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Good practice Imported

DINUM's Disabled-User Testing Panel & Ara Audit Tool — Institutionalising Accessibility in France's State Digital Services

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Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 9% 96/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

France's digital agency DINUM built a standing panel of disabled users and an audit tool (Ara) to test state digital services against the RGAA accessibility framework. Backed by €17M in recovery-plan funding, compliant procedures rose from 12% to over 40%.

12% to over 40%
Procedures meeting 75%+ RGAA criteria
>2,000
Audits logged through Ara
€17 million (France Relance) + €2 million (FTAP)
Recovery-plan investment
DINUM's Disabled-User Testing Panel & Ara Audit Tool — Institutionalising Accessibility in France's State Digital Services

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Direction interministérielle du numérique (DINUM)
Period
2020–present
Region (NUTS)
FR10
Keywords
digital government, web accessibility, design system, public services

Context

DINUM's Inclusive Numeric unit maintains a standing panel of roughly thirty users with disabilities who test the accessibility of French public websites and apps as part of routine design and QA work, not one-off audits.

Activities

DINUM built and operates Ara, a free tool for conducting and publishing accessibility audits against France's RGAA standard, logging more than 2,000 audits; new public digital services must clear 75% of RGAA criteria before launch approval, with a commitment to reach 100% within six months.

Results

The share of online administrative procedures meeting at least 75% of RGAA criteria rose from 12% to over 40%, following a €17 million investment from France Relance (the post-pandemic recovery plan) and a further €2 million from the Public Action Transformation Fund.

Conclusions

The government's own figures still put full compliance well short of the 100% target, so the programme remains a work in progress rather than a solved problem.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
DINUM Inclusive Numeric unit, standing panel of ~30 users with disabilities

Conditions for success

  • standing disabled-user testing panel embedded in routine QA, not one-off audits
  • mandatory 75% RGAA threshold gating service launch

Common failure modes

  • full compliance still well short of the 100% target

Commonly funded by

Recovery and Resilience Facility (national plans) National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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