The European Accessibility Act: A Strategic Imperative for B2B SaaS Providers

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) comes into effect on 28th June this year and marks an important shift in the digital accessibility landscape. While primarily targeting consumer-facing businesses, its impact on B2B or B2B2C software providers should not be underestimated. Many enterprise applications and SaaS platforms directly influence consumer-facing products and services, meaning non-compliance could lead to legal risks, lost market opportunities, and reputational damage.

For product managers, designers, and development teams, this shift requires embedding accessibility at every stage of product development and not just as a compliance measure but as a strategic driver for UX innovation too.

Why Accessibility Compliance Matters for B2B & B2B2C SaaS

The EAA seeks to ensure that digital services work for everyone. B2B software providers, whether delivering enterprise platforms, workflow tools or data-driven SaaS products, must now ensure that the solutions they provide can be used by a more diverse user base and be inclusive of those with disabilities.

While accessibility compliance has been a consideration in procurement processes for some time for business software, the EAA will introduce more stringent requirements across the EU. This development means that large enterprises and public sector organisations will increasingly demand accessibility compliance from their software vendors. Non-compliance could lead to exclusion from procurement opportunities, especially within the EU market. SaaS products will need to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA as a minimum to maintain acceptable usability and compliance standards.

Some of our client industries are facing additional pressure to evolve too. The utilities sector, for example, is undergoing particularly accelerated change concerning digital accessibility requirements due to the fairly recent increase in consumer-facing solutions in this area. In this highly competitive market, dedicated resources and proactivity will be required to stay ahead of compliance requirements and enhance customer satisfaction.

So accessibility is much more than just a legal requirement, but an opportunity for B2B SaaS providers to differentiate and scale. According to the Council of the European Union in 2023, approximately 101 million people aged over 16 in the EU have some form of disability, accounting for 27% of the population. That’s a potentially significant untapped user base for those software providers who are yet to align with EAA requirements.

Challenges for Different SaaS Product Managers

Bringing a platform up to the required accessibility standards is a complex challenge though and one which extends beyond product design. Close cross-functional planning and alignment across compliance, product, technology and design teams is key to successfully implementing the change. SMEs or scale-ups may be sufficiently agile to embed accessibility from the ground up, but smaller teams may also struggle to allocate the necessary resources. For larger organisations, alignment can be more challenging and retrofitting accessibility measures across a potentially fragmented portfolio will be complex and necessitate dedicated resourcing and governance.

Yet irrespective of company or portfolio size, accessibility will need to become a core part of product thinking. Leading software companies in assistive technology, such as Texthelp for example, has accessibility embedded into the company’s core mission. Business and products leaders will similarly need to fully integrate accessibility into their product strategy, establishing clear objectives or KPIs to work towards. As such accessibility becomes an ongoing commitment rather than a one-time compliance task that requires monitoring or governance.

Product managers face the critical task of embedding accessibility objectives into the product roadmap too. This involves conducting targeted user research and testing at key stages of the product’s development. An illustrative example is Pendo, a B2B software company specialising in product experience and digital adoption solutions. Pendo has embraced transparency by publicly sharing its product roadmap, allowing users to view recent shipments, ongoing projects, and upcoming ideas. This openness invites user feedback and enables the company to address accessibility concerns proactively during the development process.

Legacy design systems will also need to be aligned to the new guidelines and even those using newer, off the shelf frameworks will need to ensure they are used in a compliant way and the requirements are met in the end product.

Clearly for some, meeting these measures will constitute a learning curve and businesses will need to ensure in-house accessibility expertise is prioritised. Super User Studio can help software providers of all sizes with these challenges via our tailored sprint-based frameworks.

Don’t hesitate to contact us today to learn more about how other software companies are tackling these changes.

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