Frameworks & Standards
EN 301 549 — Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services
The harmonised European standard defining accessibility requirements for ICT products and services; meeting it creates a presumption of conformity with EU accessibility law.
EN 301 549 is the European standard that turns accessibility law into testable technical requirements for information and communication technology — websites, apps, documents, software and hardware. For web content it incorporates the WCAG success criteria and extends them with ICT-specific requirements. Under the European Accessibility Act and the Web Accessibility Directive, conformance with the harmonised version of EN 301 549 gives a presumption of legal conformity.
The currently harmonised version, 3.2.1, reflects WCAG 2.1 Level AA; a successor aligning with WCAG 2.2 is in the European standardisation pipeline and is expected to replace it in the Official Journal citation. Because harmonisation lags the guidelines, organisations aiming to stay ahead build to the newest WCAG level rather than the minimum cited version. The standard is also the reference most commonly written into public-procurement requirements for digital deliverables in Europe.