Online Press and Accessibility: A Democratic Issue
Access to information is a fundamental right. For people with disabilities, an inaccessible news website means exclusion from democratic life. Public media (France Télévisions, Radio France) are directly subject to RGAA. Private media exceeding €250M in revenue are also covered.
Articles and Editorial Content
Articles must follow rigorous semantic HTML structure with article, heading hierarchy, time elements, figure/figcaption for images, and blockquote/cite for quotations. News images need careful alt text treatment for illustrations, infographics, editorial cartoons, and screenshots.
News Videos
Videos require synchronized subtitles (including speaker identification), text transcriptions, audio descriptions for visual reports, and an accessible video player with keyboard controls.
Accessible Podcasts
Podcasts must include complete text transcriptions (essential for deaf users and SEO), structured show notes, accessible audio players with keyboard controls, and accessible RSS feeds with transcription links.
Paywalls and Restricted Content
Paywalls must clearly indicate restricted content before reading begins, feature accessible subscription forms, maintain reading position during authentication transitions, and properly use aria-hidden for masked content.
Dynamic Content and Real-Time Feeds
Live feeds require aria-live regions for screen reader announcements, pause buttons for auto-scrolling content, and explicit load-more mechanisms instead of infinite scroll.
An inaccessible media outlet does not fully fulfill its information mission. News website accessibility is a democratic issue as much as a technical one.