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AI regulation news usually sounds like someone else’s problem. Banned use cases, fines as a percentage of revenue — that reads like legal’s department, not ours. But a provision that takes effect on August 2 contains this sentence: Ensure that high-risk AI systems comply with the accessibility requirements in accordance with Directives (EU) 2016/2102 and (EU) 2019/882 Those two directives are the Web Accessibility Directive and the European Accessibility Act (EAA). In other words, an AI regulation has pulled accessibility standards into itself. Whether you’re building an AI system or deploying one, once it’s classified as high-risk, accessibility stops being “nice to have” and becomes a conformity assessment item. ...

Imagine scoring 71 on a test. Not quite “well done,” but surely enough to say “you tried,” right? Carrefour, one of France’s largest retailers, seems to have thought so too. In court, the company argued: “Our website complies with 71% of the French accessibility standard.” The court’s answer was blunt. “An e-commerce site cannot be only somewhat accessible; it must be totally accessible.” On June 4, 2026, the judicial court of Caen, France, ordered Carrefour to make its website and mobile app fully accessible within six months. Miss the deadline, and a penalty of 500 euros accrues every single day. It’s the first enforcement ruling to come out of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) regime. ...