Your website has to become accessible. Design is the first place to act.
The goal today is not yet to reach a perfect result : it is to start the compliance process.
We design accessible websites, we audit your mockups and we support your design team. The code stays with your developers, with whom we work from the mockup through to the acceptance review.
What the law asks of you
A public website must comply with the RGAA, the French general accessibility improvement framework : 106 criteria in its version 4.1.2, aligned with level AA of WCAG 2.1. It must also publish an accessibility statement and a multi-year accessibility plan. Since September 2023, Arcom has been checking these obligations, and the penalty can reach 50,000 euros for a non-accessible site and 25,000 euros for a missing statement or plan (law of 11 February 2005, article 47-1).
In July 2026, only 27 of the 243 procedures tracked by the State's observatory declared themselves fully accessible. In many local authorities, teams know little about the subject.
Why start with design
The W3C, which publishes the WCAG, has split the criteria between the roles of a project. In this grid, still a draft (September 2026), 48 of the 50 criteria at levels A and AA have at least one main owner in design, visual design or content writing. For 30 of them, including text contrast and stopping moving content, no development role is named as main owner : they fall first to the mockups and the texts.
When you call on us
- You are preparing a redesign : auditing the old site becomes pointless, and we design the new site to be accessible from the very first mockups.
- Your site exists and you want to give it a little polish, with a compliance pass on the design side.
- Your mockups or your design system are ready, and you want them checked before development.
- Your design team designs in-house and wants support, deliverable by deliverable.
How we proceed with you
We start by identifying quick wins with you : contrast, font sizes, autoplay of animations and videos. Next come the improvements that require small structural adjustments on your side, such as your editorial team writing the alternative texts of images, and finally the roadmap we draw up with you to full compliance.
With your developers
Your developers keep control of the code. We hand them mockups annotated with accessibility guidelines, we review the integrated site to check that it respects the mockups, and we answer their questions during development.
Public services we have done it with
Bordeaux.fr, City of Bordeaux, 2024
After ten years, the City wanted a site that is “modern, stands out, eco-designed and accessible, while respecting the city's graphic charter”. We rethought the navigation, chose a main colour whose contrast allows white text on it, and picked Arial, a system font that avoids loading external fonts. The site shows 95 % RGAA compliance and an RGESN score of 86 %. An external auditor measured them, and another provider developed the site.
Read the Bordeaux.fr case studyDéfenseur des droits, 2023
The Défenseur des droits wanted a claim form that guarantees “accessibility and ease of use for all audiences”. We handed the technical teams in charge of integration a UI Kit with all the fields and their different states, the components and the graphic charter.
Read the Défenseur des droits case studyARCOM, 2021
During the merger of the CSA and Hadopi, we supported ARCOM in building its temporary platform. We ran the co-sketching workshop with the project team and the technical team, bringing our expertise in ergonomics and user experience, without forgetting accessibility. The main mobile screens were then reworked to make navigation easier, while meeting accessibility criteria.
Read the ARCOM case studyHow much it costs
Every engagement is quoted. The price depends on your situation : a redesign or an existing site, the number of templates to design or audit, whether a design system exists, the length of the support.
Frequently asked questions
We proceed in stages, with the quick design fixes (contrast, font sizes, auto-playing videos) first, then the small adjustments on your side such as writing alternative texts, and a roadmap to full compliance, which also requires work from your developers.
So that people with disabilities can use it like any other user. For a public website, it is also a legal obligation under the French law of 11 February 2005.
Public services and bodies with a public service mission, first. Companies with more than 250 million euros in turnover in France must also make their website accessible, and Arcom checks their statement and plan. Since 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act also applies to companies that sell certain services to consumers, such as online commerce, banking or passenger transport. Only service microenterprises are exempt.
With an RGAA compliance audit, carried out by an auditor. It tests each criterion on a sample of pages of the live site and derives a rate from it. For Bordeaux.fr, an external auditor measured the 95 %. Our work comes in at design, then at the acceptance review of the integrated site.
Look at its accessibility statement, mandatory for a public website and often linked from the footer. It gives its level of RGAA compliance, the content that is not accessible and the means of appeal.
Preparing a redesign, or want to rework the design of a live site ?
Tell us where you stand. We reply to every message within 48 working hours on average.
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