EN 301 549
EN 301 549 is the European standard for the accessibility of ICT products and services; the version cited in the Official Journal of the EU, V3.2.1 (2021-03), points for websites and mobile applications to the WCAG 2.1 success criteria at levels A and AA.
In practice
V3.2.1 is harmonised – and therefore carries a presumption of conformity – through Implementing Decisions (EU) 2018/2048 and (EU) 2021/1339 under the Web Accessibility Directive (EU) 2016/2102, which applies to public sector bodies. For the European Accessibility Act and the Austrian Accessibility Act (BaFG), no harmonised standard has yet been cited in the Official Journal; section 5 BaFG ties the presumption of conformity expressly to such a citation, and then only to the extent that the standard covers the requirements. Working to EN 301 549 therefore means working to the recognised state of the art – it does not come with automatic legal certainty. The standard remains the technical link between abstract legislation and the WCAG criteria you can actually implement. The revision has been available since June 2026 as final draft EN 301 549 V4.1.0 and adopts WCAG 2.2. The ETSI voting procedure has been running since 25 June 2026. The final version has not been published, and it has not yet been cited in the Official Journal.
Matching service
Sources
- ETSI: EN 301 549 V3.2.1 – Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
- Europäische Kommission: Web Accessibility Directive – Standards and harmonisation (zitierte Fassung V3.2.1) (opens in a new tab)
- EUR-Lex: Durchführungsbeschluss (EU) 2018/2048 (Fundstelle EN 301 549 V2.1.2, geändert durch (EU) 2021/1339) (opens in a new tab)
- RIS: Barrierefreiheitsgesetz (BaFG) § 5 Vermutung der Konformität (opens in a new tab)