Although advances might be made in the area of digital accessibility’s legislation, progress in its implementation needs to be monitored if we wish to bring positive change for blind and partially sighted people. The French Federation of the Blind conveyed that message in a hybrid event on May 15th in Paris on the occasion of Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
Hosted in the headquarters of the French Authority for the Regulation of Audio-Visual and Digital Communication (ARCOM), the session featured a series of roundtables focused on different aspects concerning the digital accessibility of different services in France. Among others, speakers analysed the state of the matter in the area of public services, where the accessibility of educational software, such as Pronote, was widely discussed. “Although Pronote allows me to take notes, it has several limitations: I cannot engage in a discussion with my teachers and the program is not accessible on computers”, said Jade, a 17-year-old student. At the same time, Virginie Mami, Digital Accessibility Officer at Métropole de Lyon, underscored the importance of including persons with disabilities in the process of making digital services more accessible. “At our organisation, we have an internal group consisting of people with disabilities who have implemented an internal accessibility score to monitor our digital services”, she stated.
E-books were also a key subject that was addressed throughout the conference. Katie Durand, digital accessibility expert at the French Federation of the Blind, presented the conclusions of her association’ study on that topic, showing that visually impaired readers are confronted with several barriers during the transaction process to buy an e-book. “Research shows that only few people get to open the e-book they wish to read”, she underlined. This scenario is also reproduced when borrowing them; overall, this phenomenon is caused by the complexity of navigating certain websites or those sites not being compatible with assistive technology devices. When it comes to the accessibility of electronic books, Christelle Fontaine, editor at Editions Quae, shared several good practices, such as optimising alternative texts, raising awareness among writers or sharing experiences through accessibility-focused working groups, as a means to make the reading experience more inclusive for visually impaired readers.
New challenges in the form of audio-visual content and payment terminals
Six years ago, a decree-law was approved in France establishing accessibility obligations in online communications’ services. Amélien Delahaie (Canal +) gave the audience an insight of how accessibility audits are carried out within this private TV channel in France, featuring also a brief explanation of how revising mechanisms are being implemented. In the same line, Leili Mir Khosravi, Head of Digital Projects and Digital Accessibility at ARTE France, detailed how this broadcaster compromises itself to make its content accessible by following the principles enshrined in its pluriannual accessibility scheme. Ms. Mir also shared curious developments that are currently going on at ARTE, such as their participation in the design of more accessible video games.
Of course, the session also featured a fruitful debate over one subject that EBU has been working for the last years: payment terminals. Jérôme Raguénès (French Banking Federation) and Manuel Pereira (Association Valentin Haüy) discussed several subjects in this domain, such as the use of biometric cards or promoting technical requirements among these devices’ producers. As a blind person himself, Manuel called for action in improving the accessibility of banking websites and re-establishing the use of tactile keyboards, thus bearing in mind the users’ needs.
This demand was later on supported at a general level by the French Federation of the Blind’s President, Bruno Gendron, who expressed how important it is to give people with disabilities a key role as co-creators, thus giving them the chance to help develop more inclusive digital services in all areas of life.