With the European Accessibility Act (EAA) deadline now passed, organisations across transport and travel are under greater scrutiny to ensure their digital services are accessible. For London City Airport, the focus isn’t on whether they met a single date – it’s on building a better, more inclusive experience for passengers long term.
To support this, the airport has been using the Recite Me Accessibility Checker to understand where barriers exist across its websites and how to prioritise improvements.
Dorota Zielinska, Digital Marketing Manager at London City Airport, says the motivation goes far beyond compliance.
“Our goal is not only to simply meet minimum standards or tick compliance boxes… we are dedicated to doing what’s right for the passengers, for the customers that use our sites every day.”
Accessibility as part of good user experience
Airports serve people with very different needs, devices, and levels of confidence with travel. In this environment, digital barriers can quickly turn into real-world stress.
London City Airport treats accessibility as a core part of user experience, not an afterthought.
“By designing inclusively, we can ensure that services are available to the broadest possible community. Accessibility is a vital layer in the design process.”
Clear structure, meaningful headings, descriptive links, and strong colour contrast all help passengers find essential information, such as flight details or assistance services, quickly and easily.
Using Recite Me Checker to understand the landscape
With large volumes of content, the airport needed a scalable way to assess accessibility. Recite Me Checker enabled the team to audit their digital estate against WCAG standards and identify specific gaps.
“We conducted a very comprehensive accessibility audit using the Recite Me Checker and identified specific accessibility gaps across our sites.”
Rather than trying to fix everything at once, the team focused on the pages passengers rely on most.
We prioritised the most visited pages – the homepage, flight information, departures, arrivals, book flights.”
From there, London City Airport created a detailed remediation plan, separating urgent barriers from longer-term improvements.
“The plan prioritises the ‘must-haves’, barriers that must be addressed as soon as possible, over the nice-to-haves.”
Transparent progress, not perfection
Alongside technical improvements, the airport published accessibility statements across its sites to demonstrate accountability and ongoing progress.
“We are transparently demonstrating our proactive commitment… these statements are subject to revisions.”
This reflects the reality that accessibility is not a one-off project but a continuous effort.
Automation supported by human insight
Recite Me Checker provided the speed and scale needed to scan large volumes of content, but London City Airport also recognises the value of manual testing for complex journeys and third-party elements.
“The Recite Me Checker allows us to scan large amounts of content quickly, but it’s beneficial to supplement its findings with manual testing.”
The tool has also helped the team catch issues earlier in the development process.
“It promotes that shift-left approach… catching inconsistencies early and making remediation cheaper and faster.”
Preventing new barriers from appearing
Because websites change constantly, maintaining accessibility is just as important as achieving it. Ongoing monitoring with Recite Me Checker helps ensure new content or code does not introduce fresh issues.
“It acts as a safeguard against regression… preventing new code from introducing additional accessibility barriers.”
A long-term commitment to inclusive travel
London City Airport continues to address remaining barriers and refine its processes as expectations evolve beyond the EAA deadline.
Their approach offers a clear lesson for other organisations: accessibility is not about passing a compliance milestone, it’s about continuously improving the experience for the people who depend on your services.
As Dorota puts it, the goal is simple:
“Accessibility extends well beyond just compliance… it requires a strategic, user-centric approach and ongoing commitment.”
For passengers, that commitment can make the difference between a stressful journey and a smooth one – long before they reach the airport.
If you’d like to explore how accessibility technology can support your website visitors, get in touch with the Recite Me team to find out more.
