Accessibility is no longer limited to removing physical barriers or ticking off a technical checklist on a website. Royal Decree 707/2026, published in Spain’s Official State Gazette on 3 September 2026, provides the first systematic development of the basic conditions for cognitive accessibility in Spain. It enters into force on 2 January 2027 and covers areas as varied as employment, commercial information, contracting, payments, digital services and customer service.
For a business, the useful question is not whether every document must immediately be converted into an easy-read version. The right question is which duties apply because of the business activity, the people receiving the service and the particular employment relationship. The regulation uses distinct concepts—simple language, plain language and easy reading—and does not treat them as interchangeable. Choosing the wrong format may create work without removing the actual barrier.
When does the regulation apply and how should its scope be defined?
The regulation enters into force on 2 January 2027. It does not impose one identical duty on every SME. Article 2 refers to the areas covered by the Spanish General Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: telecommunications and the information society, spaces and buildings, transport, goods and services offered to the public, relations with public authorities, justice, cultural heritage and employment.
This map matters because each area has its own rules. A shop, a consultancy that contracts online, a company recruiting staff and a purely B2B provider do not necessarily start from the same position. Before budgeting for changes, the business should identify which articles apply, which duties already arose under earlier rules and which measures are introduced by the new regulation.
Cognitive accessibility is not about simplifying everything. It is about enabling a person to find, understand and use the information they need without being excluded.
Article 5 establishes a common basis: information must be easy to understand and may need to be provided in written, pictorial, audio, visual-support, tactile or technological formats. An adaptation cannot carry an additional cost for the person requesting it or cause undue delay. Where easy reading or plain language is not mandatory, simple language is the minimum.
What should a business review when it provides services online?
Article 6 applies to public authorities, private telecommunications providers and information-society service providers established in Spain, including advertising activities. The measures cover text as well as non-text content, documents, forms, multimedia and interaction mechanisms.
The regulation expressly refers to steps in which a person gives consent, identifies or authenticates themselves, signs, pays, enters into a contract or accepts terms. The review should therefore go beyond colour contrast and font size. It should also consider whether the process explains what is happening, allows errors to be corrected, distinguishes important decisions and offers understandable help.
Where the service is delivered through a website or mobile application, the technical requirements in the relevant sector-specific rules continue to apply. The new regulation adds a cognitive layer: profiles, help, financial information, invoices, payment gateways, contact methods and complaints are examples of areas where interaction should be made easier to understand.
A practical check for forms and contracting
- Check whether every field explains what information is requested and why.
- Separate essential from secondary information without hiding relevant terms.
- Display errors beside the affected field and explain how to correct them.
- Allow users to review amounts, deadlines and consents before confirmation.
- Offer an assistance channel that does not force the user to repeat the whole process.
These improvements may also reduce abandonment and avoidable enquiries, but their legal purpose is not commercial: it is to prevent a comprehension barrier from blocking access to a service or the exercise of a right.
What does the regulation require for goods and services offered to the public?
Article 9 applies to the suppliers and service providers included in Chapter III of Royal Decree 193/2023. Among other areas, that decree covers trade, consumer services, financial and insurance services, healthcare and veterinary services, social services, education, safety, culture, sport, tourism, hospitality, restaurants and certain public services.
For activities within its scope, Royal Decree 707/2026 requires service information to be made available in cognitively accessible formats, alternative means of communication to be enabled and support or trained staff to be available when needed. Basic commercial information must use simple language; complaint forms must be available in easy-read format; and matters concerning contracting, consent and instructions for use or consumption must be conveyed in simple language.
This does not mean that every message must automatically become an easy-read document. The regulation itself distinguishes different levels. A useful policy is to classify content: ordinary information in simple language, communications that require plain language, and documents for which the regulation or a specific request requires easy reading and validation.
How does the regulation affect recruitment, training and internal tools?
Article 14 begins with an important condition: its duties apply when workers certify a degree of disability of at least 33% and an intellectual disability through the certificate provided for in Royal Decree 888/2022. Within that framework, the company must be ready to respond to specific requests rather than improvising.
Training and occupational risk prevention
When requested, training promoted by the company must follow cognitive-accessibility recommendations and provide documentation in easy-read and alternative formats, such as audio or visual aids. Documentation used for occupational risk prevention and emergency protocols must be written in plain language and have an easy-read version, including visual aids where possible.
This points to reviewing safety-critical documents first: evacuation, emergency response, equipment use and channels for reporting a risk. An accessible version must preserve the technical instruction while making it understandable; it must not remove necessary information.
Recruitment and interviews
In staff recruitment, the regulation states that vacancies, conditions and requirements must be published accessibly and, in all cases, in simple language. It also provides that a candidate who meets the required qualifications and experience may request a cognitively accessible adaptation of the interview at no cost and without that request becoming a ground for exclusion.
To prepare, human resources can establish a confidential channel for requesting adaptations, train interviewers and document the response. The company should avoid requesting medical information that is not needed to arrange the adjustment.
Time recording, authentication and work communications
Time-recording and authentication systems in the company’s electronic environment must provide access that does not depend on remembering a password, offer the alternative best suited to the person’s abilities and include double verification when information is sent. They must also enable remote assistance and allow the steps performed to be displayed or followed.
The regulation allows adaptations of documents and meetings to be requested. If the company considers an adaptation to be a disproportionate burden, it must explain that decision in writing and in a cognitively accessible way. Changes of task and information relevant to meeting objectives must also be communicated at least in writing and, where the person requires it, orally as well.
Reasonable adjustments may affect schedules, allocated time, workload or assistive technologies. They must be agreed with the worker’s participation and reviewed periodically. Advixy’s labour consultancy service can help integrate these decisions into people processes and documentation, coordinating specialist legal or occupational-risk review where needed.
What preparation plan can a business follow in the coming months?
- Define the perimeter. Map activities, digital channels, public-facing services and employment processes against the applicable articles.
- Inventory critical moments. Prioritise safety, consent, contracting, payments, complaints, recruitment, training and time-recording tools.
- Review the language. Identify long sentences, unexplained abbreviations, ambiguous instructions and irreversible steps.
- Define alternative formats. Decide who produces easy-read, audio, visual aids or other adaptations and how comprehension will be validated.
- Prepare request channels. Create an internal channel and a customer-service channel, assign owners and set response times.
- Review suppliers. Confirm whether time-recording, signature, payment, form and training software supports the necessary adaptations.
- Keep evidence. Document the applicability assessment, improvements, tests and any disproportionate-burden evaluation.
This work fits into a broader organisational review. If it is unclear who decides, maintains and verifies each process, organisational architecture can help assign responsibilities. On employment matters, it is also useful to include the control in ordinary preparation for a Spanish Labour Inspectorate visit.
Frequently asked questions about Royal Decree 707/2026
When does the cognitive-accessibility regulation enter into force?
Royal Decree 707/2026 enters into force on 2 January 2027, under its eighth final provision.
Do all businesses have exactly the same obligations?
No. The scope depends on the area: employment, services for the public, telecommunications, information-society services or other sectors. Each article also contains specific conditions. The activity and the particular relationship must be assessed before measures are applied.
Are simple language, plain language and easy reading the same thing?
No. The regulation defines them separately. Simple language uses common expressions and direct structures; plain language enables people to find, understand and use information; easy reading follows specific drafting, design and validation guidelines for people with reading-comprehension difficulties.
Must a company adapt a job interview?
Article 14 provides that a candidate who meets the qualification and experience requirements may request a cognitively accessible interview adaptation at no cost and without being excluded because of that request.
Are grants already available for these adaptations?
The regulation allows public authorities to establish aid within their powers and subject to budget availability, but that provision does not itself create an open call for grants. Any current programme and its requirements must be checked separately.
What should an SME review first?
The points with the greatest exclusion risk: emergencies and prevention, contracting and consent, payments and complaints, recruitment, time recording and authentication. The review can then be extended to the remaining documents and channels.
Which official sources support this guide and what is its scope?
In addition to the full text of Royal Decree 707/2026, the analysis should be read alongside Law 6/2022, which incorporated cognitive accessibility into the general framework, the General Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Royal Decree 193/2023 on goods and services offered to the public.
This guide identifies business controls based on the text published in the Official State Gazette. It is not a substitute for a legal opinion, an accessibility assessment or a sector-specific analysis. Before concluding that a duty does not apply or that a measure constitutes a disproportionate burden, the professional reasoning and the facts examined should be recorded.
If you need to structure the diagnosis, Advixy can help turn the regulation into an inventory of processes, owners and verifiable evidence. Tell us what your business does and which channels it uses; we will review the scope with you before proposing changes.
