Software accessibility: How to comply with the RGAA?

What is RGAA standard?

THE General referential for accessibility improvement (RGAA)formerly called the general accessibility repository for administrations, is a set of rules allowing to control the accessibility of a website and its content. The RGAA version currently in force is 4.1, which was published on February 18, 2021.

This repository is structured in two large parts.

Implementation rules

They define the organizations concerned by the RGAA, as well as their legal obligations, specified by the Decree on digital accessibility July 24, 2019. Among them, we find:

• Compliance audit: In order to assess the compliance of the service, the organization must lead an accessibility audit, which can be carried out by a third party or by the organization itself. The evaluation is carried out on a sample of pages representative of the website or the application.
• The accessibility declaration: It includes a state of conformity which can be total (100 % of the RGAA criteria are met), partial or non -compliant, a reporting of the not accessible content, as well as assistance and contact devices. The RGAA declaration of conformity page must also mention the possibility of entering the defender of rights in the absence of a response or solution.
• The multi -year accessibility scheme: It presents the organization's policy in terms of digital accessibility. The information it contains is therefore quite diverse: taking into account digital accessibility in the entity strategy, human and financial resources assigned to accessibility, training and awareness actions of employees …

• Compulsory mentions: The home page of the service concerned must display one of the following mentions: “Accessibility: fully consistent”, “accessibility: partially compliant” or “accessibility: non -compliant”. In addition, websites must have a page dedicated to accessibility, available directly from any page.

The technical method

This is a Operational framework for verification of compliance with RGAA. This method includes 106 criteria which can be checked using specific tests. Some of them refer to implementation techniques (CSS, HTML, JavaScript, etc.) to verify that the criterion is well respected and limit the margin of interpretation as to compliance with standards.

Who is affected by compliance with RGAA?

According to law n ° 2005-102 of February 11, 2005, the accessibility obligation concerns communication services to the online public of the following organizations:

• Legal persons under public law
• Legal persons under private law delegates of a public service mission
• Legal persons of private law constituted to satisfy specifically of needs of general interest having a character other than industrial or commercial
• Companies whose turnover in France is more than 250 million euros

In less legal terms, compliance with RGAA is therefore essential for state services, local authorities, public establishments, legatees of a public service mission, organizations of general interest and certain private companies.

Thus, the RGAA standard is mainly intended for public service websites. But it also concerns certain private companies and should, in the future, apply to software in general.

What are the accessibility requirements?

Compliance with RGAA is based on 4 fundamental principles of digital accessibility.

• The information published on a website or mobile application must be noticeable for all users, including disabled people.

Concrete examples: Create presentable content in different ways without any loss of information or structure; Propose textual alternatives for all non -textual content …

• The different features offered online should be usable by all.

Concrete examples: give the user enough to read and interact with the content; Provide the user with orientation elements to navigate and find what he is looking for; make all the features accessible to the keyboard; Avoid content likely to cause epilepsy attacks …

• The information put online must be understandable by all users.

Concrete examples: helping the user to correct any entry errors; Make the pages predictable for the Internet user.

• The structure of the site and the published content must be robust enough to evolve according to innovations, with relevant and regularly updated technology.

Concrete examples: optimize the compatibility of the website with current and future uses; Upgrade the site to adapt it to assistance technology users.

Although they mainly concern public organizations, the rules of compliance with RGAA form a useful repository for the private sector, which must also work for more online accessibility. But it is also an opportunity to anticipate a future generalization of this obligation to all software.