On this May 15th, on the occasion of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, it is crucial to remember that the web was never thought of as a collection of private spaces. Today, more than ever, the web is a public space in its own right, in which everyone must be able to move around, interact, consult their accounts, and even do their shopping.
While the Trump administration, upon returning to power in January 2025, deleted thousands of government web pages related to inclusion, public health, and the rights of people with disabilities, it is necessary to reaffirm that web accessibility is a social issue. But also that this notion can no longer be carried out by public administrations alone.
Accessibility is also for your grandmother
We can align the existing figures with the number of people suffering from sensory, motor, or even psychological disorders in France. We can cynically explain that these millions of people represent a market segment in their own right that needs to be captured. Or that in terms of CSR, web accessibility is a godsend. But that would be missing the point.
In reality, web accessibility improves navigation for the entire population.
And if you're not convinced, think about those automatic doors that are so practical when you leave a store with your hands full, the access ramps that make it easier to get strollers and suitcases through, the subtitles for your series in their original language on your favorite streaming platform. Or just the elevator that saves you from having to carry your groceries up to the tenth floor when you get home. Even if you're in perfect health, I'm sure you're not indifferent to these little everyday comforts.
Web accessibility is the same. Higher contrasts reduce visual fatigue and improve your end of day, logical content structuring helps you quickly scan a page to find relevant information, well-designed forms, with clear labels and explicit error messages, reduce input errors, etc.
So while the subject is obviously critical for people with disabilities, it is important to keep in mind that web accessibility addresses a broader user experience issue. In other words: web accessibility is also for your grandmother.
However, the French Federation of the Blind tells us in its Observatory of Compliance with Digital Accessibility Obligations that only 3% of websites comply with the main administrative accessibility obligations today, and that less than 1% are accessible.
The cause is a flagrant lack of awareness and training first of all: many are still unaware of the legal obligations and best practices in terms of accessibility. In response to this, there are highly competent organizations, including the Valentin Haüy association, Urbilog, Accessi+, Access42, and many others. But also the perception that web accessibility is an extremely complex subject.
Web accessibility, one byte at a time
And, when we look at web accessibility, we are indeed faced with a mountain of concepts and acronyms: RGAA, WCAG, ARIA, EAA…
But, in reality, the principle of accessibility is rather simple. It consists of nothing more and nothing less than ensuring that everyone can access information or use an online service. So make sure that the texts are readable, that the navigation is clear, and that the content is understandable.
Among the essentials for an accessible web interface, it is necessary, for example:
- Allow users to enlarge text up to 200% without assistive technology, and without loss of content or functionality;
- Maintain uniform navigation across all pages of the site to avoid confusing users;
- Provide clear instructions for forms and interactions so that even people who are not familiar with the web know how to use them.
These accessibility criteria are not technical. In fact, it is common sense, if when designing a website we ask ourselves how to ensure that it will be usable by an elderly person.
The international standard (WCAG) of course goes a little further, but there are easy-to-use and free tools for conducting an initial analysis of accessibility defects, including technical ones. You can try PageSpeed / Google Lighthouse, WAVE, or AChecker. They don't generate a real audit, but they will help you see more clearly the scope of the work, and perhaps demystify web accessibility a little.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying that making a website 100% accessible is easy. Among the accessibility defects revealed by this "pre-analysis", supplemented by an accessibility audit, some will require the intervention of a developer, and/or will be long and tedious to resolve. But I think that better understanding why a site is inaccessible, and how to make it accessible, will probably make the task more manageable.
And the good news is that some accessibility flaws can now be partially resolved thanks to AI. The automatic addition of alternative texts to images, typically.
In any case, the key to web accessibility is probably to not try to be 100% accessible all at once. Taking the time to resolve accessibility issues one after the other is the best way to achieve web accessibility without getting discouraged.
Last step: formalization. In France, the main obligation regarding accessibility is administrative. If a website is not accessible, you must at a minimum show that you are aware of it and that you are taking actions to resolve the identified problems. This formalization involves two pages on your website: the accessibility statement and the multi-year accessibility plan. If you need templates, the site La Sécu Recrute is quite exemplary in this area.
Act now for an inclusive web
In a little over a month, the European Accessibility Act (EAA), or European Accessibility Directive, will come into force, harmonizing accessibility requirements for digital products and services in all member states of the European Union. This regulation imposes a web accessibility obligation on companies with more than 9 employees, or with a turnover of more than 2 million euros.
This new regulation broadens the scope of digital accessibility obligations, but remains restricted to B2C companies, in specific sectors such as the design of digital devices (computers, tablets, smartphones, etc.) and services whose access is almost a public service (e-commerce, banking, transport, communication, etc.).
Beyond the legal obligation imposed by this text, it should be an opportunity to remind all companies that the web is not neutral. That designing an accessible site means creating a space in which a person with a disability is not referred to their disability.
If you are still hesitant, consider that your customers or employees today may be disabled tomorrow. And the others will probably grow old.
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