Switch color mode
Home Blog How to Improve EAA Compliance With Accessible Customer Service
The EAA (European Accessibility Act) requires accessible customer support for products and services that it covers – Directive (EU) 2019/882 (the European Accessibility Act), Annex I, Section III.
January 30, 2026
While there are many components to the European Accessibility Act, here, we’re going to focus specifically on customer support. Accessible support is probably not at the top of most organization’s accessibility improvements lists but is often a fairly quick accessibility win compared to making product design changes, with measurable impact.
In this blog, we explore what the EAA is, what it says in regards to customer service, why customer service is one of the quickest accessibility wins a business can implement and how to get started in making support accessible.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA), formally Directive (EU) 2019/882, establishes common accessibility requirements across EU member states. Its goal is to remove barriers created by fragmented national rules and ensure that people with disabilities can access key products and services on equal terms.
The act applies to a wide range of digital and physical services, including e-commerce, banking, transport, media services, and customer support. It’s applicable to any organization selling covered products or services into the EU, regardless of where that company is based.
Compliance has been compulsory since June 2025, and those who don’t comply could face fines and legal action, as well as the complete removal of products and services from the European market.
Under the act, one of the areas businesses need to make accessible is their customer support channels.
As stated at the start of our blog, this is covered under Directive (EU) 2019/882, Annex I.
The specific language stated is:
“The provision of services in order to maximise their foreseeable use by persons with disabilities, shall be achieved by: …
Where available, support services (help desks, call centres, technical support, relay services and training services) providing information on the accessibility of the service and its compatibility with assistive technologies, in accessible modes of communication.”
In addition to non-compliance, customer service can represent a high-risk area if accessibility is missing or inadequate. Inaccessible support creates a poor experience for disabled customers – quickly leading to frustration, complaints, reputational damage, and lost revenue. In fact, $3.7 trillion in potential revenue is lost each year due to poor customer service. (Forbes, Qualtrics XM Institute).
“Customer service is frequently the most overlooked area of accessibility, yet it is often the easiest place to deliver meaningful improvement without overhauling product design.” – Mike Buckley, CEO at Be My Eyes
When organizations begin working toward EAA compliance, attention usually goes straight to product design, digital interfaces, and documentation. Those areas matter, but they also tend to involve long development cycles, cross-team coordination, and technical debt. Customer service is different. It often sits outside the core product roadmap, which makes it one of the fastest places to create real, visible change.
Support teams already exist to solve problems and improving accessibility is usually about adjusting how that help is delivered, not rebuilding systems from scratch. Adding accessible contact options, updating support processes, or equipping agents with better tools can often be done in weeks rather than months. The result is immediate impact for customers and clear progress toward compliance.
To add to the business case further, accessibility improvements in CX tend to pay for themselves through lower handling costs, increased customer satisfaction and a more positive brand reputation.
For blind and low-vision customers in particular, traditional customer service experiences can be difficult or impossible.
For example:
Troubleshooting instructions typically rely on visual cues. Chat interfaces may not work well with screen readers. Phone support may assume the customer can see device indicators or error messages.
In order for customer support channels to be truly accessible and not just tick a compliance box, they need to work in real-world situations. This is where purpose-built Customer Accessibility Management (CAM) technology, such as the Be My Eyes Customer Accessibility Suite, can play a central role.
The Be My Eyes Customer Accessibility Suite is designed to help organizations meet accessibility requirements in customer service while vastly improving the overall experience for blind and low-vision users.
The suite includes Service Connect and Service AI, which can be deployed together or as standalone solutions.
Service Connect: Enables customers to connect directly with a live service agent through a one-way video, two-way audio call. The agent can see through the customer’s smartphone camera or Smart glasses (such as Meta AI glasses), allowing them to understand the issue immediately and guide the customer in real time. This approach removes the need for visual descriptions and shortens resolution times.
Service AI: Provides a highly advanced, accessible AI agent for customers who want immediate assistance without necessarily speaking with a real person. Customers can upload photos, ask questions, and receive clear responses quickly and automatically from the AI agent. If needed, the interaction can be escalated seamlessly to a live agent, with any previous AI-chat session passed through to the live agent to provide context.
Both are designed to work with minimal technical effort and provide a great step forward in providing accessible support and increasing a brand’s overall accessibility efforts.
Want to get started in delivering great support experiences for your blind and low-vision customer base? Request a demo of our Customer Accessibility Suite today and see how Be My Eyes could work for your business.
