Digital Accessibility: What Changes in 2026 with AgID Controls

98% of websites still have digital barriers. With the activation of AgID controls, accessibility is definitively becoming a strategic priority for companies.

For years, digital accessibility has remained a marginal topic in business strategies: often perceived as a technical or regulatory issue, rarely addressed as an integral part of the digital experience.

With the entry into force of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) in June 2025, the context has changed. Accessibility obligations now extend to numerous digital products and services intended for consumers, involving most companies operating online. Only microenterprises, that is, entities with fewer than 10 employees and less than 2 million euros in annual turnover, are excluded from the scope of the regulation.

Inspections and checks increase from 2026

While 2025 marked the entry into force of the regulation, 2026 opens a more concrete phase, that of inspections.

AgID - the Agency for Digital Italy, the Italian authority overseeing the EAA - has launched its public platform for reporting non-compliance. Today, anyone can report an inaccessible website via SPID.

From 2023 to June 2025, AgID has already evaluated over 250,000 websites, 41 million pages, and nearly 6 million PDFs. In the second half of 2025 alone, about 30,000 sites were analyzed. Accessibility declarations published since 2020 exceed 84,000, of which 18,000 were in the first six months of 2025.

What companies risk if they do not comply

The sanctioning framework established by the EAA, also adopted in Italy, is anything but symbolic. Non-compliant companies may face fines of up to 5% of annual turnover, in addition to warnings and mandatory compliance within strict deadlines. In the most serious cases, the suspension of non-compliant digital activity is also provided.

AgID can intervene both following reports and through random checks, without prior notice.

In addition, there is the obligation to publish and keep updated the Accessibility Statement: a public, verifiable document subject to inspection. Its absence - or incomplete updating - already constitutes non-compliance.

The reputational risk

Economic sanctions are the most obvious aspect. But there is a less visible, and often more impactful risk: the reputational one.

A company that communicates inclusivity, care for people, or sustainability, but offers digital experiences that exclude part of the users, creates an increasingly visible contradiction.

With the activation of the AgID platform, this gap between declared values and actual experience also becomes public and traceable. This is why accessibility is no longer just about compliance: it concerns brand consistency.

A strategic choice

In short, digital accessibility is the ability of a website, an app, or an online service to truly function for everyone, regardless of physical, cognitive, or sensory abilities.

Today there are precise international standards — the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) — that define concrete and measurable criteria to evaluate the accessibility of a digital experience.

In Italy, the issue directly concerns about 13 million people with disabilities and 14 million over 65: almost a quarter of the population, often put at a disadvantage by interfaces designed without considering different needs.

But the scope is even broader and concerns common, everyday situations: one in three people, at least once in their lifetime, experiences a temporary disability: a cast arm, eye surgery, a period of extreme fatigue.

Some examples

The most widespread barriers are not invisible. They are simply ignored.

A screen reader that reads “img_hero.jpg” instead of describing an image.
A checkout form that cannot be navigated without a mouse.
A video without subtitles.
A PDF published as a scanned image, unreadable for those using assistive technologies.
Texts with insufficient contrast that become difficult to read for people with visual impairments.

Each of these barriers has a real cost: an uncompleted purchase, a lost customer, an experience that will hardly be repeated.

Accessibility by Design: an approach

Accessibility by Design means integrating inclusion into the design process from the very beginning, and not adding it later, when the site is already online and the barriers have already been built.

This means that designers, developers, copywriters, and marketers share the same question: does this experience really work for everyone?

The result is a structurally better digital product. Clearer, faster, more usable. It is also why accessibility improves SEO, reduces bounce rates, and increases conversions: truly inclusive design is by definition more effective.

How to approach the journey

Compliance does not mean redesigning everything from scratch. It means understanding where the barriers are, setting the right priorities, and building a sustainable path over time.

For this reason Webranking collaborates with Eye-Able, integrating strategic skills, UX, and digital accessibility monitoring technology.

The work typically unfolds in three phases:

analysis and audit
remediation of critical issues
continuous monitoring

The goal is not only to meet regulatory requirements but to concretely improve the quality of the digital experience: usability, clarity, performance, and inclusiveness.