EN 301 549 is a European Standard that sets the technical accessibility requirements for ICT products and services.
Think of EN 301 549 as the how to instructions that support different European directives (i.e., laws) that tell you what to do. So the laws give you the requirements and EN 301 549 is your how to guide.
Here’s an illustration:
EN 301 549 is a harmonised standard that supports the European Directive 2016/2102 (the web accessibility directive) on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies.
This is very convenient because conformance with EN 301 549 can be used to demonstrate compliance with that Directive.
Notably, EN 301 549 incorporates the WCAG 2.1 AA technical standard.
An ongoing development that will crescendo in 2025 is EN 301 549 being used as a helpful reference for compliance with the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and then ultimately being harmonised so that conformance also creates a presumption of conformity with the EAA.
But note that we specifically used the term helpful reference for now. EN 301 549 is currently being revised to support the European Accessibility Act (EAA) (European Directive 2019/882) in 2025. The revision will result in the publishing V4.1.1 in the second half of 2025 which well set out how to implement the accessibility requirements for products and services set out in the EAA.
Multiple rounds of drafts have been finished – and the process is ahead of schedule, but V4.1.1 is still several months away from being finalized.
With the EAA compliance deadline June 28, 2025, covered entities must not wait for version 4.1.1 to be released. The good news is the EN 301 549 is still a very helpful reference as-is for EAA compliance.
In summary, EN 301 549 is a standard for the accessibility of ICT products and services that supports European Directives.
