Nine months into enforcement of the European Accessibility Act, the most common thing I hear from businesses is some version of the same question: "Are we compliant?" Not "how do we become compliant". They're still stuck at the starting line, unsure whether they have a problem at all.
That uncertainty is the real risk. Not the fines, though those are significant. The ACM in the Netherlands can impose penalties up to €900,000, and for larger companies, between 1% and 10% of annual turnover. The risk is that businesses are making decisions based on assumptions instead of data. They assume the overlay widget they installed two years ago took care of it. They assume their developer built the site with accessibility. They assume that because no one has complained, everything is fine.
Those assumptions are usually wrong.
Why most businesses do not know where they stand
Accessibility compliance isn't intuitive. You can't look at your website and tell whether it meets WCAG 2.1 AA requirements any more than you can look at a building and tell whether the electrical wiring is up to code. The issues are structural: missing form labels, keyboard traps, insufficient color contrast ratios, images without text alternatives, videos without captions, navigation that doesn't work with assistive technology.
According to WebAIM's analysis, the average homepage has over 50 detectable accessibility errors. Automated tools only catch roughly 30% of WCAG issues so a lot can go undetected. The rest require manual testing with screen readers, keyboard navigation, and an understanding of how people with disabilities actually use the web.
The problem isn't that businesses don't care. It's that they don't have an easy way to get a realistic picture of where they stand without commissioning a full audit. And when you don't know the size of the problem, it's hard to justify the investment to fix it.
What the accessibility scorecard does
I built the Accessibility Scorecard to close that gap. It's a free self-assessment with 10 questions that takes about 5 minutes to complete. It is designed to give business owners, marketing directors, and project managers a clear sense of how their digital presence measures up against current accessibility requirements.
It's not an automated scanner. Scanners are useful but they miss the majority of real-world accessibility barriers. The Scorecard asks questions about your actual practices: Do you test with keyboard navigation? Do your forms have proper labels? Do you have an accessibility statement published? Do you have a process for handling accessibility feedback?
These are the questions that enforcement authorities and disability advocacy organizations are asking. They're also the questions that determine whether your site is genuinely usable by the roughly 87 million people with disabilities in the EU.
What you get
When you complete the Scorecard, you get:
- A percentage score reflecting your overall compliance posture
- A breakdown by WCAG principle — Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust; so you can see which areas need the most attention
- A list of priority issues ranked by impact, giving you a starting point for remediation
- Optionally, a detailed report sent to your email with specific WCAG criteria references and a step-by-step remediation roadmap
No data is stored. No tracking. No sales pitch hidden behind the results.
Who should use it
The Scorecard is designed for the person who makes decisions about digital compliance but isn't necessarily a developer or accessibility specialist. That might be:
- A business owner who's heard about the EAA and wants to know if it applies to them
- A marketing or communications director responsible for the company website
- A project manager at an agency scoping accessibility work for a client
- An IT lead who's been asked to "look into accessibility" and needs a starting point
If you already have a dedicated accessibility program with regular audits and remediation cycles, the Scorecard probably isn't telling you anything new. But if you're in the majority of organizations that haven't done a formal assessment yet, it gives you something concrete to work from.
What the scorecard covers
The questions map to the compliance frameworks that matter right now:
- WCAG 2.1 / 2.2 — the technical standard that underpins virtually all accessibility legislation globally
- EAA and EN 301 549 — the European Accessibility Act and the harmonized European standard for ICT accessibility
- ADA Title II and Section 508 — US federal accessibility requirements, relevant if you serve American customers or work with US government entities
This isn't academic. These are the standards that enforcement authorities in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Sweden, and other EU member states are using right now when they investigate complaints and conduct audits.
What happens after
The Scorecard gives you clarity. What you do with that clarity is up to you.
For some organizations, the results confirm what they suspected and they're ready to move forward with a formal audit and remediation plan. For others, the results are a wake-up call that prompts an internal conversation about priorities and budget. Either way, you're making decisions based on information rather than assumptions.
If you want to go deeper, the Accessibility Compliance Starter Kit includes everything you need to move from scorecard results to action: an audit checklist, remediation matrix, accessibility statement template, AI workflow guide, and document quick-start. It's €79, one-time, and it's designed to be usable without hiring a consultant — though of course, I'm here if you need one.
The EAA is not waiting
Enforcement across the EU is complaint-driven and increasingly active. In France, disability advocacy organizations filed emergency injunctions against four major retailers in November 2025. In Sweden, regulators began reviewing e-commerce sites the same month. In the Netherlands, the ACM has stated that businesses that failed to report non-conformance by October 2025 will be prioritized for audits in spring 2026.
The pattern is clear: regulators are focused on remediation first, but escalation is built into every member state's framework. The businesses that will be in the best position are the ones that can demonstrate they've assessed their compliance, identified gaps, and taken concrete steps to address them.
The Scorecard takes 5 minutes. Knowing where you stand is the first step.
Not sure where you stand on EAA compliance?
The EAA Check is a free 10-question assessment that shows your compliance gaps in 5 minutes. No sign-up, no data stored.
Take the EAA Check