1. Overview
People talk about "WCAG compliance", "EN 301 549 compliance" and "EAA compliance" as if they were three names for one thing. They are three kinds of document with three jobs.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 are a technical guideline. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) publishes them. They say what accessible web content looks like, criterion by criterion.
EN 301 549 is a European standard. It arranges WCAG and many other requirements. The aim is to evaluate an ICT product or service against European law.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is the law. It is a Directive. Each Member State has turned it into its own national act.
The chain runs like this. The Directive sets "essential requirements" in Annex I. The European Commission asks the European standardisation organisations for a harmonised standard that meets them. EN 301 549 V4.1.1 is the answer. Once the Official Journal of the European Union cites the standard, Article 15 applies. Conformance with the standard's relevant clauses then gives a presumption of conformity with the Directive. And its web clauses are, word for word, WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA. This lesson walks that chain. It ends with the earlier public sector Directive.
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Sources
- W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 (status section and conformance section), Understanding WCAG 2.2 and Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.2 to Non-Web ICT (WCAG2ICT).
- ETSI, CEN and CENELEC, EN 301 549 V4.1.1 (2026-09), Foreword, Introduction, clauses 1, 9.0, 10.0, 11.0 and 14.1, Annex A (A.1 and A.2.0), Annex ZA and Annex ZB.0, available from the ETSI standards server.
- Directive (EU) 2019/882 (the European Accessibility Act), EUR-Lex: recitals 46 and 47; Articles 2, 4, 13, 15, 16 to 23, 29, 30, 31 and 32; Annex I and Annex V.
- Directive (EU) 2016/2102 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies, EUR-Lex, and Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1523 establishing a model accessibility statement, EUR-Lex.
- Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 on European standardisation, EUR-Lex, for the meaning of "harmonised standard".
- Accessibility Checker user guide: Create reports and accessibility statements (iPhone and iPad) and The Reports Hub (Mac).
