Who it applies to · public bodies, budget units, municipal companies, publicly funded NGOs
Public sector websites
The public sector in Poland has its own, older act: the act of 4 April 2019 on the digital accessibility of public bodies' websites and mobile applications (Journal of Laws 2023 item 1440), transposing Directive 2016/2102. It has required WCAG 2.1 level AA since 2020 and an accessibility statement on every site. The Polish Accessibility Act does not replace it — it overlaps with it wherever a public body provides consumers with a service under art. 3(2), e.g. sells tickets or e‑books or runs banking.
Two regimes side by side
| Digital accessibility act (2019) | Polish Accessibility Act (2024) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | public bodies: administration, courts, universities, schools, hospitals, cultural institutions, municipal companies, publicly funded NGOs (art. 2) | economic operators providing consumers with services under art. 3(2) — including public ones, if they provide them |
| Standard | WCAG 2.1 AA named expressly in the annex to the act | four principles + harmonised standard (EN 301 549 → WCAG 2.1 AA) |
| Document | an accessibility statement in the minister's template, updated by 31 March each year (arts. 10–11) | accessibility information in the service's terms (art. 32(2)(1)) |
| The user's path | a request for accessibility: 7 days, max 2 months; alternative access; complaint (art. 18) | a complaint to the provider: 30 days, silence = upheld (art. 37); a notification to PFRON (art. 67) |
| Authority | the minister responsible for digital affairs — monitoring and fines (arts. 12, 19) | the market surveillance authority by service + the President of PFRON (art. 38) |
| Fines | up to PLN 10,000 for persistent failure to ensure accessibility; up to PLN 5,000 for no statement (art. 19) | up to 10× the average wage (PLN 89,035.60 in 2026), max 10 % of turnover (art. 73) |
Where a public body enters the new act's scope
- Passenger transport — municipal companies and carriers: websites, apps, electronic tickets, passenger information (art. 3(2)(3), art. 15). Exception: urban transport and municipal, county and regional services are excluded (art. 4(3)) — apart from interactive information terminals.
- Cultural institutions selling tickets online — theatre, museum, philharmonic: selling tickets to consumers is e‑commerce (art. 5(32)).
- Libraries and university presses distributing e‑books — an e‑book distribution service (art. 17).
- State‑owned banks and insurers — consumer banking (art. 16).
- E‑services with payment (administrative fees online) — debatable whether that is a "contract"; safest to assume the payment module is subject to art. 18(2) regardless, since it is subject to WCAG 2.1 AA under the 2019 act anyway.
In practice little changes for a public body: the standard is the same. What changes is enforcement — instead of a PLN 10,000 fine from the minister comes a consumer complaint with a 30‑day deadline, a notification from anyone, and a fine calculated from wages or turnover.
What the 2019 act requires specifically
WCAG 2.1 AA in full
The annex to the act lists the success criteria one by one — with a few exclusions (e.g. 1.2.4 live captions; 1.2.5 extended audio description is not in AA). In practice: all A and AA criteria of WCAG 2.1. The list and explanations.
Accessibility statement
At an address linked from every page, in the format from the regulation: conformity status (compliant / partially / non‑compliant), exclusions, review date, contact details, request procedure, architectural accessibility. Reviewed and updated by 31 March each year.
A minimum scope even when non‑compliant
Art. 8(2): even when a body invokes excessive cost, the following must be accessible: the BIP bulletin, contact details, contact tools, navigation, the statement, emergency information, official documents and templates of contracts and letters.
A request for accessibility
Anyone may request accessibility of a specific element (art. 18): 7 days to fulfil, up to 2 months in difficult cases; if it cannot be done — an alternative means of access; then a complaint and proceedings.
Monitoring
The minister monitors a sample of sites and apps annually (art. 12) and reports to the Commission. Results are public; a result below the threshold triggers a call to comply.
The most common gaps on public sites
- Scanned PDF documents — an image without a text layer is an empty file to a screen reader. Under art. 3(2)(2) of the 2019 act, documents published before 23 September 2018 are excluded, but new ones must be accessible (PDF with text, headings and alternatives, or HTML).
- A statement copied from the template without checking — "the site is partially compliant" without saying what does not work does not meet the content requirement.
- External systems — the e‑register, the recruitment system, payments, a supplier's BIP. The body is responsible for what it makes available, whoever wrote it; the supplier contract should carry a WCAG clause and a fix procedure.
- Contrast and focus in "premium" themes — light grey text, removed outline, carousels without pause.
- Directions maps without a text alternative — address, description of the route and a link to an external map beside the embedded one.
Public procurement and contractors
Art. 100 of the Public Procurement Law requires the subject of the contract to be described with accessibility for people with disabilities in mind; the new act refers to that law expressly (art. 3(3)). A purchaser who accepts a website without a WCAG audit accepts the risk. A contractor who cannot deliver an accessible site should not win. Good practice: an external audit as an acceptance condition, fixes under warranty, a re‑audit after a year.
A public body can check its site just like a company. The checker measures WCAG; it does not ask about legal status. The result is a starting point for reviewing the accessibility statement — it names the specific criteria to list as unmet or to fix. Check a site