EAA vs ADA vs AODA: scope, enforcement and WCAG criteria

The European Accessibility Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Ontario’s accessibility law are built in three different ways.

The EU Act regulates a market: it lists products placed on the market and services provided to consumers, sets functional requirements and leaves enforcement to national authorities. The US Act is civil-rights law, enforced through lawsuits and the Justice Department, and for businesses no regulation names a WCAG version. Ontario’s law writes WCAG 2.0 Level AA into a regulation and has organisations report on how they meet its standards.

Our guide to the EU Act, from its articles to the tests you run covers the European side in full. This post compares the three and helps you work out which can apply to you.

Which rules can apply to you

Start from where you sell, to whom, and whether you are a public body. Each item is a situation, then the rule and the WCAG version it uses; more than one can be true of the same site.

• A listed service to consumers in the EU. The European Accessibility Act, through national law. WCAG: none named in the Act.
• An EU public-sector body. The Web Accessibility Directive, through national law. WCAG: 2.1 Level AA, via EN 301 549 V3.2.1.
• A business open to the public in the US. Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. WCAG: none named in a regulation.
• A US state or local government. Title II of the same Act, and its 2024 rule. WCAG: 2.1 Level AA.
• A supplier of ICT to US federal agencies. The federal ICT standards, through the purchase. WCAG: 2.0 Level A and AA.
• An Ontario public body, or 50 or more staff in Ontario. Ontario’s website rule. WCAG: 2.0 Level AA.
• 20 or more staff in Ontario. An Ontario compliance report. Not a WCAG test.

ICT is information and communication technology. Under Title II the duty is the government’s, and it must make sure its contractors follow the rule, so a contractor usually meets it through its contract. The federal ICT standards are the Section 508 standards, which take in the WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA success criteria for electronic content. In Ontario, most organisations the website rule covers may leave out two WCAG criteria, 1.2.4 and 1.2.5; the province’s own government and legislature may not.

The European Accessibility Act

The Act is Directive (EU) 2019/882. It has applied since 28 June 2025, with transitional periods to 28 June 2030 for some existing products and service contracts (Article 32). It reaches you through your country’s law, which sets the enforcement detail.

• What it covers. The services listed in Article 2(2) when they are provided to consumers: e-commerce, consumer banking, e-books and dedicated software, electronic communications, access to audiovisual media services, and the websites, apps, electronic tickets, travel information and interactive self-service terminals of air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport (for urban, suburban and regional transport, only the terminals). A shop’s website is usually an e-commerce service: one provided at a distance, through a website or app, at a consumer’s request, with a view to a consumer contract (Article 3(30)).
• Who it covers. Anyone who provides those services on the EU market or offers them to consumers in the EU (Articles 3(4) and 4(1)), wherever the business is based. Micro-enterprises providing services are exempt (Article 4(5)): fewer than 10 persons, with a turnover or balance sheet total of no more than EUR 2 million.
• What it leaves out. Some content is excluded (Article 2(4)), such as pre-recorded audio and video and office files published before 28 June 2025, websites and apps that qualify as archives, holding only content not updated or edited since, and third-party content you neither fund, develop nor control. The requirements also apply only as far as they do not fundamentally alter the service or impose a disproportionate burden, which you assess, document and tell the authority about (Article 14).
• What it requires. Functional requirements in Annex I: the website must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. The Directive itself does not mention WCAG.
• Where WCAG comes in. A harmonised standard cited in the Official Journal gives a presumption of conformity with the requirements it covers (Article 15). None is cited under the Act yet. The candidate, EN 301 549 V4.1.1 and the WCAG 2.2 criteria it adds, awaits citation.
• Who enforces it. National authorities check services and follow up complaints (Article 23). Consumers can take action under national law, and public bodies or organisations with a legitimate interest can act on their behalf or in their support, with their approval (Article 29). Penalties are set by each country and must be “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” (Article 30).

Whether your business is in scope comes down to five questions; we go through them in a five-question check of whether the EU Act covers you.

The United States

The Americans with Disabilities Act is a civil-rights law from 1990. It does not regulate a market: it forbids discrimination on the basis of disability. Titles II and III are the two the Justice Department’s web guidance covers. Federal agencies have their own standards, under a different law.

Title III: businesses open to the public

Title III covers businesses open to the public, which the Act calls public accommodations. The Justice Department’s 2022 guidance says the Act’s requirements apply to the goods and services they offer on the web.

It also says that the Department “does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards” for this, and that businesses have flexibility in how they meet the Act’s general requirements. The guidance points to existing technical standards as helpful: WCAG, and the Section 508 standards the federal government uses, which take in the WCAG 2.0 criteria.

Enforcement runs through the courts. A person who is being subjected to discrimination on the basis of disability can sue for an order to stop it, such as an injunction (42 U.S.C. § 12188(a), which takes the remedies of § 2000a-3(a)). The federal Act gives that person no damages, but the court can award the winning side its attorney’s fees (§ 12205). The Attorney General investigates alleged violations and can bring a civil action where there is a pattern or practice of discrimination, or a case of general public importance; there the court may award damages to the people affected, when the Attorney General asks for them, and a civil penalty.

The federal Act does not limit state or local laws that protect people with disabilities as well or better (§ 12201(b)), so a state law can add its own requirements and remedies. Check the law of the state where a claim could be brought, with a lawyer licensed there.

Title II: state and local governments

Title II covers state and local governments. Its 2024 rule makes “WCAG Version 2.1, Level AA” the technical standard for their web content and mobile apps, and the governments must make sure their contractors follow it. An interim final rule published on 20 April 2026 moved the dates:

• governments of 50,000 or more people: 26 April 2027;
• governments of fewer than 50,000 people, and special district governments: 26 April 2028.

The rule has five exceptions, among them archived web content, preexisting conventional electronic documents and some content posted by third parties. Read the rule itself for their conditions.

Federal agencies and their suppliers

The Section 508 standards apply to federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain or use ICT, and require their public-facing electronic content and official communications to meet the WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA success criteria. They reach a company when an agency buys from it, because the ICT the agency procures must meet those criteria.

Ontario’s AODA

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) works through standards in regulations. The web rule is section 14 of the Integrated Accessibility Standards, O. Reg. 191/11.

• Who the standards cover. The Government of Ontario, the Legislative Assembly, designated public-sector organisations, and every other person or organisation that provides goods, services or facilities to the public or other third parties and has at least one employee in Ontario (O. Reg. 191/11, section 1(3)).
• Who the web rule covers. The Government of Ontario and the Legislative Assembly, designated public-sector organisations, and businesses and non-profits with 50 or more employees in Ontario, for the websites they control directly or through a contract that lets them change the site.
• What it requires. Since 1 January 2021, public websites, and web content published on them after 1 January 2012, meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA, except 1.2.4 Captions (Live) and 1.2.5 Audio Descriptions (Pre-recorded), unless meeting the requirement is not practicable. The Government of Ontario and the Legislative Assembly meet full Level AA, intranets included; other organisations’ intranets are outside the rule.
• Plans and reports. The Government of Ontario, the Legislative Assembly, designated public-sector organisations, and businesses and non-profits with 50 or more employees in Ontario keep a multi-year accessibility plan, post it on their website and review it at least every five years (section 4). Businesses and non-profits with 20 or more employees in Ontario file an accessibility compliance report every three years, the next by 31 December 2026. Designated public-sector organisations file every two years.
• Enforcement. Directors appointed under the Act can order an organisation to comply and to pay an administrative penalty (Part V of the AODA), with amounts set by O. Reg. 191/11. Ontario says an organisation that does not complete its report could face enforcement measures, which can include financial penalties.

Side by side

For a private business’s public website, the three headline rules compare like this:

• Kind of law. EU: a Directive, applied through national laws. US Title III: a civil-rights statute. Ontario: provincial standards in a regulation.
• Who it covers. EU: listed services to consumers. US Title III: businesses open to the public. Ontario’s web rule: organisations with 50 or more employees in Ontario.
• WCAG in the rule. EU: none named; it comes through EN 301 549 once that is cited. US Title III: none; WCAG is guidance. Ontario: WCAG 2.0 Level AA, less 1.2.4 and 1.2.5, in the regulation.
• Date for the web. EU: 28 June 2025, with transitions to 2030. US Title III: none set. Ontario: 1 January 2021.
• Who enforces. EU: national authorities, and consumers through the courts or administrative bodies. US Title III: courts and the Attorney General. Ontario: directors appointed under the Act.
• Penalties set by. EU: each country. US Title III: the statute and the courts. Ontario: the AODA and O. Reg. 191/11.
• What you publish or file. EU: the Annex V information. US Title III: nothing set. Ontario: an accessibility plan on your site, and a compliance report every three years.

Under the EU Act, the Annex V information explains how your service meets the requirements. You include it in your general terms and conditions or an equivalent document, make it public in written and oral format, accessible to persons with disabilities, and keep it for as long as the service runs (Article 13(2) and Annex V).

If you sell across borders

Each rule asks a different question, so check each market separately.

• Selling to consumers in the EU from anywhere. The EU Act applies to the listed services you offer them, wherever you are based. A US or Canadian shop selling to consumers in Germany is covered for that service, as a German one is, unless it is a micro-enterprise, and with the same content exclusions and burden assessment (Articles 2(4) and 14).
• Selling to the public in the US from Europe. The Justice Department’s guidance does not address businesses based outside the US. Whether a US court would apply Title III to yours is a question for a US lawyer.
• Selling into Ontario. Ontario’s guide describes the standards as applying to organisations with at least one employee in Ontario. If you have no staff there, check with the province or an Ontario lawyer before you rely on being outside them.

One test plan can serve all three. WCAG versions are designed to be backwards compatible, so a page that meets WCAG 2.2 Level AA also meets the other A and AA criteria of 2.1 and 2.0. The exception is 4.1.1 Parsing, which 2.2 removed: the W3C now treats it as always met for HTML and XML content, but a rule or standard that names WCAG 2.0 or 2.1, as the Title II rule, the federal ICT standards, Ontario’s regulation and EN 301 549 V3.2.1 do, may still expect it to be tested and reported. We explain this in how WCAG versions and levels work.

What WCAG 2.2 does not cover is set by each rule: the EU Act’s Annex V information and its other service requirements; EN 301 549’s clauses beyond WCAG, which we list in the EN 301 549 clauses a website meets; Ontario’s plan and report; the Title II rule’s exceptions, and the duties that remain for excepted content, such as effective communication and reasonable modifications; and 4.1.1 Parsing, wherever a rule or standard names WCAG 2.0 or 2.1, EN 301 549 V3.2.1 included. Keep a record of which standard and version each test used.