How EU Public- and Private-Sector Homepages Score on Accessibility
In April 2026 we ran the same comprehensive audit on the homepages of 394 EU public- and private-sector organisations. The overall median was 64/100, and EU institutions had a median of 67/100. Same method for every site, one-time snapshot.
TL;DR
- · 0.3% of homepages scored 80/100 or higher, our pass threshold. Almost all of the rest sit between 60 and 80.
- · The median score across the sample is 64/100.
- · EU institutions had a median score of 67/100 — still below the 80/100 pass threshold.
How we tested
We scanned the homepage of 394 EU public-sector and private-sector websites with RankProof's comprehensive audit engine — the same engine behind our free public audit. It combines automated accessibility testing with WCAG 2.1 checks.
Each site received the same audit. Scores range from 0 (every check fails) to 100 (every check passes), and we treat 80/100 or higher as the pass threshold. A score is a technical signal, not a legal assessment of EAA compliance. Sites that could not be reached (network failures, CAPTCHAs, bot blocking) were left out rather than marked non-compliant.
Scan window: 2026-04-29 → 2026-04-30
Aggregate findings
Breakdown by category
| Category | N | Pass % | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public health services | 26 | 0% | 65 |
| Media and publishers | 20 | 0% | 63 |
| Private banks | 17 | 0% | 64 |
| Fashion retail | 20 | 0% | 63 |
| Travel | 17 | 0% | 63 |
| Public utilities | 37 | 0% | 64 |
| Insurance | 17 | 5.9% | 64 |
| Government portals | 28 | 0% | 65 |
| B2B software (SaaS) | 19 | 0% | 65 |
| Telecoms | 16 | 0% | 65 |
| Public transport | 38 | 0% | 63 |
| Public universities | 44 | 0% | 65 |
| Central banks | 27 | 0% | 66 |
| Ministries | 25 | 0% | 65 |
| Furniture and home retail | 18 | 0% | 62 |
| EU institutions | 25 | 0% | 67 |
Monthly figures by country: Website accessibility in the EU
What to ship in the next 24 hours
These are the highest-leverage fixes any EU site can ship today to lift their score:
- Add descriptive alt text to every meaningful image (auto-generated alt with vision AI is acceptable; "image" or filename-as-alt is not).
- Fix colour contrast: every text-on-background pair must hit WCAG AA (4.5:1 normal, 3:1 large) — verify with our free contrast checker.
- Set the html lang attribute correctly. Greek sites with `lang="en"` fail accessibility tools, screen readers, and translation engines.
- Wire up keyboard navigation: every interactive element reachable by Tab, every focus state visible, no keyboard trap on modals.
- Publish your accessibility statement and the service information that Annex V of the EAA requires.
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Same method for every site, one-time snapshot from April 2026. The data is here to help teams improve.
Method: public- and private-sector homepages, scanned once with our comprehensive audit (automated accessibility tests plus WCAG 2.1 checks). Scores are technical signals, not legal assessments.