Safran on the podium of the CAC 40 most accessible websites

Global Accessibility Awareness Day took place on May 19^th. What is this day about? Making digital content and services understandable and usable for people with disabilities. In fact, digital products and services are often difficult for certain audiences to access. Some people with disabilities cannot fully view, understand or interact with the digital interfaces that do not comply with digital accessibility standards, therefore resulting in discriminatory situations, especially as virtually all forms of disability are affected: visual, motor, hearing and mental disabilities. As per the World Health Organization, digital accessibility now affects, on a global level, more than 600 million people with disabilities of all ages (100 million people in Europe, including 9.6 million in France).

Accessibility practices now exist in order to address this issue. These aim at reducing or eliminating obstacles that prevent users from accessing content or interacting with services. This includes, for example, using appropriate color contrasts and a legible text size so that people who are visually impaired can properly read the content of a web page. Another practice includes offering videos that are systematically subtitled or transcribed for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. And finally, the integration of standards and rules during the website’s development phase, allowing the use of specific tools, such as screen readers or Braille displays.

Safran’s website, which receives more than 10,500 daily visits, was audited last October in order to improve in terms of accessibility. The goal was to highlight the challenges linked to the lack of accessibility throughout the website. Whether in terms of browsing, the way in which information is published or interactive elements (forms, for example), Safran’s website was studied in depth by an independent and specialized auditor. The result: a 78% compliance rate. A series of corrective measures were then applied in order to improve this rate, which has today reached 95%, placing Safran on the podium of the CAC 40 most digitally-accessible corporate websites.

And this is only the beginning as Safran’s website will be audited on a yearly basis, and the Group plans to pursue its efforts in this area and integrate these accessibility requirements to its other digital interfaces.