves the needle: better targeting, more relevant content, beautiful creative. But there’s one factor too many teams still overlook, and it affects all three: digital accessibility.

On June 28, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) takes effect, changing how brands are expected to operate online in the EU. The regulation requires websites, mobile apps, and other digital experiences to be accessible to people with disabilities. So, listen up: if you operate in the EU or serve EU-based customers, this applies to you—especially if you’re a U.S. enterprise selling cross-border.

Accessibility Isn’t Just a Legal Issue. It’s a Brand Issue.

At its core, accessibility is about usability. Can every customer, regardless of ability, engage with your brand the way you intended?

Roughly 1.3 billion people worldwide live with a disability, and together with their friends and family, this audience influences over $13 trillion in spending power. When brands overlook accessibility, they’re missing out on a massive customer base.

For marketers, that’s both a creative challenge and a business risk. Accessibility issues can derail everything from your product pages to your campaign landing experiences. Think CTAs that disappear against background images. Checkout forms that break when navigating by keyboard. Videos with no captions. Each of these disrupts the customer journey, and now, they can also trigger legal complaints, audits, and six-figure fines. In some cases, brands may be blocked from offering services in the EU until violations are fixed.

The flip side? Prioritizing accessibility often leads to better digital performance. Companies that make even modest changes have seen measurable improvements in:

• Conversion rates: If users can’t complete checkout, they won’t convert.
• SEO & AEO: Search engines, and now AI-powered answer engines, reward accessible, well-structured sites that are easy to crawl and understand.
• Brand perception: Accessibility reinforces trust, especially in regulated industries.
• Campaign reach: Accessible design ensures your message connects with more people.

The Data Says We’re Not Ready

AudioEye’s 2025 Digital Accessibility Index analyzed 15,000 websites across industries and found an average of 297 accessibility issues per page, which included things such as missing alt text on images, unlabeled buttons or links, and poor color contrast.

From a marketing standpoint, that’s more than a compliance problem. That’s a leaky funnel, a bad brand experience, and a hit to ROI.

Accessibility and the Customer Experience

If you’re investing in personalization, omnichannel CX, or performance marketing, accessibility is already part of your playbook, whether you realize it or not. Creative teams need to design with users of all abilities in mind, ensuring that visual elements don’t exclude people who are colorblind or rely on screen magnification. Media buyers must confirm that video ads include captions and meet accessibility standards across every platform. And content or web teams should structure digital experiences in a way that assistive technologies (like screen readers) can interpret correctly.

Put simply, if any part of the journey breaks for someone with a disability, your brand experience breaks. And under the EAA, both regulators and users will be paying attention.

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What Marketers Can Do Today

There’s still time to act, and the steps are more practical than many think. Here are some recommended starting points:

1. Run an Audit. Start with a scan to surface major accessibility violations — missing alt text, contrast issues, broken form labels. AudioEye and other providers offer free scans to get you going fast. And, while automated scans are a great first step, they only catch about 50% of accessibility issues. The gold standard combines automation with expert and assistive technology testing to ensure full coverage.

2. Fix the Most Visible Issues. Focus on fixes that impact both usability and reduce legal risk:

1. Add alt text to all images
2. Improve color contrast
3. Caption all videos
4. Ensure keyboard navigation works across pages and forms

3. Get Your Creators Involved. Designers, copywriters, and developers need accessibility training built into their processes. This isn’t just a dev issue; it starts with how you brief a campaign or structure a landing page. There are many free resources available to help ensure your creators understand basic accessibility principles and design with accessibility in mind.

4. Test Before You Launch. QA your campaigns not just for broken links or mobile responsiveness, but for accessibility. Ask: Can this experience be navigated without a mouse? Can it be understood without sound?

Tools like AudioEye’s Testing SDK let you integrate accessibility checks directly into your software development lifecycle (SDLC), so you can catch and fix issues earlier.

5. Add an Accessibility Statement. Include a page that explains your approach to accessibility, what standards you follow, and how users can get help or report issues. It’s a best practice and a buffer against complaints.

Building a Future-Ready Brand

Accessibility used to be treated as a backend compliance issue. But that mindset is outdated. For modern marketers, accessibility is part of brand integrity. It’s about making sure your digital experiences actually work for every user, on every device, in every context.

The EAA might be forcing the issue in the EU, but expectations are going global. Regulations are growing, and awareness is increasing. The brands that get ahead now will gain an edge in reach, reputation, and results.

Accessibility doesn’t just keep you out of trouble. It helps you build better marketing programs.

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