public services now face fines if their online procedures are not fully accessible to all

Since 2005, the administration must offer digital tools adapted to all users. From January 1, a financial penalty of 50,000 euros is now provided for in the event of a breach.

Pôle emploi, taxes, Urssaf… Administration websites which are not 100% accessible to people with disabilities incur a fine of 50,000 euros from Monday January 1. In theory, accessibility to these online procedures for disabled people has already been mandatory since February 2005. But in practice, successive governments have continued to postpone the timetable for making administration sites accessible.

The executive now wants to make the most common online procedures fully accessible by the end of 2025. Bad performers from the administration will first receive a formal notice from the Regulatory Authority of audiovisual and digital communication (Arcom), according to the order presented in September to the Council of Ministers. But “if a sanctioned breach persists more than six months after the imposition of the initial sanction, a new sanction may be imposed”.

Very few completely accessible procedures

The government considers an approach to be 100% accessible if it meets all of the criteria of its “general framework for improving accessibility” (RGAA), which contains 106 criteria. Of the 248 most common online procedures, barely 6 were 100% accessible in July 2023, according to the latest analysis carried out by the government. Requests for Crit’Air stickers, referrals to the Defender of Rights or requests for legal aid thus stand out among the online procedures most accessible to people with disabilities.

The government lists 125 partially accessible procedures (between 50% and 99% compliance with the RGAA), or half of the 248 most common formalities: declaration of birth, certificate of vaccination against Covid-19, request for accommodation in a university campus. .. Finally, 78 usual procedures are not accessible to people with disabilities, including applications for scholarships for students, registration in the national register for refusal of organ donations or applications for European health insurance cards.

The administration also remains liable to a fine of 25,000 euros if it breaches a series of additional obligations: publication of information on the accessibility of the site, possibility for users to report breaches, etc.