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Buying a plane or train ticket, shopping online: most websites are not designed to be usable by people with disabilities, particularly the blind, hampering them in their daily lives and their access to work.
The subject will be on the menu of the National Disability Conference on Wednesday at the Elysée Palace, a major meeting bringing together members of the government, elected officials, associations, companies, whose mission every three years is to set the course for public policies on disability.
“Like all blind people, I have been shopping for 17 years on Houra.fr (which has ad hoc ergonomics for the disabled, editor’s note), while 90% of e-commerce sites are inaccessible. To book holidays, I have to go to a travel agency. I can’t benefit from the competitive prices found on the internet. When you’re disabled, you pay more than others”explains Manuel Pereira, in charge of digital accessibility at theAssociation Valentin Haüywhich acts in favor of the blind and visually impaired.
Tools accessible to all
Public digital services and those of large private companies have in principle the obligation to be accessible in an equivalent way to all citizens, including those with disabilities, visual, auditory, motor, dys disorders…. But for lack of sanctions, few are.
The visually impaired (70,000 blind people, 1.6 million partially sighted people in France) navigate the Internet using technical aids that restore the information present on the screen by means of voice synthesis, Braille displays or character magnification.
Unable to see where a mouse is pointing, they use keyboard shortcuts. They can connect their computer to a tactile braille keyboard. But these technical tools only work if the site is “accessible” to everyone, including people with disabilities.
Each site must publish a declarative mention of accessibility at the bottom of its page, which indicates its level of compliance with the RGAA (general reference for improving accessibility). It is considered “compliant” with a compliance level of 100%, non-compliant below 50%, “partially compliant” between these two levels.
The Elysée presidential palace site is at 66%, SNCF-Connect at 70%, Mon Espace santé at 75%. France Connect is “non-compliant”.
For associations, only a 100% compliant site is really usable. “After having placed an entire order on the internet, we sometimes find ourselves with a box that is not coded. We cannot pay or we have to fill in the box in red for example. We remain blocked”, explains Manuel Pereira.
“Beyond the blind, all those with sight problems”
“Tickets for the TER de Bourgogne, where my grandmother lives, are not sold over the phone if there are ticket offices in the station. You are disabled and you have to go to the station to buy a ticket”laments Céline Boeuf, blind.
“These new technologies that could make their daily lives easier end up excluding them even more”explains Arnaud de Broca, president of the Collectif Handicaps, which brings together 52 associations.
Beyond the blind, this concerns the color blind, the dys, the deaf, the motor handicapped and all those who, as they age, see their sight diminish. “Many people with disabilities cannot use video, accounting, database software. If they are not accessible, they exclude the disabled from employment”explains Arnaud de Broca.
For associations and experts, only effective controls and sanctions will change the situation, as was the case with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the protection of personal data.
“The technologies exist, professionals can do it but there is no political commitment. As the law does not provide for sanctions, it is not a priority. Our customers tell us ‘we will do it later’ “, explains Romy Duhem-Verdière, from the high-tech consulting firm Octo Technology.