This article explains recent regulatory developments in plain terms. It is not a substitute for legal advice. If you’re facing a complaint or potential litigation, consult a solicitor with disability discrimination experience.
Quick answer: Equality Act website accessibility obligations didn’t change in substance during 2026, but the framework around them did. In May 2026, the Equality and Human Rights Commission laid a draft updated Code of Practice before Parliament. Compensation bands for injury-to-feelings claims also rose in April 2026. Together, these raise the practical stakes for businesses without changing the underlying legal duty itself.
I’ve covered whether the Equality Act applies to your website in detail elsewhere. This article is about something different: what specifically shifted in 2026, and why that shift matters even though the core law hasn’t been rewritten.
What Actually Changed in 2026?
The Equality Act 2010 itself hasn’t been amended for digital accessibility purposes. However, two developments this year raise the practical weight behind the existing duty. According to the official draft Code of Practice published on GOV.UK, the Equality and Human Rights Commission laid an updated Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations before Parliament in May 2026.
This Code isn’t new legislation. It’s statutory guidance explaining how courts should interpret the existing Equality Act 2010. Courts and tribunals must still take the Code into account in relevant proceedings, though. That means an updated Code genuinely shapes how judges assess whether a business met its reasonable adjustments duty, even without changing a single word of the Act itself.
Why a “Code of Practice” Update Actually Matters for Your Website
Here’s the distinction worth understanding clearly. The Equality Act sets out the legal duty in broad terms: service providers must make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. The Code of Practice fills in the practical detail courts use to judge specific cases. It explains what counts as reasonable, how the anticipatory duty applies, and what “substantial disadvantage” actually looks like in practice.
Once it clears its parliamentary scrutiny period, an updated Code becomes the reference document courts lean on when your website accessibility gets tested in a real dispute. That’s why this update, even without new legislation, is worth paying attention to now rather than waiting for a final version to appear.
The Anticipatory Duty: Reasonable Adjustments Before a Complaint, Not After
Here’s a point worth stating plainly, because it changes how businesses should think about timing. Section 20 of the Act imposes what’s called an anticipatory duty. You’re expected to remove accessibility barriers proactively, before a disabled visitor is actually disadvantaged, not only in response to a specific complaint.
Waiting until someone complains about your inaccessible contact form isn’t a defensible strategy in practice. The duty exists ahead of any individual encountering the barrier. That’s exactly why an accessibility audit conducted now, rather than after a complaint arrives, puts you in a meaningfully stronger position.
What Happens If You Don’t Comply: The Numbers Just Went Up
Here’s data that rarely appears in general accessibility explainers, and it’s directly relevant to your actual financial exposure. Compensation for injury to feelings in discrimination claims follows what’s called the Vento bands, updated in April 2026.
The lower band now runs roughly £1,300 to £12,600 for less serious cases. The middle band runs £12,600 to £37,700. The upper band, reserved for the most serious cases, runs £37,700 to £62,900. Exceptional cases can exceed that figure entirely. Claimants can also recover financial losses and aggravated damages on top of these bands, with no upper cap on total compensation in county court or employment tribunal claims.
That’s a meaningfully different risk picture than many business owners assume when they think of accessibility as a minor compliance checkbox rather than genuine financial exposure.
[INSERT: a real client example — a business Aoun advised on accessibility risk exposure, and the specific gaps addressed before any complaint arose]
Does This Mean You Need a Completely New Approach?
Not necessarily, and here’s where I’ll push back on treating this as a reason to panic. The practical standard businesses should aim for hasn’t changed. WCAG 2.2 Level AA remains the accepted benchmark courts and the EHRC reference when judging reasonable adjustments, exactly as before this update.
What’s changed is the strength of the guidance courts will lean on, and the compensation figures attached to getting it wrong. This update doesn’t require anything fundamentally different if you’ve already addressed the technical checklist properly: keyboard navigation, color contrast, meaningful alt text, form labeling. I’ve broken that checklist down in detail in WCAG 2.2 compliance checklist for small business websites, which remains the practical roadmap regardless of this year’s Code update.
The Nuance Most Coverage of This Update Misses
Here’s my honest take. Most coverage of this year’s Code of Practice update focuses entirely on unrelated provisions within the same document, since the Code covers all nine protected characteristics, not just disability. Business owners searching specifically for accessibility implications often struggle to find coverage that isolates just the digital accessibility angle from the broader document.
The digital accessibility provisions within this update are actually the least controversial, most stable part of the Code. This year’s revision didn’t target the reasonable adjustments duty for disabled service users, including website accessibility. That’s genuinely useful context if you’ve seen alarming headlines about this Code update and wondered whether it changes your accessibility obligations specifically. It largely reinforces the existing standard rather than overhauling it.
How Does This Compare to Your EU-Facing Obligations?
If your business also sells to EU customers, remember these UK-specific developments sit alongside, not instead of, your obligations under EU law. I’ve covered that separate framework in the European Accessibility Act, which applies independently of anything happening within UK domestic legislation this year.
For businesses trading purely within the UK, though, this year’s Code update and the revised Vento bands are the developments actually worth tracking, more than any EU-specific news.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did the Equality Act 2010 itself change in 2026?
No. The Act’s text remains unchanged. What changed is the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Code of Practice, updated statutory guidance that courts must consider when interpreting the existing law.
What is the anticipatory duty under the Equality Act?
It’s the requirement that businesses remove accessibility barriers proactively, before a disabled person is actually disadvantaged, rather than only responding after a specific complaint arises.
How much compensation can a website accessibility discrimination claim result in?
Injury to feelings compensation follows the Vento bands, updated in April 2026, ranging from roughly £1,300 in the lower band to £62,900 in the upper band, with exceptional cases exceeding that figure.
Do I need to change my website compliance approach because of the 2026 Code update?
Not fundamentally. WCAG 2.2 Level AA remains the practical benchmark. The update strengthens the guidance courts reference rather than changing the underlying technical standard businesses should meet.
Is the updated Code of Practice legally binding yet?
As a draft, it’s subject to a parliamentary scrutiny period before formally coming into force. However, courts can already consider relevant guidance when assessing compliance disputes.
Does this update apply to businesses outside England, Scotland, and Wales?
No. The Equality Act 2010 and this Code of Practice apply to England, Scotland, and Wales. Northern Ireland operates under separate disability discrimination legislation.
Want Your Website Reviewed Against Current Requirements?
If you’re not sure whether your website’s accessibility holds up against these updated standards, message me on WhatsApp and send me your link. I’ll give you a straight technical read on where the real gaps sit.