Category: Accessibility

Today more than ever, accessibility to technologies and online services is crucial, both to meet the legal requirements of the RGAA and to ensure an inclusive experience for all users.

Accessibility: the origin of the need

According to La Grande École du Numérique, only 3 to 4% of websites are truly accessible, while approximately 14 million people are affected by digital illiteracy.

Accessibility rules are crucial for people with disabilities: they offer a unique opportunity to improve the online experience for everyone. However, automated detection of accessibility issues covers a maximum of 30% of the criteria, highlighting the contrast between compliance with standards and the reality on the ground.

Urgent legal deadlines, such as the requirement for total accessibility for all public websites by 2027, emphasize the urgency of addressing this challenge. The benefits of accessibility go beyond compliance, providing increased navigation comfort, better SEO ranking, and an expanded audience.

Beyond the numbers, digital accessibility promotes social integration, strengthens brand image, and demonstrates a commitment to a 100% inclusive approach. Addressing digital accessibility challenges means transcending compliance to create a digital space where every user, with or without disabilities, can fully participate.

RGAA, WCAG, Law 2005… What obligations for businesses?

The legal framework for digital accessibility in France is primarily based on Article 47 of Law No. 2005-102 of February 11, 2005 and Decree No. 2019-768 of July 24, 2019.

These texts require legal entities of public law, private entities delegated a public service mission, and companies with a turnover exceeding 250 million euros to publish:

• an accessibility statement indicating the accessibility status of the website or service
• a multi-year plan for making online communication services accessible
• an annual action plan.

In this dynamic, it is now essential to comply with the General Reference for the Improvement of Accessibility (RGAA), which evaluates the conformity of HTML content with the success criteria of levels A and AA of the international recommendations WCAG 2.1 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). Therefore, relevant digital services must display an indicator of compliance on their homepage, for example, “Accessibility: fully compliant,” to inform users about RGAA compliance.

Accessibility: a two-way growth vector

Facilitating the accessibility of digital services not only offers significant benefits for the company but also provides significant advantages for users.

For your organization:

• Compliance with RGAA legal obligations Digital accessibility ensures compliance with standards and legal obligations defined by the RGAA, thus guaranteeing the compliance of your website.
• Improvement of user experience It contributes to improving the user experience on your website, promoting smooth and pleasant navigation for all visitors.
• Valorization of your commitments By investing in digital accessibility, your organization enhances its value by demonstrating its commitment to inclusion and equal access to online information.
• Response to CSR challenges Integrating accessibility practices strengthens your CSR approach, showing that your organization takes social aspects into account and strives to be socially responsible.
• Optimization of natural referencing An accessible website is better referenced, thus improving its online visibility. The SEO optimization resulting from accessibility contributes to attracting a wider audience.

For your users:

• Adapted and simplified use for people with disabilities Digital accessibility ensures adapted and simplified use for people with disabilities, eliminating barriers and facilitating access to information.
• An accessible experience for all, inclusive and without discrimination By making your site inclusive and non-discriminatory, a broader audience can access content, especially as digital services are compatible with a wider range of hardware and software.
• Interoperability with assistive technologies Compatibility with assistive technologies used by people with disabilities allows seamless interaction, ensuring complete accessibility to your content.

Limits of the RGAA: from presence to relevance

In the context of assessing compliance with the RGAA, several limitations deserve to be highlighted:

Limit 1: Different degrees of relevance

The RGAA, consisting of 106 criteria, encompasses divergent requirements. Some criteria merely check the presence of elements, while others assess the relevance of these same elements. This distinction between mere existence and relevance introduces complexity into the evaluation of compliance, as it does not allow a uniform assessment of different requirements. Thus, some criteria may be considered compliant even if they contribute only marginally to effective accessibility, while others, although present, may not be sufficiently relevant to significantly improve the experience of users with disabilities.

Limit 2: Volume of identified errors

The evaluation of RGAA compliance is primarily binary: a criterion is either compliant or not compliant. This does not take into account the volume of errors or compliance, meaning that a non-compliant criterion, whether it contains a single error or multiple errors, has the same impact on compliance rates. This approach does not adequately reflect the real impact on effective accessibility for people with disabilities.

Limit 3: Criticality of non-compliance

Unless it is 100%, a compliance rate cannot reveal an accessibility level for the user as it does not integrate any assessment of criticality.

These compliance rates are obtained without considering the following notions that can have a more or less significant positive or negative impact on people with disabilities:

• The degree of relevance of errors and positive points identified
• The volume of errors or positive points identified
• The level of criticality (user impact) of reported errors
• The limited scope of the audit (snapshot, sample pages, restricted test environments, etc.)
• The level of richness and complexity of the audited site.

What sanctions for non-compliant companies?

Failure to comply with declarative obligations regarding digital accessibility can lead to significant financial sanctions. In accordance with current legislation, the minister responsible for people with disabilities can impose a fine of 20,000 euros per online service in case of failure to meet these obligations for private companies.

The verification of compliance with these obligations and the proposal of sanctions to be imposed are the responsibility of the General Directorate of Social Cohesion. This entity, acting under the auspices of the Minister responsible for social affairs, plays a crucial role in the monitoring and enforcement of accessibility rules.

Sanctions for government websites

France Travail (formerly Pôle Emploi), URSSAF, the tax website, and many others must now fully comply with accessibility standards. Any failure to meet this obligation exposes these entities to financial sanctions. For example, a fine of 50,000 euros can be imposed on public entities from a certain date for websites that are not 100% accessible to people with disabilities. A recent ordinance provides for a progressive procedure, starting with a warning from Arcom, before applying financial sanctions if compliance is not achieved despite warnings. These measures aim to ensure full accessibility of online services, in accordance with the law in force since 2005.

We did a webinar on the subject with Microsoft some time ago. For more informations, do not hesitate to consult the replay : https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ZEf19HvHg .

In France, approximately 9 million people live with disabilities, ranging from physical to sensory, mild to severe, and temporary to permanent. For some individuals with disabilities or older individuals, interacting with non-adapted web content can be challenging. Depending on the type of disability, questions arise about how to navigate the web and with which tools. Digital accessibility involves implementing means to enhance the browsing comfort of users with specific needs.

Accessibility Principles

The digital accessibility framework is divided into four categories:

• Perceivable Content, ensuring that information and user interface components are presented in a way that they can be perceived.
• Robust, maximizing compatibility with current and future technologies.
• Usable Interface, providing navigation and interaction features usable by everyone.
• Comprehensible Information, making content and user interfaces understandable.

Web Accessibility Best Practices

To ensure full compliance with accessibility principles, it is crucial to commit at all hierarchical levels. This involves referring to the RG2A, the key reference that forms the foundations of digital accessibility. This approach must be accompanied by the implementation of best practices and familiarity with suitable tools:

Color and Contrast Choices

The choice of colors and contrasts is the primary guarantee of website accessibility. Visual impairments, such as color blindness (affecting nearly 8% of men in France) or astigmatism (affecting 15 million French people), can make differentiating colors and contrasts difficult. It is crucial to opt for a design using a palette of contrasting colors, promoting both distinction and readability of text and visual elements. Web developers must also pay special attention to the design of clickable buttons and links to ensure easy identification for all users.

Tools: A11y Color Palette, Accessible color palette builder, and Contrast Finder

Typography and Layout

The implementation of digital accessibility also includes typography and layout. Concerning typography, it is important to choose readable and sufficiently large fonts, adjusting the spacing between letters and lines. For layout, it is crucial to adopt a clear and well-organized structure, integrating headings and subheadings to facilitate text understanding and navigation on web pages. It is also essential to adapt the site for assisted reading by using appropriate HTML tags for headings and paragraphs to facilitate the use of screen readers. It is recommended to choose typography with adequate spacing, avoid similar characters for different letters (such as uppercase “o” and zero), and prefer well-recognized font types.

Tools: OpenDyslexic and AccessibleDFA

Alternatives for Images and Media

It is essential for web developers to provide alternatives for media and images to meet the needs of people with disabilities who cannot see or hear them (nearly 7.3 million people affected). Therefore, it is necessary to integrate textual alternatives such as alternative descriptions, transcriptions for video and audio media, and replacement texts. A distinction should also be made between decorative and informative images, clearly marking essential information. If decorative images do not require alternative descriptions, informative images must be accompanied by replacement text. The same goes for image links, for which it is necessary to include replacement text describing the link’s function.

Tools: Microsoft Word software can do this for you, here’s how.

Navigation and Ergonomics

Finally, to ensure the accessibility of a company’s website, consideration must be given to navigation and ergonomics. The interface must be consistent and clear, facilitating information retrieval for users. Dropdown menus and links must be accessible both via mouse and keyboard, while buttons must be large enough for easy interaction. Additionally, the use of visual cues such as borders, background colors, or shadows helps guide users during site navigation. Some tips, such as placing the logo in the header for easy return to the homepage, including main links in a permanent horizontal menu, and using hidden links to facilitate content access, enhance accessibility and improve the user experience, especially for assistive technologies such as screen readers or braille displays.

How to Support Your Initiative?

Train Your Collaborators

Raising awareness and training staff on accessibility standards are essential. Encourage compliance with these standards in the development and maintenance of digital services, especially through the implementation of a continuous monitoring process to ensure accessibility. It is also a distinguishing criterion in tenders, verified in advance by many investors, allowing companies to stand out in competitive markets.

Communicate Your Initiatives

In a pursuit of quality and satisfaction for all users, ensure transparent communication regarding the accessibility of your services. Use dedicated channels to collect user feedback and document the efforts made in terms of accessibility. This transparency is a guarantee of trust and consideration of diversity within your structure, aligning with a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) approach.

Conduct User Tests

Organize tests with people with disabilities to obtain specific feedback. The results obtained will allow additional adjustments to be made to ensure that the user journey is optimal, depending on the targeted disability.

Establish an Accessibility Statement

Establishing an accessibility statement is the best way to prove your commitment to accessible digital services. Ready-to-use templates can be used, which you can fill in by complying with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This requires conducting a detailed audit of the accessibility of your digital services, as well as assessing compliance with accessibility standards and identifying areas requiring improvement.

Tips and Tricks

• Use the OAA game to raise awareness among decision-makers, designers, developers, product owners, and project managers about digital accessibility.
• Choose a content management system that supports accessibility, such as Drupal or WordPress.
• Integrate RGAA compliance into your processes.
• Use providers for quick diagnostics, comprehensive audits, or to support your teams.

Digital accessibility is one of the core purposes of Fruggr, our SaaS tool, which aims to support companies in ensuring the accessibility compliance of their websites. Its dedicated accessibility module offers a comprehensive solution, enabling companies to diagnose, analyze, and implement necessary improvements to meet digital accessibility standards. With a personalized approach, Fruggr facilitates understanding of accessibility issues, contributing to the creation of inclusive online experiences for all users.