Digital Accessibility Review of 2025 and What to Expect in 2026

2025 was a dynamic year shaped by the political climate, updates to legal frameworks, and technological developments. There were some discouraging setbacks, but also doors opened that present opportunities for the year ahead. Below, I have compiled the key accessibility-related developments of 2025 and tried to explain what they may bring us.

Challanges of 2025

The Impact of Trump on Accessibility

On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump began his term as the 47th President of the United States. From his previous presidency, we were already familiar with his negative stance toward diversity and inclusion initiatives, but this term started more aggressively. With an executive directive issued on January 20, so-called “wasteful diversity and inclusion programs” in the public sector were terminated. The private sector followed this trend, and many organizations limited their diversity and inclusion efforts.

In addition, monitoring the enforcement of federal laws such as the ADA, IDEA, and the Rehabilitation Act—which also include digital accessibility provisions—became more difficult. Staffing cuts occurred in the units responsible for overseeing these laws. For example, 70% of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Office and nearly half of the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights were laid off. Public programs and educational resources designed to facilitate the enforcement of federal laws were also discontinued.

State-level laws mandating digital accessibility and international regulations such as the EAA remain in force, as they are outside Trump’s direct jurisdiction. However, it is clear that the field has been negatively affected.

Why should this concern us? Most digital accessibility standards originated in the United States. The largest accessibility initiatives and many corporate accessibility programs are also US-based. Contraction in this area and cuts in resources may lead US-based multinational companies to scale back their accessibility efforts in other countries as well. If you want to work with US-based accessibility consulting firms, you may face significantly higher budgets than before. Considering that Europe has also made a strong move with the EAA, perhaps the center of digital accessibility is beginning to shift.

Can Accessibility Really Be Solved with a Single Line of Code?

There has been intense debate around accessibility overlay solutions—plug-ins that allow users to make accessibility adjustments on some websites. What brought this topic to the public agenda was a $1 million lawsuit filed in January by the US Federal Trade Commission against accessiBe, a provider of an AI-powered web accessibility tool. The lawsuit alleged that accessiBe made misleading claims that its plug-in could make any website WCAG-compliant.

The fact that overlays cannot fully ensure accessibility and that manual effort is necessary has long been discussed in the accessibility field. This lawsuit and decision served as concrete proof of that reality.

More Complex Pages, Stagnant Accessibility

WebAIM’s annual WebAIM Million report, which analyzes the accessibility of the homepages of one million websites, was published this March. Compared to last year, there is no significant difference in the number of web pages with accessibility errors or in the total number of errors detected. However, the report’s conclusion expresses concern that web homepages are becoming increasingly complex. It notes that the growing number of elements and the complexity of popular JavaScript libraries increase accessibility errors. While capacity and technology in digital accessibility are improving, web pages seem to be becoming complex at an even faster pace.

Which World Will Artificial Intelligence Change?

There is no objection that AI has made many things easier—but caution is necessary. In a study conducted by Microsoft, 10 large language models were asked to generate three HTML documents each. No additional instructions regarding accessibility were provided. The resulting code was evaluated against WCAG criteria. Even the most successful model, GPT-5 Mini, achieved only 31% WCAG compliance. The other six tested models achieved either 1% or 0% compliance. In other words, if you do not explicitly instruct AI to consider accessibility, its output remains very limited. Someone needs to remind these tools to “not forget accessibility,” and additional checks are essential.

Opportunities for 2026

Conscious Use of Artificial Intelligence

Continuing from the previous point: if you do not give AI additional guidance, it may not prioritize accessibility. However, when you use clear and explicit prompts—for example, for adding alternative text to images, suggesting colors that meet contrast requirements, or organizing heading structures—you can receive highly accurate results. You can test these prompts in most mainstream AI tools. Additionally, axe Assistant, designed by Deque Systems specifically to answer accessibility-related questions, provides guidance on regulations, accessible code examples, and different disability types. Automation-based accessibility solutions developed using MCP are also gradually emerging.

In short, AI will play an increasingly important role in accessibility testing and development processes, but we must not forget the value of user experience. When integrating AI—especially in an area like accessibility, which is not yet fully mainstream and where some standards remain ambiguous—it is wise to proceed with caution.

New Standards from Canada

Amid all this AI activity, an important step came from Canada. On December 3, the Standards Council of Canada published the Accessible and Equitable Artificial Intelligence Standards. These standards include provisions on ensuring that AI tools themselves are accessible, that outputs are equitable for persons with disabilities, that organizations do not use AI tools in discriminatory ways, and that training on AI use is provided. For example, if an AI-supported sign language interpreter is used for Deaf individuals, people should be able to choose a human interpreter in critical settings such as hospitals. Similarly, if AI generates code output, that output should be accessible. In recruitment processes, if AI is used, organizations must ensure that discrimination based on disability does not occur.

These standards are not yet legally binding, but they may become an influential guiding document in the near future.

European Accessibility Act: Something Is Happening, but What?

On June 28, 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) came into force. Many organizations providing services in Europe are now required to make their digital products accessible. Each country has integrated at least the minimum accessibility standards defined by the EAA into its national digital accessibility laws. Enforcement is monitored by Market Surveillance Authorities in each country, meaning that implementation of the EAA is overseen by a central authority at the national level.

At the moment, there is no comprehensive reporting that shows how many lawsuits have been filed, where they have been filed, or what penalties have been imposed. However, we can say that the first impacts of the EAA have been seen in France. Four major online grocery brands—Auchan, Carrefour, E. Leclerc, and Picard—were sued for accessibility issues on their websites and mobile applications. In France, digital accessibility has already been mandatory under consumer law for nearly 10 years. The EAA added a new layer of pressure, and an association composed of blind lawyers initiated legal proceedings against these brands. I have not yet found information about the outcome of these cases, but it seems likely that we will encounter more similar news in the coming months.

Finally, considering that organizations in Türkiye also provide services to EU countries and operate digital channels, the EAA clearly affects us as well.

Steps Taken in Türkiye

With the Presidential Circular on the Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications published on June 24, digital accessibility perhaps began to be discussed more openly in Türkiye than ever before. Under the scope of the circular, organizations in sectors such as banking, education, healthcare, and transportation are expected to ensure that their websites and mobile applications meet WCAG 2.2 Level A criteria. Access to information and digital accessibility were already obligations under broader legal frameworks. This circular brought digital accessibility more clearly onto the agenda and aimed to provide organizations with concrete guidance—although it must be said that detailed guidelines and an action plan are still lacking.

Conclusion

Overall, 2025 was a year in which many things began, but their full impact has not yet been seen. In 2026, we will see whether these beginnings can be turned into real opportunities. To do so, several questions need to be answered:

  • Can systematic models that mainstream accessibility become more widespread now that overlay-based technologies are clearly not a solution?
  • As the problems of complex, element-heavy web pages become more visible, could minimalist structures that also prioritize accessibility become a trend?
  • As standards for artificial intelligence begin to form, can accessibility become one of the core focuses of these developments?
  • Will legal developments in Europe and Türkiye move beyond being merely on paper and become truly effective in practice?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is There a Need for a Digital Accessibility Certification in Turkey?

About a month ago, we initiated a study on digital accessibility certifications both on LinkedIn and in various email groups. Our starting point was simple: if you have knowledge in digital accessibility and work in this field, there is no university program, formal training, or certification in Turkey through which you can formally demonstrate your expertise. As a result, standards in the field remain unclear. Especially with the recent Presidential Circular, which mandates closer monitoring of the accessibility of websites and mobile applications, the topic has become more prominent. This uncertainty may also pose a risk to the quality of future work. In our survey, we asked: “Would a digital accessibility certification be useful?” Despite asking for support in sharing the survey, we received responses from only 30 people. In my opinion, that’s a small number, but still sufficient to draw some initial conclusions . Who Are the Accessibility Professionals? First, the demographics. The...
Read more

Are Accessibility Overlays Really Meaningful?

Image
When you visit some websites, you may see an accessibility icon in the bottom corner. When you click it, you’re presented with options such as changing the page’s contrast, enlarging text, or stopping animations. These are accessibility overlays—tools that allow users to adjust accessibility settings on a page, typically provided as third-party JavaScript solutions. While the idea of adjusting text size or colors with a single click may sound appealing, these solutions are highly debated in the accessibility field. So, What’s the Issue? Most of the features offered by overlays can already be controlled through device or browser settings. Below, you can see a webpage in its original form, the same page with modified contrast via an overlay, and how it looks when I adjust contrast through Windows 11 system settings. The overlay’s contrast option could not detect the background image colors, so it didn’t actually change anything. In other words, system settings often provide more cons...
Read more