Digital accessibility aims to make digital information accessible to everyone, regardless of users' disabilities or the means by which they consult this information.
As part of the vocational training, accessibility allows all learners, including those with disabilities, to participate fully in training programs. This includes people with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive disabilities. By making training content accessible, training platforms ensure that no one is left behind.
Digital accessibility goes beyond identified disability situations, providing comfort and benefits for all users in various contexts. Let's go around the subject.
Key accessibility figures
In France, 12 million people live with one or more disabilities. Since 2012, all public sites, whether owned by state services or local authorities, must be accessible. Since September 23, 2019, public sites must also publish a accessibility statement and show their compliance right from the home page.
The pain points of digital accessibility
Disability situations can significantly alter the interaction with digital media. Types of disabilities and adapted solutions include:
- Hearing disability : Transcript and subtitles for videos.
- Visual disability : Braille tablets, speech synthesis, color adjustment.
- Cognitive disability : Prioritization and simplification of information, linear layout, use of sans serif fonts like Arial or OpenDyslexic.
- Motor and grip disabilities : Voice dictation software.
- Speech disability : Augmentative and alternative communication solutions.
Focus on compliance requirements
Compliance, or compliance, includes the processes implemented to ensure compliance with the rules, standards and ethics that govern a structure. This includes the prevention of risks associated with non-compliance with these rules, such as financial, legal, and reputational risks.
In France, as in many other countries, there are strict regulations regarding the accessibility of digital services, including training platforms. Violations of these obligations may result in significant financial penalties and damage the reputation of the training organization. Compliance with accessibility standards, such as the RGAA (General Accessibility Improvement Framework), is therefore essential.
For each site or digital service, it is imperative to:
- Publish an accessibility statement : This statement must indicate the accessibility status of the site or service.
- Show RGAA compliance rate : This rate must be visible on all pages of the site.
- Fully compliant if the rate is 100% (congratulations!).
- Partially compliant if the rate is greater than 50%.
- Non-compliant if the rate is less than 50% or unknown.
- Allow users to report problems : Users must be able to report accessibility problems and contact the Defender of Rights in case of non-response.
Why take accessibility into account?
Reputation and social responsibility
Training platforms that make a real effort to make their programs accessible clearly show that they care about social responsibility and inclusiveness. This boosts their reputation and can allow them to attract a more diverse customer base.
Likewise, businesses and institutions that choose accessible training partners show that they are truly committed to inclusive and ethical practices.
Learning effectiveness
Accessible learning content doesn't just benefit people with disabilities: it improves the learning experience for everyone. For example, the subtitles help understand videos in noisy environments, and the Keyboard navigation makes entering information faster.
In short, accessible design makes learning more effective and helps to better retain information.
Diversity of teaching methods
Accessibility encourages the use of a variety of teaching methods, such as text transcripts, subtitled videos, adaptive interfaces, and interactive content.
These methods enrich the training offer and meet the varied needs of learners, facilitating better adaptation of programs to different learning styles and rhythms.
Accessibility in vocational training is much more than a legal requirement; it is an ethical, social and economic imperative. It ensures equity and inclusion, ensures legal compliance, strengthens reputation, improves learning effectiveness, diversifies teaching methods, stimulates technological innovation, and increases learner engagement.
Training platforms that take a proactive approach to accessibility are better positioned to offer high-quality, inclusive, and effective training programs!
