The verdict in three sentences
For an Irish B2B website of 30 to 150 pages, EAA compliance costs roughly 6,000 to 26,000 EUR ex VAT in 2026, audit included, and takes 2 to 4 months. If your site is more than five years old, runs on a heavy WordPress theme or has improvised quote forms, an accessible rebuild often costs less than fixing it line by line. Either way, the accessibility statement and the evidence of conformance are documentary obligations that no plugin will produce for you.
Who is actually covered by the EAA in Ireland
The European Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882) was transposed in Ireland by S.I. No. 636 of 2023 and has applied since 28 June 2025. It mainly targets services for consumers: e-commerce, banking, transport, electronic communications, e-books. A purely B2B site is not always in scope, but three situations bring you back in quickly: you also sell to consumers, you bid for public contracts that require EN 301 549 (which maps to WCAG 2.1 AA), or your enterprise customers write accessibility into their procurement terms.
| Situation | Main obligation | Risk in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Microenterprise (under 10 staff and under 2 M EUR turnover) providing services | Exempt from EAA service requirements | Low, unless a customer requires it |
| SME selling online to consumers | EAA: WCAG 2.1 AA via EN 301 549, statement | Enforcement notice, fines on conviction |
| Large company with consumer services | Full conformance, statement, monitoring | Fines and reputational exposure |
| Supplier to an Irish public body | EN 301 549 in the tender | Bid rejected or contractual penalties |
| Purely B2B site with no online sales | No direct legal obligation | Lost contracts, brand image |
| Subsidiary of an EU group | Group policy aligned with the EAA | Internal audit, mandated remediation |
Enforcement is shared between bodies such as the CCPC and ComReg depending on the sector. Under the Irish regulations, offences can lead to fines of up to 60,000 EUR on indictment, and non-compliance can be pursued until it is fixed, which turns a one-off risk into a recurring cost.
What compliance costs, line by line
A serious audit covers a representative sample: homepage, service pages, contact form, quote flow, client portal, downloadable PDFs. The price depends on the number of page templates and the depth of testing (automated tools plus manual testing with NVDA or VoiceOver screen readers).
| Item | Small site (30 pages) | Mid-size site (80 pages) | Large site (150 pages and portal) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial WCAG 2.1 AA audit | 2,000 EUR | 3,500 EUR | 6,000 EUR |
| Technical fixes (HTML, ARIA, focus, contrast) | 4,000 EUR | 9,000 EUR | 20,000 EUR |
| PDF remediation | 500 EUR | 1,500 EUR | 4,000 EUR |
| Accessibility statement and roadmap | 400 EUR | 600 EUR | 1,000 EUR |
| Validation re-audit | 1,000 EUR | 1,800 EUR | 3,000 EUR |
| Editor training | 600 EUR | 900 EUR | 1,500 EUR |
| Indicative total (ex VAT) | 8,500 EUR | 17,300 EUR | 35,500 EUR |
These are 2026 market estimates for Ireland and the wider EU. Overruns nearly always come from the same places: uncontrollable carousels, mega menus unusable by keyboard, unlabelled form fields, visual captchas, videos without captions. Accessibility overlays sold at 40 to 100 EUR a month do not make a site compliant and are widely criticised by disability organisations.
Fix the existing site or rebuild it accessible
The rule of thumb: if the audit shows under 50 % conformance and the site is more than five years old, a rebuild becomes competitive. A site designed accessible from the start builds the constraints into the mock-ups (contrast, target sizes, tab order) and costs only 10 to 15 % more than a standard rebuild.
| Criterion | Fix the existing site | Accessible rebuild |
|---|---|---|
| Cost for an 80-page site | About 17,000 EUR | 25,000 to 35,000 EUR |
| Timeline | 2 to 3 months | 3 to 5 months |
| Achievable conformance | 75 to 90 % | 95 % and above |
| Technical debt | Kept | Reset |
| Performance and SEO | Unchanged | Improved (Core Web Vitals) |
| Upkeep cost over 3 years | 3,000 to 5,000 EUR a year | 1,500 to 2,500 EUR a year |
Mini case study
Need a professional website?
Kolonell builds websites that attract clients, optimized for the Sénégalese market. Free quote in 2 minutes.
Siobhan, CFO of a 120-employee industrial supplier in Dublin, sells spare parts online to trade customers and to consumers. The audit of her 90-page site shows 42 % conformance. Option A: fixes at 11,000 EUR, PDFs 1,500 EUR, re-audit 1,800 EUR, plus 4,000 EUR a year of upkeep, so 26,300 EUR over three years. Option B: accessible rebuild at 30,000 EUR with 2,000 EUR a year of upkeep, so 36,000 EUR over three years. The 9,700 EUR gap is covered if the rebuild wins two public tenders a year, each worth 60,000 EUR of revenue at a 15 % margin. Siobhan chooses the rebuild and spreads it over two financial years.
FAQ
Does my B2B website have to comply with the EAA?
Not automatically: the EAA mainly targets consumer services. If you sell online to consumers and exceed 10 staff or 2 M EUR turnover, you are covered.
How much does an accessibility audit cost in 2026?
Between 2,000 and 6,000 EUR ex VAT depending on page templates and the client portal. A serious audit combines automated checks with 10 to 20 pages tested manually.
Is an accessibility plugin enough?
No. An overlay at 40 or 100 EUR a month does not fix the source code and replaces neither the audit nor the accessibility statement.
What conformance level should I target?
The goal is 100 % of applicable WCAG 2.1 AA criteria. In practice, a well-run rebuild reaches 95 % and above, while fixes on an old site plateau around 75 to 90 %.
How long does compliance take?
Allow 2 to 4 months to fix an existing site and 3 to 5 months for a rebuild, re-audit included.
Let's scope your project. Send us your website address: we price the audit, the fixes or an accessible rebuild with an indicative budget and a 2 to 5 month schedule. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
