A lot of accessibility audits have been sold since last year, and most of the sales copy opens the same way: a new law has applied since 28 June 2025 and the fines run into millions. That is true. What it leaves out is one thing that will be a relief to most readers.
The law has a micro-enterprise exemption and it applies to services too. A company with fewer than ten people and an annual turnover or balance sheet total under two million euros has no obligation. A large share of Czech companies falls inside that definition, including almost everybody we build websites for.
So this article starts with whether it concerns you at all. The rest is about something else and more useful: why accessibility pays off even when you do not have to do it, and how to check where you stand in half an hour.
Short answer
- The duty comes from Czech act 424/2023, in force since 28 June 2025. It is the Czech implementation of a European directive, so comparable rules apply across the union.
- It mainly covers e-commerce, that is websites and apps through which a consumer contract can be concluded. Also banking, transport, e-books and electronic communications.
- An ordinary company presentation site that sells nothing is outside it. A site with service descriptions and an enquiry form is not e-commerce.
- A micro-enterprise providing a service is exempt: fewer than 10 people and turnover or balance sheet total up to 2 million euros.
- Most of the fixes help people without disabilities too, because they are about legibility and operability. Which is why they pay off without any obligation.
Does it concern you? Three questions
Answer them in order, and at the first one that comes out no, you can skip to the second half of the article.
| Question | Answer yes | Answer no |
|---|---|---|
| Can a consumer contract be concluded through the site or app? | You are within scope, carry on | A presentation site with no selling is outside it |
| Do you have ten or more employees? | The micro-enterprise exemption does not apply | The second criterion remains to be checked |
| Is annual turnover or balance sheet total above 2 million euros? | No exemption, the duty applies | You are a micro-enterprise and have no duty |
The last two conditions are assessed together: a micro-enterprise employs fewer than ten people and at the same time stays under two million euros of turnover or balance sheet total. Cross either one and the exemption falls away.
For online shops the supervising authority is the Czech Trade Inspection Authority and fines run into millions of crowns. That is the part sales copy likes quoting. For your decision, the table above matters more.
What accessibility means in practice
Most people picture a screen reader for blind users. That is one part of it and far from the largest.
An accessible site is one you can still use when your eyesight is poor, when you cannot hear, when you cannot use a mouse, when you find it hard to concentrate, or when you are simply outdoors in the sun operating it one handed. That last case has nothing to do with disability and applies to absolutely everybody.
| Fault | Who it affects | Who else it affects |
|---|---|---|
| Weak text contrast | People with poorer eyesight | Everybody in sunlight |
| Mouse only operation | People with limited mobility | Everybody who works from the keyboard |
| Images without descriptions | Blind users | Search engines and language models |
| Video without captions | Deaf users | Everybody watching with the sound off |
| Form fields without labels | Screen reader users | Everybody who makes a mistake and is not told why |
| Text as an image | Anybody who needs to zoom in | Search engines, which read nothing from it |
That last column is the whole argument of the article. Accessibility is not a cost incurred for a minority, it is legibility and operability for everybody. Contrast you can read on a phone in the sun, labels that let a form be filled in correctly first time, and text that can be enlarged all improve results for people with no disability at all.
And a third reason has appeared that nobody was thinking about two years ago: what a screen reader cannot read, a language model crawler usually cannot read either. Image descriptions and a legible structure are now a question of search visibility as well.
Five checks you can run yourself in half an hour
They need no tools and no expertise. They reveal most of what tends to be wrong.
- 1Go through the site using only the keyboard. Tab moves you, space and enter activate things. You must always be able to see where you are, and you must reach everything, including submitting a form. This is the quickest and harshest test of the lot.
- 2Zoom the page to 200 per cent. Text should reflow, not disappear off the edge and not overlap. On a phone, do the same by increasing the text size in the system settings.
- 3Mute the sound and play a video from your site. If it makes no sense without sound and has no captions, that is a fault.
- 4Fill in a form deliberately wrongly. The error message has to say which field is wrong and what to do about it, not merely turn red.
- 5Look at the site on a phone outdoors in the sun. What you cannot read, nobody can. It is the least technical and most reliable contrast test there is.
Grey text on a light grey background, because it looks subtle. A form that just turns red when submitted. Video without captions, because the agency will add them later.
Contrast is calculated, not estimated. A form error says what is wrong and how to fix it. Captions are part of the video brief, not an afterthought.
Worth attention even without an obligation
Three reasons, ordered by how quickly they show up in money.
Forms. An incomprehensible error message is the most common place an enquiry is lost. Somebody submits, something turns red, they do not know what, they try once more and then leave. The fix is an hour of work and it shows immediately.
Legibility on a phone. Most visits to company websites come from phones and a large share of those happen outside an office. Contrast that looks elegant on a monitor indoors is unreadable outside.
The age of your customers. On a site whose customers are over fifty, better contrast and larger type are not a courtesy to a minority but a basic condition of them ordering at all. That applies particularly to trades, healthcare and home services.
When not to overdo it
So the article does not read as though no company may launch a website without an accessibility audit.
The WCAG standard has three levels and chasing the highest makes no sense for an ordinary company website. Level AA, which the European rules also target, is a sensible goal, and most of its requirements are decent craft rather than extra work.
Equally there is no sense buying overlay tools that promise accessibility in one line of code. They do not fix what is wrong in the structure of a page, and screen reader users repeatedly describe them as a hindrance. That money is better spent fixing contrast and labels.
And one last thing: accessibility is not a one-off audit but a way of building. A site that had contrast and keyboard operation sorted from the start needs no remediation.
How we handle it
Accessibility is a condition of launch for us rather than a chargeable extra, and it is written into the project's own rules.
- Contrast is calculated, not estimated. Every new colour has to pass against every background it can appear on, not just the main one.
- Keyboard operation is tested and the visible indicator of where you are is never removed without a full replacement.
- Image descriptions are a field in the editor, not something added when there is time. On a bilingual site, separately for each language.
- The target is level AA, the same one the European rules aim at.
And the honest other side: a fully accessible site does not exist, because part of the requirements depends on the content you put into it. Upload a video without captions or a price list as an image and the site loses accessibility however well it is built.
Frequently asked questions
Since when is website accessibility mandatory?
Since 28 June 2025 under Czech act 424/2023 on accessibility requirements for certain products and services, which implements European directive 2019/882. The duty applies to services provided after that date and to products placed on the market after it.
Does the accessibility act cover an ordinary company website?
Usually not. The act targets e-commerce, that is sites and apps through which a consumer contract can be concluded, along with banking, transport, e-books and electronic communications. A presentation site describing services with a contact form is not e-commerce.
Does the micro-enterprise exemption apply to online shops too?
Yes, the exemption covers service providers as well. A micro-enterprise employs fewer than ten people and at the same time has an annual turnover or balance sheet total not exceeding two million euros. Crossing either criterion removes the exemption.
What are the fines and who enforces it?
For online shops the supervising authority is the Czech Trade Inspection Authority and sanctions run into millions of crowns. Other areas have their own regulators, for instance the telecoms authority for electronic communications. The fine is not the main reason to bother though: most of the fixes improve usability for every visitor.
How do I check whether my site is accessible?
Five checks in half an hour: go through the site using only the keyboard, zoom the page to 200 per cent, play a video with the sound off, fill in a form deliberately wrongly, and look at the site on a phone outdoors in the sun. That reveals most common faults and needs no tools.
Do the tools promising accessibility in one line of code help?
Not with what matters. Overlay tools do not fix poor contrast, missing labels or page structure, and screen reader users repeatedly describe them as a hindrance. The money is better spent fixing contrast, image descriptions and form error messages.
Summary
- The duty comes from Czech act 424/2023, in force since 28 June 2025, and targets e-commerce above all.
- A micro-enterprise under ten people and two million euros of turnover is exempt, services included.
- An ordinary company presentation site with no selling falls outside the act.
- Most of the fixes help people without disabilities, because they are about legibility and operability.
- Five checks in half an hour reveal most faults and need no tools.
- Overlay tools promising accessibility in one line do not fix what matters.
Want to know where your site stands
Send us its address. We will run those five checks for you, measure the contrast and see whether the site can be operated from a keyboard. You will get a list of what is wrong, with an estimate for each of whether you can fix it yourself or whether it is developer work.