RGAA (Référentiel Général d'Amélioration de l'Accessibilité)
The RGAA is France's national accessibility methodology, maintained by the Direction Interministérielle du Numérique (DINUM). The current version (RGAA 4.1) operationalizes WCAG 2.1 AA with 106 testable French-language criteria.
Detailed explanation
The RGAA is the French government's public-administration accessibility framework, mandated by the Loi pour la République Numérique (2016) and extended to private-sector services through the EAA transposition (Ordonnance n° 2023-859).
Unlike WCAG, the RGAA prescribes specific test methods per criterion, making conformance audits more deterministic. A "conforme" RGAA evaluation requires passing all applicable criteria; "partiellement conforme" allows up to 50% non-applicable / non-tested.
French organizations are required by law to publish a déclaration d'accessibilité based on RGAA scoring, accessible from every page footer.
How this applies to Shopify stores
Shopify stores serving French consumers and meeting the EAA size threshold must publish a RGAA-compliant déclaration d'accessibilité. AccessComply's accessibility-statement generator outputs the RGAA-mandated French-language format with the required headings (état de conformité, contenus non accessibles, dérogations).
What merchants should check next
Treat this term as a practical audit prompt, not just a definition. Check the storefront pages where the concept shows up in real customer journeys: product discovery, add-to-cart, cart drawer, checkout handoff, account login, and support contact flows. If the issue affects code, verify the rendered HTML and computed browser output after the theme change. If it affects copy or media, keep the merchant-facing wording accurate and easy to maintain.
Primary source: accessibilite.numerique.gouv.fr