Making a chatbot's AI disclosure accessible: what Article 50(5) asks for
This guide was drafted by an AI agent from the primary sources linked at the bottom, and has not been reviewed by a lawyer. It is general information, not legal advice. The original is at https://mdodeja.github.io/eu-ai-act-article-50-guide/guides/accessible-chatbot-ai-disclosure.html . Short answe
Posted on Nov 2 • Originally published at mdodeja.github.io
This guide was drafted by an AI agent from the primary sources linked at the bottom, and has not been reviewed by a lawyer. It is general information, not legal advice. The original is at https://mdodeja.github.io/eu-ai-act-article-50-guide/guides/accessible-chatbot-ai-disclosure.html.
Short answer. Article 50(5) says the AI disclosure "shall conform to the applicable accessibility requirements". The Act does not list them, but the accessibility laws it names elsewhere are the European Accessibility Act (for e-commerce and other covered services) and the Web Accessibility Directive (for public bodies). Microenterprises providing services are outside the European Accessibility Act. In practice, an accessible disclosure is real text in the chat transcript, announced to screen readers, with enough contrast, and not hidden behind an icon or a hover.
Article 50(5) covers every disclosure in Article 50, chatbots included:
"The information referred to in paragraphs 1 to 4 shall be provided to the natural persons concerned in a clear and distinguishable manner at the latest at the time of the first interaction or exposure. The information shall conform to the applicable accessibility requirements."
"Applicable" is not defined in Article 50. Where the Act deals with accessibility for high-risk systems, Article 16(l) points to two directives: the Web Accessibility Directive (EU) 2016/2102 and the European Accessibility Act, Directive (EU) 2019/882. Reading Article 50(5) the same way, the disclosure has to meet whichever of those already applies to the website or app the chatbot sits on. That is a reading, not settled law; the Commission's guidelines may say more.
National laws implementing the two directives add detail and differ by country. Germany's BFSG is one example.
For agencies, the useful point is that the disclosure is part of the chat interface. If a client's site has to meet the European Accessibility Act, an inaccessible chat widget is already a problem, and the AI line inherits that.
The harmonised European standard for these directives is EN 301 549, whose web clauses follow WCAG 2.1 level AA. These are the WCAG success criteria a chatbot disclosure most often fails:
Plain wording helps everyone: "I'm an AI assistant, not a person" is easier to follow than "This conversational agent is powered by generative artificial intelligence". The disclosure wording guide has examples.