We Scanned 5,000 European Websites for Accessibility. Here's What We Found.

In February 2026 — eight months after the European Accessibility Act's enforcement date — we ran automated accessibility scans against 5,000 European websites across e-commerce, banking, and SaaS sectors. The results show significant progress in some areas and persistent gaps in others.

Overall findings

• 38% of sites had zero critical WCAG 2.1 AA violations (up from 22% in our 2024 benchmark)
• 74% of sites had at least one contrast ratio failure
• 61% of sites had missing or inadequate form labels
• Only 12% of sites had a published accessibility statement
• Average violations per page: 23 (down from 34 in 2024)

By sector

Banking & Financial Services: Best overall performance. 52% had zero critical violations. Heavy regulatory pressure and consumer-facing obligations drive investment. E-commerce: Most improved sector. Average violations per page dropped from 41 to 26 year-over-year. EAA enforcement deadline likely drove the urgency. SaaS / B2B: Worst performance. Only 24% had zero critical violations. Many SaaS companies assume B2B products are exempt from the EAA (most are not if they serve EU customers).

Most common violations

1. Insufficient color contrast (74%) — Still the most prevalent issue. Often in footer text, placeholder text, and badge elements. 2. Missing form labels (61%) — Form inputs without programmatic labels. Screen readers can't identify what the field is for. 3. Missing alt text (54%) — Decorative images without alt="" and informative images without descriptive alt text. 4. No skip navigation (47%) — Keyboard users forced to tab through entire navigation on every page. 5. Focus indicator issues (41%) — Custom focus styles that are invisible or removed entirely.

Accessibility statements

• 68% were generic templates with no site-specific information
• Only 31% included a feedback mechanism
• 24% referenced an outdated version of WCAG (2.0 instead of 2.1)

What this means

The EAA has driven measurable improvement, but the majority of European websites are still non-compliant. The low accessibility statement adoption suggests many organizations are either unaware of the requirement or haven't prioritized it. As national enforcement bodies ramp up market surveillance in 2026-2027, the window for quiet non-compliance is closing.

Methodology

Automated scans were performed using axe-core against homepage and key user journey pages (product page, checkout, login) across 5,000 websites. Manual spot-checking was performed on a 10% sample to validate automated findings. Results represent a point-in-time snapshot and do not constitute a legal compliance assessment.