Levels of eAccessibility in France
Below are the results of the MeAC eAccessibility status measurement for France.
Websites
The MeAC survey assessed the accessibility of a similar sample of 12 key websites in each of the EU Member States, as well as the USA, Canada and Australia. These included 6 key public websites (national government, national parliament, and key ministries such as social, employment, health and education) and 6 key sectoral/commercial websites (e.g. railways, TV, newspapers, retail banking). All websites were evaluated against WCAG 1.0 Level A criteria, including both automatic and manual evaluation. (For methodological details see Annex II of the project report).
The results for France, as measured in 2008, were as follows:
- None of the selected public websites passed even the automatic evaluation
- None of the sectoral/commercial websites passed even the automatic evaluation
Telecoms
Utilization of telecoms services and equipment can pose a variety of accessibility challenges for different disability groups. For the purposes of the MeAC study the availability of a number of selected accessibility provisions was surveyed in each of the 27 countries. In France the following situation was identified in 2008:
- The main emergency number (112 or other) was not directly accessible by means of text telephones
- Only a video relay service was available. On the National Disability Conference held in June 2008, the French President announced that a text relay service will be created soon. An experimental text relay service should be opened at the end of 2008
- Of the two main mobile telephony operators, one operator provided eAccessibility-related information to customers with disabilities via its website. Neither of them offered models that are labeled as hearing aid compatible via their online sales channel
- Of the two main landline telephony operators, one operator provided eAccessibility-related information to customers with disabilities via its Internet website. Neither of them offered models that are labeled as hearing aid compatible via their online sales channel
Broadcasting
To ensure that people with disabilities can access and enjoy TV broadcast programs in the same manner as everyone else, a variety of accessibility provisions need to be made available, including subtitling and sign language interpretation for people with hearing impairments and audio description for people with vision impairments. As regards their availability in France, the following situation was found by the MeAC study in 2008:
- Of the two main public TV channels, in 2007
- both provided national language programs with subtitling. In terms of volumes provided, these programs amounted to 58% and 67%, respectively, of their overall national language programming
- one of them provided some programs with signing. In terms of volumes provided, only a short news program was available with signing
- neither provided any programs with audio description
- Of the two main commercial TV channels, in 2007
- both provided national language programs with subtitling. In terms of volumtes provided, these programs amounted to 60% and 31.5%, respectively, of their overall national language programming
- neither provided any programs with signing
- one provided a single audio-described film on an experimental basis while the other did not provide any audio description
Self-service terminals
The utilisation of standard self-service terminals can pose various accessibility challenges to different groups. In the banking sector, for instance, automatic teller machines (ATMs) which are designed to meet the needs of vision impaired people are now being manufactured. Usually referred to as “talking” ATMs, such machines have a voice output option via headphones and/or external loud speakers.
As regards the availability of such banking terminals in France, the following situation was found by the MeAC study in 2008:
- Of the two main retail banks operating in the country, one had installed talking ATMs (352 out of a total of 3,600 ATMs deployed). One bank planned to deploy talking ATMs but details were not available
