Mobility scooter or electric wheelchair? How to tell which one you need
They look like cousins, but they solve different problems. Six questions that tell you which one fits the rider.
· 3 min read
The short answer: since 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act requires many digital products and services sold in the EU to be accessible to people with disabilities. For travellers, that means booking websites, transport apps, ticketing and travel information. It does not cover the street, the hotel room or the museum stairs. The Act makes it easier to book a trip; getting around once you arrive is still up to the destination.
What the European Accessibility Act is
The European Accessibility Act is Directive (EU) 2019/882. It sets common accessibility requirements for a list of products and services across the EU, so that a person with a disability can use them on equal terms, and so that businesses face one set of rules instead of 27. Each member state wrote it into national law, and those rules have applied since 28 June 2025.
What it covers for travellers
- Passenger transport services by air, bus, rail and water: their websites, mobile apps, electronic tickets, ticketing services and real-time travel information.
- E-commerce: anything sold to consumers through a website or an app. Hotel and tour bookings made online fall here.
- Self-service terminals: ticket machines, check-in kiosks and ATMs.
- Banking services, e-books and the devices used to reach these services, such as computers, smartphones and e-readers.
In practice, a booking site should work with a screen reader, be usable with a keyboard alone, offer enough contrast, and not hide information in images or time-outs that some people can't meet.
What it leaves out
- The built environment. The Act does not set rules for buildings, streets, hotel rooms or venues. Member states may choose to extend it to the built environment used by customers of covered services, but they don't have to.
- Small service providers. Microenterprises that provide services (fewer than 10 employees and no more than €2 million in annual turnover or balance sheet) are exempt from the service requirements.
- Older contracts and machines. Services may keep running on products already in use until 28 June 2030, and self-service terminals installed before the deadline may stay in use until the end of their economic life, up to 20 years.
- Mobility itself. The Act is about using products and services. It doesn't give anyone a way to get across a cobbled square or up a hill.
The gap: accessible booking, inaccessible arrival
The Act fixes the screen, not the street. A traveller can now book an accessible hotel room through an accessible website, and still find that the old town is cobbled, the museum is a long walk from the tram, and the hotel has no way to help them cover the distance. For many older visitors and people with reduced mobility, that last kilometre decides whether the trip works.
That is where venues and destinations can go further than the law asks: step-free routes, clear access information before arrival, rest points, and mobility on site that guests can borrow or rent.
What it means for hotels, attractions and venues
- Check your digital front door. If you sell online and you are not a microenterprise, your booking flow is likely in scope. Test it with a screen reader and a keyboard, or have it audited against EN 301 549.
- Publish access information. Distances, slopes, steps, lifts, accessible toilets and parking, in plain words, before the guest arrives.
- Close the last kilometre. Offer a way to get around the site or the neighbourhood: wheelchairs, mobility scooters, or a partner who delivers them.
In Estonia
Estonia implemented the Act through the Products and Services Accessibility Act (toodete ja teenuste ligipääsetavuse seadus), which applies to the private sector from 28 June 2025 and uses the European standard EN 301 549 for digital services. The Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA) supervises it.
Where Pinge fits
We build and rent light electric vehicles for people who find distance hard, and we supply them to hotels, attractions and cities. If you run a venue and want every guest to be able to explore all of it, see mobility for hospitality and tourism. Planning a trip yourself? Our Tallinn accessibility guide covers the ground the Act doesn't.
Sources
- Directive (EU) 2019/882 on the accessibility requirements for products and services
- Council of the EU: Accessibility of goods and services
- CMS: European Accessibility Act: what does this mean for your organisation?