Is an accessible website mandatory?

It is often written that since the summer of 2025 every website has to be accessible. That is half true, and the difference matters here: for businesses the obligation does not apply to everyone, while in the public sector it has covered every website since 2020.

This page works through what the two laws say, who they apply to, who they do not, and what is worth doing regardless of the obligation. It is not legal advice: if your case sits on the line, that needs a lawyer.

What the rule is

Two laws cover it, for two different groups. Public bodies fall under the European Union's Directive 2016/2102, which member states transposed into their own laws — in Hungary as Act LXXV of 2018. Businesses fall under Directive 2019/882 — commonly the European Accessibility Act, EAA —, which in Hungary is Act XVII of 2022, with the detail in Government Decree 605/2022; it applies from 28 June 2025.

Both ask the same of a website: that it be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. The European standard EN 301 549 makes this measurable, and its web requirements match WCAG 2.1 AA — an international standard with concrete, checkable conditions: an interface navigable by keyboard, sufficient contrast, text descriptions for images, a structure a screen reader can make sense of. The public-sector law points to the European standard itself; the business law names no standard, and in practice the same one is the reference point there too.

In the public sector: every website since 2020

The Hungarian law covers public sector bodies: the state and budgetary bodies, local and minority self-governments and their associations, public foundations, and the public-interest organisations these supervise or mostly finance. It covers their websites and mobile apps alike: websites published after 23 September 2018 had to comply from 23 September 2019, all others from 23 September 2020, and apps from 23 June 2021. The three dates come from the directive, so they hold across the EU.

Beyond a compliant website, it asks for two things:

• An accessibility statement on the website, following an EU model. It describes what is not accessible, why, and what the alternative is; says where problems can be reported; and links to the monitoring body's procedure. It has to be kept up to date, and in Hungary the head of the unit responsible for it signs it off.
• A feedback mechanism through which anyone can report what they cannot reach, and ask for the content in another form. In Hungary the reply is due within 30 days.

Public service media are exempt, and so are several content types, among them archives, document files published before the law came into force — unless they hold essential information about the body's public duties —, linear media, and third-party content the organisation neither funded nor controls. On the websites of schools, kindergartens and nurseries, the Hungarian law covers only the essential information about their public duties: what is on the mandatory publication list.

In Hungary, since 2025 the Digital Hungary Agency monitors compliance, on its own initiative or on a complaint: anyone who gets no reply within 30 days, or an unsatisfactory one, can turn to it. The law sets no fine. Where a site falls short, the monitoring body agrees a deadline, and if that leads nowhere, it reports the case to the body that maintains or supervises the organisation.

How far this has got is set out in the monitoring body's three-yearly report (in Hungarian). Between 2022 and 2024 there were 1,123 checks; 72% of them found no accessibility statement, and of the 73 websites examined in detail, 4 fully complied. No case was reported to a maintaining body in those three years. In October 2026 I measured 49 municipal websites myself — the results are in a separate piece.

For businesses: who it applies to

The law is not about every website, but about specified services. These include:

• E-commerce — where the visitor buys a product or service on the site.
• Banking and financial services for consumers.
• Electronic communications — phone and internet services.
• Transport — passenger information, ticketing.
• E-books and their reading software.
• Audiovisual media services and their access interfaces.

Who it does not

A site that only introduces you. If the site presents the business, lists the services and gives contact details — without providing a consumer digital service through it — it falls outside the scope. Most small-business websites are like this.

Microenterprises providing services. A microenterprise employs fewer than ten people and has annual turnover or a balance sheet total of no more than two million euros. The law exempts them for services. For products the exemption does not apply.

Old content and old contracts, in part. Pre-recorded video and office files — a PDF, for instance — published before 28 June 2025 are exempt, as is archived content not updated since. Service contracts agreed before that date may continue unchanged until they expire, but no later than 28 June 2030. For the service itself, provided after 28 June 2025, there is no general transition period — even if it started earlier.

1 · WHO RUNS IT

Public body, local authority, state agency? if yes: mandatory since 2020.

2 · WHAT KIND OF SERVICE

E-commerce, banking, transport, telecoms? if no: does not apply to you.

3 · HOW LARGE IS THE BUSINESS

Over ten people or over €2 M turnover? if no: exempt as a microenterprise.

AFTER THREE STEPS

Mandatory since 28 June 2025 — the measure is WCAG 2.1 AA.

Why it is worth it anyway

The obligation and the benefit are two separate questions. An accessible site is not only good for people using a screen reader:

In bright sunlight everyone has low vision. The contrast the standard prescribes simply means legibility on a phone outdoors.

Keyboard navigability matters to machines too. The same clean structure a screen reader can read out is what a search engine and a language model can interpret. That is what the AI visibility page is about.

Text descriptions make images findable. It is the same work search optimisation asks for.

And it simply reaches more people. Impairments of sight, hearing or movement are not rare, and they become more common with age.

What it means in practice

WCAG 2.1 AA is a long list, but for most sites it comes down to a few things:

• Contrast — enough difference between text and background, in dark mode as well.
• Keyboard — every button and menu reachable without a mouse, and the focus visible.
• Images — a meaningful text description, not the file name.
• Structure — real headings and lists, not styled paragraphs.
• Forms — every field labelled, and error messages that say what to fix.
• Zoom — the layout holds at double text size.

I do not eyeball this: I run it. Every page of this site is measured before each release by two scripts — contrast in both colour schemes, keyboard focus, screen reader structure. There is a separate piece in the Workshop on what is worth handing to a machine.

Questions on this topic

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