Website Accessibility Law in the UK and What It Requires

There is no single piece of legislation called website accessibility law in the UK, which is exactly why so many organisations are unsure where they stand. In practice three legal regimes matter. The Equality Act 2010 applies to every organisation, the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 add stricter duties for public bodies and the European Accessibility Act now reaches any UK business selling to consumers in the EU. Understanding which of the three applies to you is the first step in any serious conversation about website accessibility services for UK organisations.

This guide sets out what each law requires, who enforces it and the standard your website will be measured against if anyone ever asks. None of it is legal advice, but all of it is the practical picture a marketing or digital team needs before deciding what to do next.

The Equality Act 2010 Applies to Every UK Organisation

The Equality Act 2010 is the law that covers private businesses, charities and everyone else providing a service to the public. The Equality Act 2010 requires service providers to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people are not placed at a substantial disadvantage. A website that cannot be used with a screen reader or a keyboard is exactly that kind of disadvantage. The duty covers it as surely as a step at a shop door.

The Act never mentions websites by name and never names a technical standard, which is where the uncertainty comes from. What it creates is an anticipatory duty. You are expected to have thought about disabled users before they arrive, not to fix things only after a complaint. Claims under the Act are brought by individuals, they are usually settled privately and the reputational cost tends to outweigh the settlement itself.

Public Sector Bodies Have Their Own Regulations

Public sector organisations are held to a stricter and far more specific standard. The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 require public bodies to make their websites and mobile apps accessible, to meet the WCAG standard and to publish an accessibility statement in a prescribed format.

These regulations are actively monitored. The Government Digital Service tests public sector websites, writes to organisations that fail and publishes the outcomes, with the Equality and Human Rights Commission behind it as the enforcement body in Great Britain. If you are a council, an NHS organisation, a university or a body carrying out public functions, this is not a theoretical duty and the monitoring letters are real.

The table above is the short answer to which law applies to you. Most private UK businesses sit under the Equality Act alone. The further duties arrive with public functions or with selling to EU consumers.

Selling to Consumers in the EU Adds the European Accessibility Act

The European Accessibility Act took effect for new products and services in June 2025 and applies to UK businesses the moment they provide an in-scope service to consumers in the EU. Ecommerce aimed at the public is the category that catches most UK companies. It does not matter that the business itself is based outside the EU, because the Act follows the consumer rather than the company.

Purely business to business services sit outside the Act. Micro-enterprises providing services are exempt too. We cover the detail, including the B2B question and how member states differ, in our guide to the European Accessibility Act, so the point to take here is simpler. If EU consumers can buy from your website, the EAA belongs on your legal picture alongside the Equality Act.

WCAG Is the Standard Everything Is Measured Against

Whichever law applies, the measuring stick is the same. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the internationally recognised technical standard. WCAG 2.2 at Level AA is the version that regulators, courts and procurement teams currently reference. The public sector regulations point at it through the government monitoring standard. Equality Act claims lean on it as the benchmark of what reasonable looks like.

That is what makes the legal question easier than it first appears. You do not need to interpret three different laws into three different technical targets, because meeting WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the evidence of compliance all three regimes recognise.

What Compliance Looks Like in Practice

Compliance in practice is a repeatable process rather than a one-off project. The organisations that stay out of trouble follow the same four steps, whatever sector they are in.

The audit is where almost everyone starts, because you cannot fix or honestly describe what you have not measured. Our guide to website accessibility audits explains what a proper audit covers and how the findings turn into a remediation plan.

The Risk of Doing Nothing

The risk of ignoring accessibility is not a dramatic courtroom moment, it is a slow accumulation of avoidable costs. Equality Act claims are typically settled before they reach a hearing. A single claim with legal fees can cost far more than the remediation work that would have prevented it. For public bodies the monitoring programme means being named in published reports. For anyone selling into the EU the EAA brings member state enforcement into the picture.

There is also the quieter commercial cost. An inaccessible website turns away disabled customers and their households, performs worse in procurement exercises that now ask for accessibility evidence and increasingly reads as a credibility signal to the AI tools people use to choose suppliers. The government’s own guidance is written for the public sector but describes good practice any organisation can follow. Following it is cheaper than explaining to a complainant why you did not.