Since 28 June 2025, certain online services in the European Union have had to be accessible to people with disabilities. In Czechia the rules sit in Act No. 424/2023 Coll., which took effect on that date. Plenty of owners have heard that "websites must be accessible now" and are not sure whether that includes theirs.
The honest answer is: it depends on what you sell and how big you are. Here is how to work out where you stand.
What the law covers
The Czech act implements the European Accessibility Act, Directive (EU) 2019/882. It does not cover every website. It applies to a defined list of products and services, and for a business with a website the relevant ones are e-commerce services, financial services, electronic communications services, services that give access to audiovisual media, e-books, and passenger transport websites and apps.
So an online shop selling to consumers is in scope. A banking app is in scope. A consultancy whose website describes what it does and asks you to get in touch does not appear on that list, although other rules and good practice still point the same way.
The exemption for very small businesses
Services provided by a microenterprise are exempt. That means a business with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than 2 million euros. If you run a small shop with a handful of staff, the law may not require you to do anything.
Work out whether you are really below both limits before relying on this, and note that the exemption depends on the business, not on the page. It is also not permanent: a business that grows past the limits stops being exempt.
What is at stake
If the authorities find that a covered business is not meeting its obligations, the Czech act allows a fine of up to CZK 10 million. For a larger shop that ignores the topic, that exposure is real.
Be careful with anyone who sells you "guaranteed compliance" in the form of an overlay widget. A script that sits on top of a page cannot repair missing labels, unusable menus or low contrast in the underlying design, and accessibility experts have criticised these tools for years.
What accessible means in practice
The benchmark most auditors use is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG, at level AA. You do not need to read all of it to make a difference. The failures that block real people most often are a short list.
Text with too little contrast against its background. Forms whose fields have no visible label, so a screen reader announces "edit text" and nothing else. Menus and buttons that work with a mouse but cannot be reached or operated from the keyboard. Images that carry meaning without a text alternative. Videos without captions. Headings chosen for their size rather than their place in the outline. Focus indicators removed because a designer thought they looked untidy.
A quick test costs nothing. Put the mouse away and try to use your own site with Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter and the space bar. Zoom the page to 200 percent and see whether anything breaks. Then run an automated checker such as the one in Chrome's Lighthouse. It finds only some of the problems, which makes it a start and not an audit.
Even if you are exempt
There are good reasons to do this anyway. A form that works with a keyboard also works for the person using one hand and a phone on a train. Captions help in a noisy office. Good contrast helps in sunlight. Clear headings help search engines read the page.
There is also a commercial point. If you sell to companies that are covered, they may ask their suppliers to meet the same standard, and being able to show an accessibility statement and a plan is a small advantage in a tender.
This is general information and not legal advice. If you are unsure whether the act applies to you, ask a lawyer who knows the area, and ask them to read the text of the act, not a summary.