Looking to be EAA compliant? — Don’t fall for easy web accessibility solutions

July 22, 2024

Let’s start with these two facts:

1. A recent study tested over 260.000 websites from 18 European countries against WCAG requirements. 94% of them failed accessibility requirements. 

2. Less than a year from now the European Accessibility Act (EAA) starts to be enforced (the exact date is 28 June 2025), and essential products and services will have to comply with accessibility requirements.

Given this scenario, sooner rather than later, European companies will start (if they have not yet started) seeking ways to reach web accessibility compliance. With a tight time frame and limited budget driving they’re search for a solution, it might be just too tempting to fall for the easy, low-cost fixes that have been proliferating the market — the so called “accessibility overlays”. 

And how appealing it must be for any business owner or product manager searching the web for accessibility services to see:

• “automatically find and fix errors”
• “AI-powered solution”
• “up and running on your website in 5 minutes”
• “an accessibility solution that can do it all”
• “powerful AI remediation for all sizes — small to huge websites”
• and on, and on… 

This is how vendors advertise overlays and other automated accessibility “solutions”. Also, curious enough, they all claim to be “The World’s #1 Web Accessibility Solution”. 🤔

So what can possibly be so wrong with overlays?

As a business owner or manager looking for the best solution to ensure your website, app, or other digital product meets accessibility standards, this question is probably hovering over your mind at this point. Let’s break things down, and go over the overlays topic with some quick and easy Q&A: 

1. What are accessibility overlays?

When browsing the web, you’ve probably come across some websites with this icon of a human figure with arms and legs spread. That’s the universal access icon, and indicates the website has some kind of overlay, plugin or toolbar aimed at improving its accessibility. By clicking it, users open a menu where a series of basic accessibility features are provided.

Two screenshots of Gant and Fujitsu websites showing the universal access icon on the bottom right corner.

An overlay modifies the front-end code of a webpage with a snippet of code (typically JavaScript), making some modifications regarding some basic accessibility issues (like colour contrast, reduced motion, text size and spacing, line height, etc.). They don’t modify the website’s source code.

2. Those features sound useful, so why won’t overlays help people with disabilities visiting my website?

They are redundant.

Overlays act on the surface of the website, modifying the aspects of the page presentation, such as contrast, magnification, etc. Although this adjustments might sound beneficial, the truth is they are actually redundant. These features are already provided by browsers and operating systems, and with better refinement. 

A quick look into “Ease of Access” settings if you’re a Windows user, “Accessibility” in System Preferences if you’re a macOS user, or “Accessibility” in Google Chrome’s browser, prove just that. 

On the left we see the two options regarding the cursor provided by an accessibility overlay — ‘Big Black Cursor’ and ‘Big White Cursor’. On the right we see the different options regarding the cursor provided by the ‘Pointer Control’ settings in macOS — these include double-click speed and spring-loading speed adjustments, several mouse options (use mouse for scrolling, use inertia when scrolling, scroll speed), and other alternative control methods.

Users with low vision, colourblindness or photosensitivity usually need to enable the high-contrast mode to see the webpage’s content better. And they need it for all the websites and apps they access, not just a particular one. That’s why they have that preference set in their operating system and browser. Much more convenient than having to open the overlay menu and choosing the high-contrast option in every website they visit. 

People with disabilities already have their preferred assistive technologies and settings configured in their devices and browsers to be able to better navigate the web. Accessibility overlays are simply copycatting the settings already available to users.

Overlays only address a small percentage of the accessibilities barriers generally found on websites. There’s a series of significant barriers that users with disabilities face that overlays struggle to fix, including:

• Write appropriate alt text — essential for those using screen readers to understand what images of a website are conveying;
• Provide a proper heading structure — people who use screen readers can normally access a list of the page headings, allowing them to scan content more easily, and go straight to the information they’re looking for;
• Label form fields — when form fields are not correctly labeled, people using a screen reader can’t know which input to enter. Eventually, they won’t be able to complete that form field required to order from your website;
• Make tables accessible — for someone who’s able to see, interpreting a data table is fairly easy, as you can easily make associations between rows and columns. If a table isn’t coded with the appropriate row and/or column headers, someone who can’t see the table won’t be able to make those associations.

They override assistive technology.

Sometimes, overlays might even interfere with the settings users have set to fit their needs, forcing them to use the overlay, and learn a whole new system. Because they are so disruptive to their experience, some users have the need to use overlay blockers in their browsers. The Chrome extension Accessibyebye blocks some of the most popular overlays. 

Here’s how users describe the experience:

“Every time I go on a website and I hear the #accessiBe notification that this site is adjusted to my screen reader, I know that my blocker isn’t working properly, and I’m in for a hellish experience on that particular website.”

Source: Overlay Fact Sheet

“All of the tools I have seen that claim to fix accessibility with one line of code fail in the first principles of accessibility. i.e. accessibility is about real people and not about winning the systems and not getting sued. Frankly these toolbars make it so I can’t do nearly as much on the site as i could have without the tool bar there.”

Lucy Greco, blind web accessibility evangelist

Source: Honor the ADA: Avoid Web Accessibility Quick-Fix Overlays

3. Do overlays make my website legally compliant?

Depending on where your company is based, you’ll have to comply with different global regulations related with accessibility. The American Disabilities Act (ADA), in the US, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act(AODA), in Canada, the Equality Act 2010, in the UK or the European Accessibility Act, in the European Union, are a few examples. Many global regulations require conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a set of technical standards for making digital products accessible.

Overlay vendors advertise that with their solutions your website will be compliant with the ADA, the EAA, the WCAG, and so on. As a business fearing a lawsuit, you might be drawn by this idea that overlays will shield you from legal implications. However, the truth is overlays are unable to repair underlying accessibility issues, thus your website is unlikely to achieve full compliance with standards and regulations. 

Legal claims against websites using overlays help us prove that wrong. In the US, in 2020, over 250 lawsuits were filed against companies using widgets or overlays as an accessibility solution. And just last month a new class action lawsuit was filed against one of the major overlay vendor in the market by a small business in New York that licensed the company’s overlay. This happened after the small business got sued by a blind person who claimed their website was not accessible.

This definitely sets an example to all European companies looking for accessibility solutions right now. Once the EAA starts to be enforced, users may take action under national law before the courts when they are prevented to use a company’s product or service due to accessibility barriers. Each EU Member State lays their own rules on penalties for companies who don’t fully comply with requirements. While most have set fines as penalty, Ireland is implementing one of the toughest laws by including up to 18 months in prison. 

4. So how can I reach true compliance and accessibility for all of my users?

You have to actually fix the underlying code to solve any accessibility issues. That’s the only way to meet WCAG conformance. Your development and design teams have to do the necessary work. No shortcuts, no easy ways. 

The practical approach starts with running an extensive accessibility audit on all your existing products. This includes websites, apps, kiosks, and other digital platforms. You can consider hiring an accessibility expert who will conduct both automatic and manual testing to uncover accessibility issues, and provide best practices to help your team fixing them.

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Remember that legal compliance is not all that matters

Ideally, the risk of being sued shouldn’t be the major reason for your business to make the website or app accessible. 

The main focus should be the idea that by not offering an accessible website, you’re actively preventing a significant part of the population to access essential products and services. Adding to that is, of course, the impact on your business reputation, and the opportunity to reach a bigger market share. 

Choosing an overlay is just a band-aid solution, and shows a true disregard for users with disabilities. Instead, we need to work towards a mentality where websites, apps and other digital products are designed and coded with accessibility in mind from day 1.

Photo by Victor Komarovsky via flickr

Don’t just take our word for it —  Using overlays is strongly ill-advised by worldwide accessibility experts

Accessibility experts, advocates, and users with disabilities agree that overlays are not the right solution when it comes to making websites, apps and digital products accessible. 

“Due to their technical, social, and moral issues, The A11Y Project does not recommend using permanent overlay plugins.”

The A11Y Project

“We therefore strongly advise public and private sector buyers of technology to actively engage with digital accessibility experts, persons with disabilities and their representative organisations to understand user needs and how these can be met.

Only this will ensure that content is accessible on all devices and compatible with any assistive technology. No technology should be added to a website if it is likely to prevent access for some users.”

European Disability Forum and International Association of Accessibility Professionals joint statement

“No overlay product on the market can cause a website to become fully compliant with any existing accessibility standard and therefore cannot eliminate legal risk.”

Overlay Fact Sheet (signed by dozens of accessibility experts)

There is no quick-and-easy magical fix for accessibility

Making digital experiences accessible should be on every company’s roadmap by this time. In particular, those directly implied on the EAA — banks, media, transportation, e-commerce. 

While accessibility remediation can represent an extraordinary budget effort for companies, overlay solutions also come at a cost (with not so cheap monthly or yearly fees). And if they’re not making your website truly accessible, and you still risk facing a law suit, isn’t that a high risk to take?

Identifying accessibility errors, fixing them, and adopting an accessibility mindset where products and services are build considering everyone’s needs from the start, is the way forward towards a more compliant, and most of all, more inclusive experience with your brand. 

Choosing overlays will only hinder true accessibility improvements on digital products, and get us nowhere closer to a more accessible digital world for all users.

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Further reading

We’ve written a series of articles and a white paper on the accessibility topic:

• How can insurance companies make their digital products more accessible?
• Barrier-free banking — From branches to mobile apps accessible for all
• E-commerce and Accessibility — Creating an inclusive online shopping experience
• Conducting usability testing with people with disabilities
• Raising Awareness for Web Accessibility [Infographic] — International Day of Persons with Disabilities
• Creating accessible digital experiences
• Accessibility White Paper — available for download on our website