Public online communication services

Order approving the general framework for improvements to accessibility

The draft Decree and Order concern the development of a technical regulation and the extension of the accessibility obligation, in particular to certain companies.

Decree No 2009-546 of 14 March 2009 and the General Accessibility Framework Association [Référentiel d’accessibilité] (RGAA), the first version of which was published under an order of 21 October 2009, ‘lays down the rules on accessibility and how these should be implemented’. These texts, notably the General Accessibility Framework, refer to international recommendations (WCAG [Web Content Accessibility Guidelines]) which define the nature of the amendments to be implemented.

In addition to the technical method of verifying conformity with the reference standard, the draft Decree and Order lay down the exempt content, the evaluation criteria for assessing disproportionate burden, the turnover threshold (250 million EUR) from which companies must make their public online communication services available to people with disabilities, the contents of quotes and mandatory documents (quote on homepage, declaration of accessibility, multiannual plan of implementing accessibility), delays to achieving compliance of public online communication services, the conditions in which controls are carried out and sanctions are imposed and recovered in case of non-compliance with accessibility obligations as well as mandatory training methods for staff contributing to public online communication services.