FranceDecree of 24 July 2019 on the accessibility of online public communication services, standard, turnover threshold, exemptions, statement and deadlines
Décret n° 2019-768 du 24 juillet 2019
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
As of .
What it requires
- Make your online public communication services accessible to persons with disabilities in accordance with the harmonised standards, or parts of them, whose references are published in the Official Journal of the European Union under Article 6 of Directive (EU) 2016/2102 (Décret 2019-768, Art. 1).
- Apply the accessibility framework (référentiel d'accessibilité) adopted jointly by the minister for persons with disabilities and the minister for digital affairs, which sets the technical arrangements for implementing accessibility and the format of the statement and the home-page mention (Art. 5); version 4 of the Référentiel général d'amélioration de l'accessibilité (RGAA) was adopted by joint order of , and its publisher has issued revisions since (4.0 to 4.1 and 4.1 to 4.1.2).
- The duties of Article 47 bind an enterprise only if its average annual turnover achieved in France over the last three accounting years closed before the year concerned reaches EUR 250 million (Art. 2).
- You need not make the following content accessible: office files published before unless needed for an administrative procedure within your tasks; prerecorded audio and video published before ; live audio and video; online maps and mapping services, if essential information on maps giving a location or route is provided in accessible digital form; third-party content you neither finance, develop nor control; reproductions of heritage collection items that cannot be made fully accessible because the requirements are incompatible with preserving the item or the authenticity of the reproduction, or because no automated and economical transcription solution is available; intranet and extranet content published before , until the site is thoroughly revised; and website and mobile application content that is neither needed for an active administrative procedure nor updated or modified after , such as archives (Art. 3).
- You may leave content or functionality inaccessible where making it accessible would be a disproportionate burden: where your size, resources and nature do not allow it, or where the expected benefit for persons with disabilities is too low against your cost, taking account of the frequency and duration of use and the importance of the service; provide an accessible alternative where that is reasonably possible (Art. 4).
- Publish online the accessibility statement required by Article 47(III) of the Act, in the manner the framework specifies, with at least: the publication manager's contact details, the service name and a link to the multi-year plan; the state of the service against the accessibility obligation, the evaluation elements and the list of inaccessible content with reasons and accessible alternatives; and the means for users to report accessibility difficulties and the remedies available (Art. 6, I and II).
- Communicate the statement to the administration through the teleservice, under the arrangements set jointly by the two ministers (Art. 6, III).
- Show on the home page the accessibility mention required by Article 47(IV), in the manner the framework specifies (Art. 6, IV).
- Include in the continuing training of your staff who work on the services a theoretical and practical course on digital accessibility and compliance with the accessibility requirements (Art. 7).
- Meet the duties by the dates in Article 10: for the persons in 1° to 3° of Article 47(I), (websites, intranets and extranets created since ), (those created before) and (mobile applications, packaged software and digital street furniture); for the enterprises in 4°, , and on the same pattern; digital street furniture installed before those dates may stay in service until the end of its economically useful life, at most fifteen years from entry into service (Art. 10).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of . Also read by: Direction interministérielle du numérique (DINUM), publisher of the Référentiel général d'amélioration de l'accessibilité (guidance, recorded ).
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
- Guidance link
- https://accessibilite.numerique.gouv.fr/obligations/
- Guidance body
- Direction interministérielle du numérique (DINUM), publisher of the Référentiel général d'amélioration de l'accessibilité
- Open questions
- Which harmonised standards, or parts of them, are the references published in the Official Journal of the European Union that Article 1 of the decree makes the measure of accessibility, given that the decree names no standard?
What it reaches
Instrument type
a regulation made under an act
Applicability criteria
The decree applies to the persons listed in 1° to 4° of Article 47(I). Of the private operators, a private-law person delegated a public service mission is bound whatever its turnover; an enterprise in 4° is bound only from the threshold that Article 2 fixes.
- As of
- Combinator
- Any of
- Criteria
- a private-law person delegated a public service mission ("personne morale de droit privé délégataire d'une mission de service public", Article 47(I)(2°) of the Act of )
- an enterprise whose annual turnover reaches EUR 250 million, calculated for each enterprise on the average of the annual turnover achieved in France over the last three accounting years closed before the year concerned
What this law does
Article 47(I) lists the persons bound as public-law persons, private-law persons delegated a public service mission or created for general-interest needs, and enterprises. Article 1 of the decree requires the online public communication services of the persons in 1° to 4° of Article 47(I) to be accessible in accordance with the harmonised standards, or parts of them, whose references are published in the Official Journal of the European Union under Article 6 of Directive (EU) 2016/2102.
Article 3 exempts from the accessibility obligation office files published before , unless they are needed for an administrative procedure within the tasks of the organisation, and prerecorded audio and video published before .
It also exempts live audio and video, online maps and mapping services (provided that, for maps giving a location or route, the essential information is given in accessible digital form), third-party content that the organisation neither finances, develops nor controls, and reproductions of heritage collection items that cannot be made fully accessible, either because the accessibility requirements are incompatible with preserving the item or the authenticity of the reproduction, or because no automated and economical solution is available to transcribe the text of manuscripts or other heritage items and render it as accessible content.
It further exempts the content of intranets and extranets published before until those sites are thoroughly revised, and the content of websites and mobile applications that is neither needed for an active administrative procedure nor updated or modified after , in particular archives.
Under Article 4, making content or functionality accessible creates a disproportionate burden where the size, resources and nature of the organisation do not allow it, or where the expected benefit for persons with disabilities is too low against the cost, taking account of the frequency and duration of use and the importance of the service. Content or functionality left inaccessible because of a disproportionate burden is accompanied, as far as reasonably possible, by an accessible alternative.
Article 5 provides for an accessibility framework (référentiel d'accessibilité), adopted jointly by the minister for persons with disabilities and the minister for digital affairs, which sets the technical arrangements for making the services accessible. The framework must be updated so that the services, content and functionality to which it applies meet at least the requirements of the harmonised standards.
The framework specifies in particular the format and content of the documents under Article 47(III) and of the home-page mention, how the disproportionate burden criteria are applied, and the technical method of checking conformity. The framework also specifies the categories of services, content and functionality to which its criteria apply. The home page of the service carries the accessibility mention required by Article 47(IV), in the manner the framework specifies.
The framework publisher records that version 4 of the Référentiel général d'amélioration de l'accessibilité (RGAA) was adopted jointly by the minister for persons with disabilities and the minister for digital affairs on . Article 6 requires the persons in 1° to 4° of Article 47(I) to attest the accessibility level of their services by publishing online the accessibility statement, in the manner the framework specifies.
The statement contains at least the contact details of the publication manager, the name of the service and a link to the multi-year plan; the state of the service against the accessibility obligation, the evaluation elements and the list of inaccessible content with reasons and accessible alternatives; and the means for users to report accessibility difficulties and the remedies available.
The statement is communicated to the administration through a teleservice, under arrangements set jointly by the two ministers. The persons mentioned in Article 47(I) include in the continuing training of their staff working on the services a theoretical and practical course on digital accessibility and compliance with the accessibility requirements.
For the persons in 1° to 3° of Article 47(I), the decree applies from to websites, intranets and extranets created since , from to those created before, and from to mobile applications, packaged software and digital street furniture.
For the enterprises in 4° of Article 47(I), it applies from to websites, intranets and extranets created from that date, from to those created before, and from to mobile applications, packaged software and digital street furniture.
Digital street furniture installed before , or before in the case of the enterprises, may stay in service until the end of its economically useful life, which may not exceed fifteen years from its entry into service. Décret 2026-816 of amended the decree by rewriting Articles 1 and 9, completing Articles 5 and 10 and repealing Article 8.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app ships a consumer interface or ships a mobile app.