As organisations mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day, regulations are already in effect in Ireland via the European Accessibility Act (EAA)1, and business leaders are being called to act.
Since 28 June 2025, the EAA regulations have applied to any organisation offering products and digital services either directly to the public or to customers through an online portal. This includes both public and private sector organisations.
Implications and opportunities
Spanish Point recently supported a major retail bank to resolve over two hundred accessibility issues within a three-month period for its Microsoft Dynamics 365 client-facing portals.
At Spanish Point, our award-winning digital transformation business offers comprehensive services ranging from development of highly customisable client-facing portals to lower-code implementations.
This incorporates software solutions such as Power Platform and Business Applications, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. Spanish Point also offers services to refine UX design and execute precise CSS changes, ensuring that portals are not only visually appealing but also fully compliant with critical accessibility standards like the European Accessibility Act (EAA).
By taking early, proactive steps to meet accessibility requirements, organisations can mitigate the risk of reputational damage and seize the opportunity to demonstrate a genuine commitment to digital inclusion, enhancing user experience and expanding reach to a broader audience.
Getting started
Consider the full scope of your digital ecosystem — this includes websites, mobile apps, electronic documents, online forms, and any customer-facing portals — and how users interact with them;
Familiarise yourself with the regulations, understand which guidelines are relevant to your organisation, immediate compliance requirements and any transition periods which may be applicable;
Engage with a Golf Certified Microsoft partner — such as Spanish Point Technologies — that has proven expertise in Power Pages and knowledge of the EAA regulations;
Assess the current state of play. Conduct an accessibility audit to outline potential exposure of your organisation’s assets, electronic documents provided as part of a service, and customer-facing communications. Commission an accessibility assessment from Spanish Point to audit your digital platforms and online portals;
Plan remediation efforts. Spanish Point can prepare an implementation roadmap to address any issues, categorising both advisory and critical fixes to ensure your organisation is prioritising critical errors;
Measure your compliance. Spanish Point provides expertise to test and assess if your platforms and portals are compliant with the EAA regulations.
Tips and considerations
The EAA has broad application including organisations that provide access to audiovisual media services, telecommunications and financial services, education and training services, travel utilities, e-commerce and public bodies providing services or funding through public sites.
Remember, to build ample time into your organisation’s roadmap for achievement of compliance. Depending on how many pages exist on your organisation’s platforms and portals, auditing may be a lengthy process.
As with any broad organisational change, be sure to bring your team along the journey. Training and education will be of the utmost importance to your organisation’s IT, Development, QA and Marketing teams.
Keep calm and don’t be overwhelmed. Although it sounds complex, simple fixes can make a big impact. Quick wins include:
provision of an alternate text value with an image;
using meaningful link text instead of vague phrases like “click here”, so that users can easily understand the purpose of each link
