Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets sets expectations on EAA digital accessibility and launches a WCAG compliance review

The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets has published its third update on the European Accessibility Act (EAA), setting out expectations and practical points for financial firms on how to evidence, embed, and monitor digital accessibility compliance. It also announced a compliance review of digital accessibility in the coming quarter and urged firms to make non-conformity notifications more specific. The update highlights the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a key tool for meeting the EAA, noting three conformance levels (A, AA, AAA) and that firms must meet level A and AA. The AFM expects firms to identify accessibility risks in their digital services, implement improvements aligned with mandatory WCAG criteria, and put in place processes to ensure accessibility is maintained and monitored across websites, apps and other digital services, including involving people with disabilities early in digital service design. It also provides additional instructions on completing parts of the EAA non-conformity notification form, after observing that notifications are often not concrete enough to assess what issues exist and where. In the coming quarter, the AFM will assess the extent to which firms’ websites comply with WCAG criteria, with specific attention to level A criteria, focusing on the most-used consumer sectors and services. Firms may be contacted where needed.