What RGAA owes to accessibility, and what it does not cover

Being RGAA-compliant and being genuinely accessible to all users are not strictly the same thing, and confusing the two leads to passed audits on services that are still difficult to use.

What RGAA guarantees

A set of technically verifiable criteria, covering a large proportion of the barriers encountered by users of assistive technologies. It is a solid foundation and a necessary legal framework.

What it does not always cover

• The cognitive complexity of a journey, even a technically compliant one
• The actual experience of using various assistive technologies, beyond standard tests
• Mobile usage or degraded use contexts (poor connection, brightness, fatigue)

The right posture

Treat RGAA compliance as a floor, not a ceiling. User tests with real assistive technology users regularly reveal friction that no compliance audit detects.

An RGAA-compliant service is not automatically an accessible service. It is an excellent starting point, never an end point.