RGAA for websites: making a site more accessible means applying the French digital accessibility standard to provide clear navigation, keyboard usability, screen reader compatibility, and compliance with legal requirements.
A site can be fast, modern, and well optimized for search engines while still being difficult for some visitors to use. In France, more than 12 million people live with a disability, making web accessibility essential for public services, large companies, and all organizations committed to inclusion.
The RGAA, or General Accessibility Improvement Standard, serves as an operational framework for evaluating and improving a website. It is not just a regulatory constraint: it is also a driver of user experience, SEO, code quality, and trust.
Understanding the RGAA for websites and its role in digital accessibility
The RGAA translates the international WCAG recommendations into criteria applicable to French websites and digital services. Its current version is based on 106 criteria divided into 13 themes, such as images, colors, forms, navigation, scripts, or even the structure of pages.
The goal is simple: allow everyone to access the information and features of a site, regardless of their visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive abilities. A user should be able to read, understand, navigate, fill out a form, and complete an action without technical barriers.
In a web project, DualMedia integrates this logic from the UX design, front-end development, and testing phases. This approach avoids having to add accessibility in a rush at the end of the project, when fixes often cost more.
What the RGAA checks concretely on a site
The standard is not limited to a few good intentions. It examines very concrete elements, such as the presence of text alternatives for useful images, the contrast between text and background, the consistency of headings, or the ability to use the site without a mouse.
A compliant site must also offer understandable forms, clear error messages, and accessible multimedia content. For example, a presentation video should ideally have subtitles or a transcript if it conveys important information.
- Images that convey meaning must have relevant alternative text.
- Decorative images must have an empty alt attribute.
- Contrast must remain readable for people with low vision.
- Navigation must work with the keyboard, with visible focus.
- Forms must associate each field with a clear label.
- Page titles must be unique, descriptive, and hierarchical.
- Links must be explicit, not limited to “click here.”
- The page’s primary language must be declared.
These rules also benefit mobile users, older adults, internet users experiencing visual fatigue, or those navigating in a degraded context. Accessibility therefore improves real-world use, not just compliance.
Who is affected by RGAA compliance for a website
The RGAA compliance concerns first and foremost public services, local authorities, and the establishments attached to them. Public service concessionaires and certain large companies must also comply with these requirements.
Since the evolution of the European framework around digital accessibility, more private-sector actors must take the issue seriously, especially when they offer essential digital services to the public. Small organizations are not always subject to the same obligations, but they have every reason to anticipate them.
A small business that redesigns its showcase website, a booking platform, or a client area can avoid significant technical debt by integrating the criteria from the specifications stage. The web developers for small businesses play a key role here in making accessibility realistic, gradual, and compatible with available budgets.
Legal obligation and strategic value
For organizations subject to the law, compliance notably involves publishing an accessibility statement. This document indicates the site’s level of compliance, the inaccessible content, and the contact methods for reporting an issue.
But limiting RGAA to an obligation would be reductive. A more accessible site is often clearer, better structured, more efficient, and more credible to its users.
In an CSR context, digital accessibility shows that a brand does not reserve its services for only part of its audience. This dimension becomes a sign of seriousness for clients, partners, and internal teams.
Why RGAA also improves SEO and user experience
RGAA for websites naturally aligns with SEO best practices. Screen readers, such as search engines, rely on the HTML structure, link labels, text alternatives, and content consistency to understand a page.
A clear heading hierarchy helps a user orient themselves quickly. It also helps Google interpret the main topic, the important sections, and the relationship between the information.
Image alt text, when it actually describes the visual content, makes the information accessible to people who cannot see the image. It also contributes to a better semantic understanding of the content by search engines.
Accessibility, web performance, and mobile navigation
An accessible site avoids confusing interfaces, buttons that are too small, weak contrast, and unnecessarily complex user journeys. These improvements reduce friction, especially on mobile, where attention is short and input errors are common.
Technical performance matters too. A slow or unstable page affects all visitors, but it can become even harder to use with assistive technologies.
Basic SEO optimizations therefore remain complementary to accessibility. To reinforce this approach, a guide such as these SEO tips to get started on Google helps connect editorial structure, readability, and organic visibility.
| Criteria | Accessibility impact | SEO and UX impact |
|---|---|---|
| Consistent heading tags | Make navigation easier with a screen reader | Help understand the structure of the page |
| Image alternative text | Give access to the meaning of visual elements | Strengthen the semantic context |
| Explicit links | Make it possible to understand the destination without context | Improve the internal networking and click-through rate |
| Sufficient contrast | Make text readable for people with visual impairments | Improve reading comfort on all screens |
| Keyboard navigation | Makes features usable without a mouse | Reduces blockers in critical journeys |
The key point is this: an accessible site is not an overly simplified site. It is a site designed with rigor, where every interface element has a clear function.
Conduct an RGAA audit for a website step by step
An RGAA audit measures the actual level of accessibility of a site based on a representative sample of pages. This sample must include the key pages: home, contact, legal notices, search, forms, shopping cart or user account area depending on the type of service.
The audit can be automated, manual, or mixed. Automated tools quickly detect certain errors, but they cover only part of the criteria, because they do not always know how to judge the relevance of a label, a navigation item, or alternative text.
A manual audit remains essential to get a reliable view. It involves keyboard testing, screen reader checks, source code analysis, and human evaluation of user journeys.
The five phases of an effective audit
The first phase is to define the scope. You need to choose the pages and features that truly represent how the site is used, rather than auditing only the simplest pages.
The second phase is to prepare the testing environment. Experts typically use multiple browsers, screen readers such as NVDA or VoiceOver, as well as contrast-checking tools.
- Plan the audit scope and the priority workflows.
- Assemble a team that includes UX, development, content, and accessibility.
- Combine automated tools and manual analysis.
- Document each non-compliance issue with its user impact.
- Turn the results into a measurable remediation plan.
At DualMedia, this approach is often tied to existing development cycles. The goal is to produce actionable fixes, not a theoretical report that stays in a shared folder.
Useful tools for testing a website's accessibility
Audit tools help save time, especially at the outset. They identify obvious issues such as contrast errors, missing labels, certain inconsistent ARIA attributes, or poorly structured headings.
However, they never replace human analysis. A tool may report that an image has an alt attribute, but it cannot always determine whether that text actually describes the useful information.
| Tool | Type | Main use |
|---|---|---|
| WAVE | Browser extension | Quickly view accessibility errors |
| axe DevTools | Browser extension | Automate advanced checks and integrate tests |
| Lighthouse | Built-in Chrome tool | Get a score and technical recommendations |
| Colour Contrast Analyser | Desktop software | Precisely measure contrast ratios |
| NVDA | Screen reader | Test a user's experience on Windows |
| VoiceOver | Native screen reader | Test the experience on Mac and iOS |
| Ara | DINUM tool | Structure an RGAA audit grid |
Technical teams can also integrate checks into their delivery processes. Automation tools, including some AI-related solutions, speed up the detection of repetitive errors, provided expert validation is maintained.
To go further on this topic, the AI tools for web development can complement software quality practices, notably those for code reviews or recurring tests.
Making a site compliant without completely redesigning it
An RGAA compliance update does not always require a complete redesign. Many low-impact corrections can be handled gradually: missing alternative text, insufficient contrast, heading order, link labels, or form labels.
The right approach is to classify issues according to their user impact and their correction effort. A flaw that completely prevents keyboard use must be addressed before a cosmetic improvement that is not very blocking.
A fictional company, let's call it Nova Services, has an appointment-booking site. Its audit reveals three major obstacles: the form cannot be used with a keyboard, errors are not associated with the fields, and button contrast is too low.
By fixing these issues upfront, Nova Services makes its main journey accessible to more users without rebuilding the entire site. That is precisely the logic of a pragmatic roadmap.
Building a prioritized RGAA roadmap
The roadmap must translate audit findings into concrete actions. Each task should be assigned to a team: front-end development, UI design, content writing, integration, or project management.
Quick wins with high impact should kick off the effort. Heavier topics, such as redesigning a navigation component or a transactional funnel, should be planned in subsequent sprints.
- Identify blocking issues for essential user journeys.
- Address quick wins, such as image alternatives and inconsistent headings.
- Plan complex components in a technical roadmap.
- Add RGAA criteria to functional testing.
- Train content contributors to avoid regressions.
- Schedule a follow-up audit at least once a year.
This approach reduces accessibility debt over time. It also prevents the release of new features that immediately recreate the same issues.
Incorporate RGAA from the design phase of a website or application
The best time to think about accessibility is during design. When a designer chooses compliant colors, readable text sizes, and easy-to-understand components, much of the work is already secured.
On the development side, using semantic HTML correctly avoids many problems. A button should be a button, a link should be a link, and interactive components must remain usable with a keyboard.
This logic also applies to mobile apps and business interfaces. Screen readers, adaptive font sizes, and sufficiently large touch targets all contribute to the same requirement for inclusion.
The role of content in accessibility
An accessible website does not depend solely on code. Writers, marketing teams, and CMS contributors have a direct responsibility for the quality of the published content.
A link labeled “learn more” repeated ten times on a page becomes incomprehensible without context. An informative image without a description causes some visitors to miss part of the message.
In WordPress, Webflow, or a headless CMS, contribution rules therefore need to be documented. Editorial guides must include writing alt text, heading structure, and clear link labels.
Accessibility statement and ongoing monitoring
The accessibility statement indicates the level of compliance of a digital service. It generally specifies whether the site is fully compliant, partially compliant, or non-compliant, along with the score obtained from the audit.
This document must also mention inaccessible content, available alternatives, and how to contact the organization in case of difficulty. For the organizations concerned, this is a transparency requirement.
Compliance is never fixed. Every new page, every marketing module, every extension, or every partial redesign can introduce new non-compliances.
Maintaining RGAA compliance after launch
Maintenance must include regular checks. A simple theme update, a change in brand guidelines, or the addition of a form can alter the actual level of accessibility.
During a migration or redesign, accessibility must be part of the project checklist. A resource like this site migration checklist helps structure areas to watch, especially around content, performance, and user journeys.
An accessibility lead, even on a part-time basis, makes governance easier. They coordinate testing, track fixes, and ensure the topic remains part of product decisions.
Our opinion
The RGAA for websites should be treated as a digital quality initiative, not an administrative checkbox. It improves access to services, clarifies interfaces, strengthens organic search visibility, and limits legal risks.
The best strategy is to move forward in stages: mixed audit, prioritization, high-impact fixes, team training, then long-term maintenance. This progression makes the topic manageable, even for an organization starting with an old or complex site.
DualMedia supports companies with this comprehensive approach, from UX and technical auditing all the way to the web development or accessible mobile app. A truly inclusive site is one that works better for everyone, including users who are too often overlooked in standard testing.
What is the RGAA for a website?
The RGAA for websites is the French framework used to evaluate and improve the digital accessibility of a website. It is based on the international WCAG standards and translates them into operational criteria to check images, forms, contrast, navigation, and HTML structure.
Why make a website conform to the RGAA?
Making a website compliant with RGAA provides equitable access to digital content and services. This approach also improves the user experience, technical quality, SEO, and the brand image of an organization.
Who must comply with RGAA for their website?
Public institutions, certain large companies, public service delegators, and stakeholders subject to European obligations must comply with the RGAA. Even when an organization is not directly subject to the requirement, applying the standard is still recommended to improve inclusion and service quality.
Does an automated RGAA audit suffice to be compliant?
An automated audit is not enough to guarantee RGAA compliance. Tools detect certain technical errors, but manual analysis is still necessary to verify the relevance of alternative text, navigation logic, link labels, and actual use with a screen reader.
What are the RGAA requirements that are most often not compliant?
Common issues include insufficient contrast, images without meaningful alternative text, poorly labeled forms, and incomplete keyboard navigation. Other frequent problems include overly vague links, a poor heading hierarchy, or error messages that are difficult to understand.
Can a website be made accessible without completely redesigning it?
Yes, it is often possible to improve accessibility without a complete overhaul. The priority is to address major blockers and quick fixes with a high impact, then gradually integrate RGAA criteria into development cycles.
What is the relationship between RGAA and SEO?
The RGAA and SEO share several technical and editorial best practices. A clear HTML structure, consistent headings, alternative text, and descriptive links help screen readers, users, and search engines alike.
How do you test keyboard navigation on a website?
Keyboard navigation is tested by moving through the entire site using the Tab, Enter, Space, and arrow keys when relevant. All features must remain accessible, focus must be visible, and the navigation order must follow a logical, understandable sequence.
What does an RGAA accessibility statement contain?
An accessibility statement indicates the site’s level of compliance, inaccessible content, and contact methods in case of difficulty. It may also mention planned actions to improve the service and any applicable exemptions.
When should an RGAA audit be conducted?
An RGAA audit is recommended before going live, during a redesign, after a major update, or as part of an annual review. It is also relevant when a site includes critical user journeys such as a form, a customer area, a booking, or a payment process.
Would you like to get a detailed quote for a mobile application or website?
Our team of development and design experts at DualMedia is ready to turn your ideas into reality. Contact us today for a quick and accurate quote: contact@dualmedia.fr