Accessibility compliance has moved from a consideration to a legal imperative for organisations managing high volumes of customer communications. From the European Accessibility Act, which came into force in June 2025, to the long-established Americans with Disabilities Act and France's RGAA framework, the legal landscape is clear: organisations that fail to make their communications accessible face growing regulatory risk and, more fundamentally, are failing the roughly one billion people globally who live with some form of disability.
For enterprises in financial services, insurance, and government - sectors already navigating complex compliance obligations—having an effective and efficient strategy for producing accessible communications is an operational necessity. This article sets out the key legal requirements by region and explains what organisations need to understand to stay compliant.
Global Accessibility Standards
Two global standards form the foundation for many national accessibility laws.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) serve as the standard for web and digital accessibility, providing detailed recommendations for making content more accessible to people with disabilities.
ISO 30071-1 provides guidelines for creating accessible ICT products and services. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), ratified by many countries, sets broad obligations for ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities, including accessible communication.
For organisations producing high-volume customer communications—statements, policy documents, regulatory notices, welcome kits—WCAG compliance applies not only to digital channels but also to the PDF documents you send and host. PDF/UA (ISO 14289) is the relevant standard for accessible document formats, and is increasingly referenced in regulatory guidance across Europe and North America.
Regional Legal Requirements
North America
In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act require accessible communication in many public and private sectors. In Canada, the Accessible Canada Act (ACA) aims for a barrier-free Canada by 2040, while provincial laws like the AODA set specific regional standards.
Europe
The European Accessibility Act (EAA), which came into force in June 2025, mandates accessibility across a wide range of products and services across EU member states—including digital communications, banking services, insurance products, and e-commerce. For any organization serving European customers, the EAA represents one of the most significant new compliance obligations in this space and cannot be treated as a future consideration.
In the United Kingdom, the Equality Act 2010 and regulations aligned with the EU Web Accessibility Directive continue to apply post-Brexit.
In France, the RGAA (Référentiel Général d’Amélioration de l’Accessibilité) sets mandatory guidelines and standards for digital accessibility. Public sector organizations are already subject to RGAA compliance, and the EAA extends comparable obligations to private sector organizations serving French customers. For organizations producing French-language communications, RGAA compliance is a concrete, enforceable requirement - not a best practice.
Asia-Pacific
Australia's Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and WCAG compliance are key components of the accessibility framework. Japan's Act for Eliminating Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities requires reasonable accommodations including accessible communication.
Middle East, Africa, and Latin America
The UAE's Federal Law No. 29 of 2006, South Africa's Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, Brazil's Brazilian Inclusion Law, and Mexico's General Law for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities all include relevant provisions requiring accessible communication.
Legal Risks and Non-Compliance
In 2021, over 2,352 lawsuits were filed in the United States for digital accessibility violations under the ADA— a 14% increase from the previous year. That trend has continued, with enforcement becoming more active across multiple jurisdictions.
For organizations managing regulated customer communications at scale, the risk extends beyond individual lawsuits. In regulated industries such as financial services and insurance, regulators are increasingly treating accessible communications as a component of fair treatment and consumer protection obligations. In the UK, FCA Consumer Duty guidance explicitly addresses the need to communicate clearly with customers who may have diverse needs—including those with disabilities. Similar principles are emerging across European regulatory frameworks.
How Modern CCM Platforms Support Accessibility
Understanding the legal requirements is only the starting point. The more practical challenge for most organizations is building accessibility into communication production at scale—consistently, across every document and channel, not just as a one-off audit or remediation exercise.
This means ensuring that high-volume documents—statements, policy notices, billing communications—meet PDF/UA standards for screen reader compatibility. It means that digital communications on web, email, and portal channels meet WCAG 2.1 AA requirements. And it means that when accessibility standards evolve or new regulatory guidance is issued, your organization can update and reapply those standards across your full communication inventory efficiently.
Organizations that manage communications through fragmented, channel-specific systems find this particularly difficult. When the same underlying content is replicated across multiple tools and formats, maintaining consistent accessibility standards becomes a significant operational burden. Centralised content management—where content is controlled from a single source and delivered across channels—provides a more sustainable foundation for long-term accessibility compliance.
