A study conducted in February 2021 by the American association WebAIM shows that 97.4% of the world’s most visited million websites have accessibility issues starting from the homepage.
A decree from 2019 gave the Secretary of State for Disabled People the authority to implement compliance actions for tools and to penalise organisations failing to meet this obligation.
The association apiDV, with the legal expertise of the Interest to Act association, has twice contacted the Secretary of State for Disabled People, Sophie Cluzel, in June and December 2021, asking her to enforce the law. A law that was voted nearly 17 years ago, on February 11, 2005!
Specifically, they are asking the Secretary of State to take actions for compliance against Index Education, the publisher of Pronote, as provided by Article 47 of the law of February 11, 2005, and Articles 6, 8, and 9 of decree 2019-768 of July 24, 2019. These actions include requiring the company to produce the accessibility declaration specified by these texts.
The Secretary of State cannot refuse to comply with apiDV’s request without making a legal error or, at the very least, a clear error in judgement, given that:
- On the one hand, the school life management tools offered by PRONOTE are largely inaccessible to disabled people, especially to blind and visually impaired individuals, even though they fall under the scope of the aforementioned legislative and regulatory provisions.
- On the other hand, it is the Secretary of State who is responsible for penalising organisations that do not comply with their accessibility obligations.
The apiDV association seeks an emergency ruling to order, under a penalty of €1,000 per day, the cessation of the manifestly illegal offence characterised by the inaccessibility to visually impaired individuals of the Pronote internet platform, published and developed by Index Education.
The ruling would entail:
- The suspension of Pronote software accounts/access for public establishments subject to Article 47 of Law 2005-102 of February 11, 2005, until the software becomes accessible to visually impaired people, under a penalty of €5,000 for each confirmed violation.
- A prohibition for Index Education from selling to public establishments subject to Article 47 of the 2005-102 Law of February 11, 2005, the Pronote software until it is made accessible to visually impaired individuals, under a penalty of €5,000 for each confirmed violation.
- An injunction for Index Education to make its Pronote software accessible to visually impaired people, under a penalty of €1,000 per day, starting 30 days after the pronouncement of the upcoming order.