Across the European Union, a sweeping transformation is underway as countless businesses—ranging from small e-commerce shops to multinational corporations—adjust to a new set of accessibility mandates affecting the region’s massive base of approximately 450 million consumers. These standards, which officially came into force in June, compel any company offering digital or physical goods and services within the EU to ensure their offerings are fully usable by individuals with disabilities. In many ways, this initiative mirrors the shockwave once triggered by the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Then, as now, companies scrambled to meet an approaching regulatory deadline, urgently retrofitting websites, online marketplaces, and even mobile banking applications to align with the newly imposed requirements.
Yet, despite similar accessibility standards already existing in markets such as the United States, an astonishing number of organizations still find themselves unprepared or partially compliant. Irish entrepreneur Cormac Chisholm, founder of the accessibility-focused startup DevAlly, noted how even some of the world’s largest and best-resourced enterprises were still caught off guard. In his words, many reached out in near panic just two weeks before the enforcement date, confessing that they “didn’t know anything about this.” This anecdote underlines a broader problem: awareness of accessibility compliance remains surprisingly low, and many companies continue to underestimate both the reputational and financial risks associated with non-compliance.
Chisholm’s company, DevAlly, emerged specifically to address this gap. Among the first wave of technology ventures dedicated to accessibility compliance, DevAlly develops tools that enable businesses to identify, understand, and resolve the accessibility deficiencies embedded in their digital ecosystems. The startup’s software not only audits platforms for common issues—like videos without captions, unreadable interfaces, or missing alt text—but also assists clients in developing structured remediation roadmaps and generating comprehensive compliance reports. Its flagship technology directly supports adherence to the European Accessibility Act (EAA), the legislative framework responsible for these new standards. The EAA stipulates meaningful financial penalties for any newly launched product or service that fails to meet accessibility criteria, while providing a transitional window until 2030 for existing offerings to come into alignment.
Founded in 2024, DevAlly approaches accessibility auditing with a blend of artificial intelligence and specialized expertise. Its system monitors both user-reported problems and automatically detected infractions, creating a continuous feedback loop that helps companies improve faster and maintain compliance over time. While traditional audits conducted by human consultants can yield valuable insights, Chisholm argues that such an approach lacks scalability and struggles to keep pace with the rapid cycles of digital product release. In contrast, DevAlly’s use of AI models—specifically tuned large language models for accessibility detection—enables automated identification and prioritization of issues at scale, integrating these insights directly into the development lifecycle. This seamless integration ensures that accessibility is not treated as an afterthought but as a core design principle throughout the evolution of new digital products.
This strategy parallels the trajectory of other compliance-driven sectors, such as cybersecurity. For instance, the company Vanta, now valued at roughly $2.45 billion, demonstrated how automation and continuous monitoring could revolutionize compliance management. DevAlly appears poised to replicate that pattern within the equally vital field of accessibility. The combination of regulatory momentum and rising corporate awareness has already helped the Irish startup attract significant investor interest. As TechCrunch has exclusively reported, DevAlly successfully closed €2 million in pre-seed funding, equivalent to about $2.3 million, signaling strong confidence in the company’s model and market potential.
With fresh capital secured, DevAlly plans an ambitious expansion. The company expects to grow its workforce from its current base of five employees to approximately fifteen by year’s end, concentrating much of this growth at its Dublin headquarters. There, it operates within the NDRC accelerator program, managed by Dogpatch Labs on behalf of Enterprise Ireland, a state agency that champions local entrepreneurship. Both NDRC and Enterprise Ireland participated in DevAlly’s funding round, although the lead investor was Belgium’s Miles Ahead Capital, joined by a network of European angel investors. Chisholm credited the team’s success in large part to their impressive performance at the Slush conference’s startup competition, where DevAlly placed among the top three contenders and forged key investor relationships.
Reflecting on the company’s fundraising strategy, Chisholm pointed out that Irish startups have historically favored domestic venture capital firms. However, DevAlly deliberately sought a broader European partnership, believing that aligning with continental investors would open doors to new networks and operational synergies. This strategy, he said, already shows promise in expanding the company’s market reach and strategic opportunities.
Armed with new financial resources and institutional backing, DevAlly’s next phase includes expansion into the United States. The company plans to establish initial sales operations in San Francisco, a city whose technology ecosystem is home to many of the world’s leading B2B software firms. This move builds upon relationships forged during TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield 2024, where DevAlly directly connected with heads of accessibility departments at major technology companies. According to Patrick Guiney, DevAlly’s co-founder and chief revenue officer, a substantial portion of their client base is already located along the U.S. West Coast—a market that prizes digital inclusivity and continuous innovation.
Back in Europe, DevAlly’s growth coincides with a surge of similar ventures responding to the EAA. One such example is Barcelona-based QualiBooth, which has undertaken a major analysis of accessibility across the continent’s e-commerce sector. Online retail is one of the key domains expressly highlighted under the EAA, as digital shopping channels often present obstacles for users with disabilities. Nonetheless, both DevAlly and QualiBooth recognize that the United States represents an equally significant opportunity, particularly as public procurement rules increasingly favor accessible products and platforms.
The stakes for accessibility extend far beyond regulation—they also encompass an immense economic dimension. It is estimated that people with disabilities, along with their households, control more than $8 trillion in disposable income globally. This enormous purchasing power underscores that accessibility is both a moral obligation and a compelling economic advantage. Chisholm often summarizes this philosophy succinctly: good design and accessible design are, in essence, one and the same. He emphasizes that approximately one in five individuals globally lives with some form of disability, and that disability can also be situational or temporary—a person in bright sunlight unable to read a low-contrast screen, or a parent cradling a child and unable to interact with touchscreen controls. For all these reasons, universal design principles benefit every user, enhancing overall usability and comfort.
To advance such inclusivity, businesses can pursue actions as simple yet impactful as ensuring compatibility with screen readers, increasing color contrast, or refining visual gradients to accommodate color-blind users. Despite the relative simplicity of many of these measures, recent research from UX/UI agency Tenscope found that a staggering 94 percent of the top 1,000 U.S. websites fail to meet even the most basic accessibility requirements. The travel sector emerged as the worst performer, often preventing customers from executing essential tasks such as submitting contact forms, registering new accounts, or completing online purchases. Regulatory enforcement has already begun: even before the EAA’s enactment, Spain’s national carrier, Vueling, faced fines for neglecting to make its website accessible.
Now that the EAA operates across all EU member states, compliance has become far more complex. Each jurisdiction retains authority to impose independent fines and enforcement actions, creating a mosaic of regulatory pressures that most global technology companies must now navigate. For multinational firms, consistency in accessibility compliance will be both challenging and essential. As Chisholm explains, DevAlly aims to serve as a bridge for U.S.-based enterprises that wish to enter or expand within the European market while meeting these layered obligations. Should these companies seek help, the outcome would benefit not only DevAlly and its investors but potentially society at large. As Chisholm eloquently concludes, the accessibility features once viewed as optional enhancements—such as subtitles on streaming platforms like Netflix—often evolve into transformative innovations that improve the way everyone interacts with technology. Accessibility, in this light, becomes not just a legal mandate but a catalyst for better, more human-centered design.
Sourse: https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/09/battlefield-alum-devally-raises-e2m-to-help-companies-with-europes-feisty-new-accessibility-law/
