A new accessibility charter for State communication describes precisely the objectives and means implemented to make the content issued and distributed by the ministries, central administrations, government websites, etc., accessible to the disabled public and the general public.
Presented on October 6, 2022 during the 7th interministerial committee on disability, this new charter completes and specifies the base of references and rules common to all ministries and public services.
Each department's communication should be accessible
« All communications, regardless of the medium and format, must be made directly accessible and/or be subject to specific adaptation. Thus, during speeches, press conferences, press briefings and interviews, the members of the Government are systematically invited to ensure the accessibility of their interventions, including the use of French sign language. The same will apply to the content disseminated by the institutions and public administrations on all their media. The members of the government will have to ensure the accessibility of their speeches, press conferences, interviews, with in particular the interpretation in French sign language for the hearing impaired. All citizens with disabilities, as well as people who do not speak French, must have full access in real time to messages addressed to the Nation, whether they are warnings, recommendations or information »
Adaptation of contents
The content disseminated by institutions and public administrations on all their media, and particularly on their websites, must be adapted according to their original form: sign language, subtitling, oral description of a document, an image, a diagram, or even translation into "Easy to read and understand" (Falc), to be accessible to different types of disabilities.
- The charter defines a font that ensures the best legibility (specifically designed Marianne typeface, limited use of italics, etc.). Color choices must be limited and high contrast between background and text must be favored. PDF documents must be accessible and in a version usable by screen readers (oral transcription) or Braille display, etc.
- Texts must be airy, well structured, written in a clear and simple manner, neutral and addressed to all.
- This new charter is intended for all public agents in charge of informing citizens about the actions of the State and gives precise examples of the graphic and iconographic principles of writing and organization of information.
- Accessibility of public communication also includes telephone reception.
- The objective of the charter is to also serve as a reference for all public services and local communities.
Références :
Linked articles
Disability: a public platform and five government commitments to simplify the digital life of people with disabilities
On December 3, 2019, at the end of the 3rd Interministerial Committee on Disability (CIH), the Government announced, among 22 news, the launch, from early 2020, of the digital platform "employment-training" dedicated to people with disabilities and the implementation of the first "accompanied information" services to " end the complexity of the procedures".On this occasion, the Government made public 10 commitments "reflecting an approach of progress for an inclusive State" . Five of them concern the accessibility of public sites and administrations.
Provide real-time information to citizens on the level of accessibility of establishments open to the public, within the framework of a resolute implementation of programmed accessibility agendas.
Promote the digital accessibility of government sites, being transparent about the level of this accessibility and harmonizing the position of the "accessibility" tab, as well as integrating digital accessibility natively in all new information system projects, by massively training the professionals of the ministries.
To ensure the accessibility of the communication both for the official interventions of the members of the Government and for the public events, in order to allow every citizen to follow the Government's news and to participate in it.
Mobilize State operators and deconcentrated services to make their telephone reception facilities accessible.
To ensure an accessible and quality welcome for people with disabilities in France Service houses.
A digital platform to simplify the administrative process for people with disabilities
The mission entrusted last November to deputies Adrien Taquet and Jean-François Serres was to put forward proposals to "simplify the administrative process for people with disabilities".The resulting 300-page report is based on an online consultation (with over 10,000 contributions).The rapporteurs make a severe judgment on "the low level of official information available to people with disabilities or their relatives".
"People have to find the information, identify the actors and take the right steps on their own.
"People are often confronted with contradictory information, either because issuers misinterpret complex systems or because divergent practices exist between territories.
"Rumors and misinformation continue to circulate on some forums and blogs, for example, regarding Autism Spectrum Disorders.
"The lack of a reference information platform is a problem for people, but also for the various professionals (in the health and education fields, etc.) who have difficulty finding reliable resources on a subject whose subtleties and complexities they do not necessarily master.
A national digital platform for personalized and geolocated information and services
The rapporteurs propose the implementation of a single national information and services portal on disability, oriented towards the user's pathway, and steered by the CNSA(Proposal 7)."The first expected functionality of this portal must therefore be to deliver official information, which covers the whole of the user's journey in all its dimensions (...).
This national information and service site must necessarily be linked to the MDPH sites. This linkage must make it possible to smooth the user's path between national information and an administrative path that will necessarily be local.
The national portal should thus enable users to be directed to their MDPH and to the relevant local players, and to benefit from specific local information and news.
To this end, they propose to homogenize the architecture of the MDPH websites and to pool the information and services that do not correspond to local specificities (Proposition 8).The information offered on the portal must also be personalized, "especially since no typical pathway can be identified, given the variety of situations. These factors must be integrated into the design of the site's architecture and the development of search methods. People with disabilities must be able to access a navigation system that allows them to reconstruct their situation step by step, in order to obtain information that is adapted and almost tailor-made.To this end, the rapporteurs propose to " develop a range of personalized and geolocalized services: pathway simulators, simulators for assistance and out-of-pocket expenses, localized directories of local actors and specialized establishments with precise and up-to-date information, etc." (Proposition 9).
System transparency, data transparency
In addition to this lack of "labelled" information, there is a lack of transparency in the system, both with regard to users and between the different actors involved. "People with disabilities describe MDPHs as "black boxes" whose operation they do not understand. They don't know what happens once their application has been submitted, until the notification comes several months later. Sometimes there is no justification for the refusal decisions that are sent to them, in contravention of the regulations.This is also a cruel observation for the actors whose mission is to steer public policies in the field of disability.The Caisse nationale de solidarité pour l'autonomie (CNSA) "does not currently have harmonized indicators to compare the activity of MDPHs despite the use of activity reports, which are declarative, incomplete and often heterogeneous . "Some data exist at the local level but are not aggregated to the national level. Other data are theoretically available to the general public, but are not in fact available. There is no simple comparator for this data, which is drowned out by technical information that is not very relevant to users' needs.As a result, the user " is not in a position, for example, to know how long it will take to be taken care of in an establishment, how much a particular practitioner will have to pay, or whether it is possible to send his or her child to the ULIS near his or her home.The rapporteurs believe that it is necessary to"not only make the data available, but also easily accessible for the user. It is important, for example, to be able to choose a school or an establishment that best meets the needs of the individual, to have reliable, up-to-date and accredited information available on a single portal".The rapporteurs propose to collect and disseminate in open data the data relating to the level and quality of service provided by MDPHs (proposal 10), to modify the regulations to allow the dissemination of the contact details of all health professionals whose skills meet people's needs" (proposal 11), to publish in open data the data on the quality of establishments known by ARSs and Departmental Councils (proposal 13), to collect and disseminate in open data the data relating to disability and to the inclusive policy of schools and higher education establishments, both public and private (proposal 14), to encourage local authorities to collect and disseminate their data in order to promote initiatives enabling people to have a better knowledge of the accessibility conditions of public facilities (proposal 15).
Making digital administration accessible
"Digital technology can also be a terrible factor of exclusion for people with disabilities,"the reporters point out. "The dematerialization of procedures is underway (voting proxy, filing a complaint, etc.): it should not lead to the exclusion of millions of our fellow citizens. Despite abundant legislation (the law for equal rights and opportunities in 2005, articles 105 and 106 of the law for a digital Republic in 2016), "most public sites of the State, but also of local authorities, hospitals, or services that depend on one of these administrations are still not in compliance".While the Inter-ministerial Committee on Disability (CIH) of September 20, 2017 reaffirmed the objective, within 5 years, of accessibility to public sites, the rapporteurs observe that "recently still sites and online procedures have been put online without being in compliance with the legislation in force"and that "the accessibility effort is often focused on the informative part of public sites, but that the service offer is often neglected or even forgotten" . To this end, they propose that a real steering committee be set up for the accessibility of public sites, which goes beyond the accessibility, which is a priority but not sufficient, of the 10 main public sites. (Proposition 106)."This steering must be translated first and foremost into a real inventory, which must serve as a tangible basis for the multi-year accessibility plans provided for in the Law for a Digital Republic, and the compulsory mention of accessibility on the home page of sites. The accessibility of public sites may not be sufficient for people who do not master digital tools today. This is the case for many people with disabilities, who need support to be able to benefit from the information and services provided by public authorities. The rapporteurs suggest that people with disabilities be explicitly taken into account as such in the "digital inclusion" plan (Proposition 107).
