As the European Accessibility Act comes into force, Irish startup DevAlly is scaling AI-driven tools to help businesses meet compliance—and seize a massive overlooked market.
Accessibility Just Became a Legal (and Business) Imperative
With the European Accessibility Act (EAA) now in effect, companies offering goods and services across the EU’s 450 million consumers face strict new digital accessibility requirements—or risk steep penalties. Many are unprepared.
“Even massive companies were coming to us two weeks before the deadline saying, ‘Oh we didn’t know anything about this,’” said Cormac Chisholm, co-founder and CEO of DevAlly.
His Dublin-based startup is stepping into that gap with a tech-first approach to compliance. The company just raised €2 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate its mission.
What DevAlly Does
DevAlly helps businesses detect and fix digital accessibility issues—from missing captions on videos to low contrast interfaces—by integrating AI-powered audits and tracking into their existing development cycles.
- The platform automates compliance testing for websites, apps, and digital services.
- It generates accessibility roadmaps, logs user-reported barriers, and produces regulatory reports.
- Unlike manual audits, DevAlly’s solution scales with the pace of digital product updates.
“You need more than consultants to solve this problem at scale,” Chisholm said. “Accessibility has to become part of the product lifecycle.”
Backed by Europe, Aiming for the U.S.
The €2M funding round was led by Miles Ahead Capital (Belgium), with participation from NDRC, Enterprise Ireland, and European angels.
- DevAlly plans to grow from 5 to 15 employees by year-end, mostly in Dublin.
- The startup is expanding into the U.S., starting with sales operations in San Francisco, where many of its current clients are based.
- DevAlly gained traction after competing in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 and placing in the top 3 at Slush.
“We’re positioning ourselves as a bridge to Europe for U.S. companies,” Chisholm explained.
Accessibility is the Next Compliance Frontier
Much like GDPR reshaped global data privacy practices, the EAA is forcing businesses to rethink design and inclusion—and the opportunity is enormous.
- Companies have until 2030 to retrofit existing products, but new services must comply now.
- Non-compliance fines vary by country, but enforcement is already underway.
- Accessibility improvements benefit everyone—not just those with permanent disabilities.
“One in five people live with disability,” Chisholm said. “But disability can also be situational—like sunlight glare or carrying a baby. Universal design makes tech better for everyone.”
A Market Worth $8 Trillion
According to global estimates, disabled consumers and their households control $8 trillion in annual disposable income. That’s a market businesses can no longer afford to ignore.
Yet, accessibility remains poorly implemented:
- A recent Tenscope analysis found that 94% of top 1,000 U.S. websites fail basic accessibility tests.
- The travel industry was the worst offender, blocking basic tasks like contact form submission and purchases.
- Spanish airline Vueling has already been fined under pre-EAA laws for a non-accessible website.
DevAlly’s Advantage: AI Meets Inclusion
DevAlly joins a small but growing ecosystem of accessibility tech startups like QualiBooth in Barcelona. What sets DevAlly apart is its AI-based, developer-friendly model—akin to what Vanta did for cybersecurity compliance.
“The improvements that come with accessibility—like subtitles on Netflix—become standard enhancements for all users,” said Chisholm. “It’s not just compliance. It’s better design.”
