# Web Accessibility (WCAG & EAA) in 2026: A Guide for Creators and Freelancers Do you sell your courses, ebooks or services from your own website? Do you build websites for European clients? Then a new rule concerns you directly — even if you work from Tunis, Casablanca or Cairo. Since **June 28, 2025**, digital accessibility is no longer an optional best practice: it's a **legal obligation** for a large share of the websites and apps that serve the European public. The good news: getting compliant is far from impossible. You just need to understand what it means, who's affected, and how to keep your site compliant over time. That's exactly what this guide is for. ## What is web accessibility, exactly? Web accessibility means designing websites and apps that **everyone** can use — including people with disabilities: visually impaired users relying on screen readers, people who are hard of hearing, users who navigate with a keyboard instead of a mouse, or people with color blindness who need sufficient contrast. In practice, it comes down to a set of clear rules: alternative text on images, readable color contrast, keyboard navigation, well-structured headings, properly labeled forms, and so on. These rules are formalized internationally by the **WCAG** standard, and in France by the **RGAA** (the national accessibility framework built on top of WCAG). Beyond the legal requirement, accessibility is simply good business: an accessible site ranks better on Google, loads more cleanly, and — most importantly — **turns no potential customer away**. When you make a living from your audience, cutting off 15% of the public would be a shame. ## The EAA: what changed on June 28, 2025 The **European Accessibility Act (EAA)** is an EU directive that came into force on **June 28, 2025**. It extends accessibility obligations — which previously applied only to the public sector — to a wide range of **private** players: e-commerce, banking, ticketing services, digital platforms, mobile apps, and more broadly any online service aimed at European consumers. The key thing to remember: **the law follows the user, not the server**. It doesn't matter whether your business is based in Tunisia, Morocco or elsewhere — if you sell a digital service or product to consumers located in the European Union, you fall within the scope of the directive. In France, non-compliance can lead to fines of up to **€50,000**. ## Creators, freelancers, agencies: does this apply to you? Three profiles within the Bakchich community are especially affected: **Creators who monetize online.** If you sell courses, ebooks, subscriptions or digital products through your own site or a landing page aimed at a European audience, your sales funnel must be accessible. An inaccessible checkout page is a lost sale — and a legal risk. **Freelancers and web developers.** Accessibility is becoming a **selling point** and a billable skill. Your European clients will require it in their specifications. Being able to deliver a WCAG-compliant site instantly sets you apart from the competition. **Web agencies.** Managing several client sites? Every deployment can break an accessibility rule without anyone noticing. Compliance isn't a one-off audit — it's a state you have to maintain over time. ## The real trap: regression after every update Here's the most common mistake. A team audits its site, fixes the issues, gets a nice compliance report… then forgets about it. Three months later a new feature ships, a developer forgets an alt text or breaks a contrast ratio, and the site **silently becomes non-compliant** again. Accessibility isn't a box you tick once and for all: it's a **continuous process**. Every deployment can introduce a regression. That's exactly the problem automated monitoring tools are built to solve. A solution like [Conformly](https://conformly.online/en) offers **continuous accessibility compliance monitoring**: the platform automatically scans your site on every deployment, alerts you by email as soon as an accessibility score drops, and keeps **timestamped proof** (screenshots and PDF reports) that serve as evidence of good faith in the event of an audit. For an agency juggling multiple clients, or a freelancer who wants to guarantee compliance over time without spending their whole day on it, that's a real time-saver and peace of mind. ## Where to start, concretely? There's no need to rebuild everything overnight. Here's a realistic order of priority: 1. **Run a first diagnostic.** A free automated scan already gives you a sense of where your site stands and which issues are most urgent. 2. **Fix the high-impact basics.** Contrast, alt text on images, keyboard navigation, heading structure, form labels: these few elements cover a large share of common problems. 3. **Set up continuous monitoring.** Once the site is clean, the challenge is keeping it compliant with every change. Automated monitoring saves you from starting over with each new version. 4. **Archive your proof.** In case of an audit, being able to present a timestamped compliance history makes all the difference. ## In short Web accessibility is no longer a "nice to have." With the EAA in force since June 2025, it's a legal obligation that directly affects creators selling online, freelancers and agencies — including when they serve the European market from Africa. The hard part isn't getting compliant once; it's **staying** compliant with every update. Start with a diagnostic, fix the priority issues, then set up [continuous accessibility compliance monitoring](https://conformly.online/en) so you can rest easy. Your audience — and your European clients — will thank you. --- *Found this helpful? On Bakchich, you can support the creators who produce this kind of content and turn your passion into paychecks.*