When we talk about digital accessibility, we often think of users with disabilities. However, it is to everyone that the work on accessibility benefits! Behind this notion, there is above all the idea of making content and services accessible to the greatest number. 💙 In other words, to implement interface elements that are perceptible, usable, understandable and robust, regardless of their reading context. 💪

On this road to accessibility, we had a lot of progress to make. Even though many accessibility criteria are played out at the level of the overall web page (and thus on the side of our publishing clients), we had actions to take directly on our product, used daily by hundreds of thousands of readers. 👩‍💻👨‍💻 We therefore set about reviewing our widgets one by one and optimising them.

Below is an overview of these optimizations.

💡 Note. Our optimizations are for the "default" version of our paywall. Of course, we encourage you to check that your custom Poool Access graphic customisations, which overwrite the default styles, go in the same direction.

Titles, paragraphs, buttons, links... we have increased the size of absolutely all the text on our widgets! This is essential when you know that more than 10% of disabilities in France are visual impairments. Or that more than half of the traffic on press sites is on mobile phones, and therefore potentially in mobile situations, making reading more difficult.

Did you know that 7 out of 10 adults wear glasses and that senior citizens, 96% of whom suffer from vision problems, represent one third of the French population? And when you consider your readers, can you imagine them consulting your site on a smartphone in direct sunlight? For better readability, we have implemented colours for texts, fields and buttons that respect the contrast ratios recommended by the WCAG.

Have you ever tried to navigate a site without a mouse or trackpad? People with motor or visual impairments may have to rely on assistive technologies or use only the keyboard to navigate sites and read content. To improve these uses, some technical implementations, a priori invisible, were necessary in our widgets.

This is just an overview of our optimizations. There will obviously be things to do to continue to make our dynamic paywall accessible and as inclusive as possible. If, despite our vigilance, you encounter the slightest problem with accessibility, do not hesitate to contact us!