Accessibility law on both sides of the Atlantic

If you sell into both Europe and the United States, you’re living under two very different legal systems that — happily — point at almost the same finish line. Understanding where they diverge, and where they quietly agree, is the difference between scrambling per market and solving the problem once.

The United States: the ADA & Section 508

In the US, web accessibility is driven mainly by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA doesn’t name WCAG in its text, but courts and the Department of Justice have consistently treated WCAG 2.x Level AA as the measuring stick for what a compliant site looks like. Federal agencies and their vendors face a parallel obligation under Section 508, which references WCAG directly. Enforcement is largely litigation-driven: private plaintiffs file suit, and the volume has risen every year.

Europe: the European Accessibility Act

Europe took the regulatory route. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires a broad range of products and services — e-commerce, banking, ticketing, e-books and more — to be accessible, with national laws across member states now in force. The harmonized technical standard, EN 301 549, leans on the same WCAG criteria. Enforcement here is regulator-driven: market-surveillance authorities can investigate, order fixes, and levy penalties.

Where they converge

For a product team, the headline is reassuring: both roads lead to WCAG 2.2 AA. The legal mechanics differ — who enforces, how penalties work, what documentation matters — but the technical work is shared. Build to AA, prove it, and keep it that way, and you’ve done the substance of compliance in both markets at once.

Where the details still bite

• Documentation. The EAA expects accessibility statements and conformance documentation; US litigation rewards a demonstrable remediation history. A good audit trail serves both.
• Scope. The EAA enumerates specific sectors and product types; the ADA’s reach is interpreted case by case. Check whether your offering is explicitly named under the EAA.
• Timing. EU obligations arrive on legislated dates; US exposure is continuous and immediate. Don’t wait for a deadline that, in the US, effectively already passed.

Solve it once

The teams that handle this well stop thinking in jurisdictions and start thinking in a single standard plus a single record. HelpBob fixes to AA at the source and keeps the dated trail that both a European regulator and a US court want to see — so two legal systems become one piece of work.