By Sonia Hunt, SVP, Worldwide Marketing & Communications, Vubiquity
“Success is scheduled. Failure is improvised.”
These words hold profound truth, especially for businesses navigating the complex world of accessibility compliance. For businesses across the EU and beyond, June 28, 2025 is the start of a compliance clock ticking toward critical milestones outlined in the European Accessibility Act (EAA), with full compliance required by June 28, 2030.
The EAA is more than a regulatory milestone—it’s a strong signal of where the industry is heading. While some may believe there’s room for interpretation or think they can afford to wait, the reality is twofold. First, the 2030 timeline is not that far away. Second, even if regulators do not immediately enforce compliance, the platforms that you rely on to distribute your content may do so. If they demand accessibility, your non-compliant content won’t make the cut.
Delaying action puts you at risk of being caught in a scramble— leaving valuable revenue/market opportunities on the table. And there is a good chance you will find yourself in a bidding war for resources like subtitling, audio descriptions, and other compliance solutions. And, as we know, when the market is flooded with demand, prices inevitably increase.
Starting now ensures you avoid the scramble and future-proof your content library in the most cost-efficient way possible.
Accessibility as a competitive advantage
The EAA aims to improve accessibility across digital platforms, consumer devices, and services offered within the European Union. The goal is simple yet ambitious—to shape a world where everyone is included.
Here’s the thing about accessibility preparedness: it’s not just about avoiding any potential penalties. It’s about elevating the value, longevity, and market reach of your content. Being ahead of the curve means you’re not waiting for doors of opportunity to open; you’re already ready to walk through them.
Here’s why you should act now:
- Future-proof your content: Compliance ensures your content will thrive in a market that increasingly prioritizes inclusivity.
- Boost content value: Accessible and localized content appeals to a broader audience and becomes more attractive to international distributors. The readiness ensures your high-value assets global reach.
- Protect your catalog investments: Delaying will only inflate costs and add pressure when resources become scarce due to high demand.
But perhaps the most powerful advantage is the opportunity to build trust and strengthen your brand. Today’s customers value inclusivity—and delivering accessible experiences shows that your business shares those values. Leading on accessibility sends a clear message: everyone is welcome. That commitment can deepen loyalty, enhance reputation, and set your brand apart.
Start with Catalog Intelligence
Think about your content library. It’s one of your organization’s most valuable resources, but here’s the questions that you need to answer honestly: do you even know what’s in it? How accessible is it? Is it already compliant with current laws, never mind the EAA? If those are the questions, employing “catalog intelligence” is the answer.
Vubiquity can help turn a sprawling library into a structured, searchable, rights-aware, and revenue-generating asset—especially crucial for content owners looking to scale globally or keep up with fast-moving distribution demands.
Our AI-powered, Catalog Intelligence platform is the most efficient and cost-effective way to understand what you have in your library and identify and mitigate problems. This includes identifying key compliance elements like captions, transcripts, audio descriptions, or subtitles. The ability to automate and scale a content library using AI saves time, reduces costs, and takes the guesswork out of accessibility efforts.
Vubiquity Catalog Intelligence uses AI, automation, and metadata enrichment to enhance the organization, discoverability, and monetization of media libraries. Our team has a deep understanding of library normalization and localization, and that expertise is baked into the platform.
Getting your metadata house in order not only helps with compliance, it helps with overall content performance because you also have the detail that enables you to maximize monetization.
We can help you get there
Complying with the EAA may feel daunting, but breaking it down into manageable steps helps remove complexities. Here are five actions every business should take right now to get ahead. And Vubiquity is a one stop shop that can help you get there.
- Conduct an audit: Evaluate your digital ecosystem for compliance gaps. Scrutinize websites, mobile apps, and content to identify areas falling short of EAA requirements.
- Support assistive technologies: Ensure your digital platforms work flawlessly with screen readers, text-to-speech software, and other assistive tools. Partner with managed service providers like Vubiquity to ensure expertise and efficiency.
- Update content pipelines: Implement workflows that automatically incorporate multilingual accessibility features like subtitles and audio descriptions.
- Plan for 2030: Build an actionable five-year compliance plan that aligns your operations with accessibility milestones, avoiding last-minute scrambles closer to the deadline.
- Leverage AI and automation: Use AI tools to automate processes, such as accessibility testing, localizing content, or generating inclusive elements like subtitles and captions.
Partnering with experts like Vubiquity can grant you streamlined workflows and valuable expertise. Plan proactively with a roadmap of actionable milestones to prevent last-minute rushes, and take full advantage of AI for processes like accessibility testing, localization, and generating inclusive elements. Start by auditing your digital ecosystem, evaluating your websites, apps, and content to seamlessly integrate multilingual accessibility features like subtitles and audio descriptions.Together, these actions lay the groundwork for a forward-thinking, accessible and inclusive digital experience.
We are a one-stop shop
With Emmy-award-winning localization expertise and advanced AI capabilities, Vubiquity offers a one-stop shop that simplifies the path to compliance. We help businesses unlock market potential, reduce compliance costs, and foster inclusivity through accessible, globalized content.
- Catalog Intelligence: Manage, optimize, and monetize your content libraries more effectively. Identify high-value, underutilized content that could be re-licensed, re-packaged, or promoted based on trends or gaps in the market.
- High-quality subtitling: We offer precise and culturally relevant subtitling services to ensure your content is accessible to a wider audience.
- Professional audio description: Our audio description services will enhance the viewing experience for visually impaired users, making your content more inclusive.
- Rights and availability tracking: Track which content is available to be licensed, when, and where, enabling smarter decisions about monetization windows and regional distribution.
- User interface localization: We can help you design and implement user interfaces that comply with accessibility standards, ensuring ease of use for all customers.
Accessibility isn’t just about meeting legal obligations; it’s about building trust, inclusion, and opportunity. Reach out to Vubiquity to learn how our experts can help.