"Accessibility means adapting to all users"

Marc Françoise, Customer Experience Expert - Disability and Accessibility Officer, reviews SNCF Connect & Tech's commitments to making its digital services accessible to all by consolidating technical challenges, legal requirements and the importance of inclusion for all travellers.

What is your role at SNCF Connect & Tech in terms of accessibility?

My mission is to integrate the specific needs of people with disabilities or reduced mobility into the digital services we develop. Whether they are visually impaired, hard of hearing, hard of understanding, or have difficulty getting around, such as senior citizens and wheelchair users. In this context, accessibility must not be seen as an add-on, but as an essential component right from the service design phase.

What are the main challenges encountered in integrating digital accessibility?

One of the major challenges is the diversity of user needs. We need to design interfaces that can be used by people with visual, motor, hearing or cognitive impairments, or who are looking for a very specific service (such as a dedicated space for travelling as a wheelchair user). For example, visually impaired people use screen readers like VoiceOver on Apple hardware, while others with motor limitations can use voice commands or assistive technologies.

We must understand these needs in order to design solutions that are accessible to all, without favouring any particular disability or technology. For the digital realm, the current French standard is the RGAA (General Accessibility Improvement Framework).

In addition, accessibility is not limited to interface design, but can also involve the provision of services that respond to obvious needs. For example, station assistance for passengers with reduced mobility, helping them to board a train and get to their seat, then helping them to make a connection, or to exit the destination station. Coordination between the various components of rail transport and adaptation to the specific needs of each user are permanent challenges, and we are one of the stakeholders involved.

How does SNCF Connect & Tech adapt to changes in legislation?

By being ever more committed! The EU Directive on the accessibility requirements for products and services, which came into force on 28 June 2025, requires all new services in our e-commerce and passenger transport sectors to comply with current standards (and gives up to five years to bring into compliance services already active on that date).
 

This is extremely ambitious, and while we have already taken steps to adapt to these objectives, this directive reinforces our approach to accessibility. It encourages us to formalise and structure our actions even further. In concrete terms, this translates into a multi-year accessibility plan and dedicated action plans for each SNCF Connect & Tech activity, to commit all our teams to meeting legal requirements while guaranteeing a smooth and autonomous user experience.

How important is collaboration between different stakeholders in the rail sector and disability organisations in your day-to-day work?

To this end, the Accessibility Department within SNCF Réseau runs a consultation framework that requires all rail operators to work together with around ten national associations representing different disabilities to develop all aspects of travel accessibility. The aim is to ensure that the needs of every type of passenger are fully catered for.

For example, we have introduced a feature enabling passengers with reduced mobility to pre-fill in their station assistance request form when they purchase a journey on the SNCF Connect website or app, which greatly simplifies the process.
 

We work closely with SNCF partner associations to better understand the needs and expectations of disabled people. Meetings and even workshops enable us to test and adapt our services in line with feedback from these users.

What have been the results to date and what are the objectives for the future in terms of digital accessibility?

Progress has been significant. In 2024, we recorded a 20% increase in traceable revenue for people with disabilities which shows that we are better serving their needs.

Out of 30 web pages audited on the SNCF Connect site, we have reached an important milestone with a legal compliance rate of 77% with the RGAA standard, and an average rate of 96% per page. This result is the fruit of our ongoing work on accessibility, but also of the annual audits we carry out to evaluate our services and adjust the each team's objectives.

We have also launched a number of significant improvements for passengers, such as the option of reserving priority seats for assistance dogs, or real-time information on the operating status of elevators and escalators in stations.
 

The entire SNCF Connect & Tech group is working hard to improve the compliance of the digital services it develops for passengers! This remains a major challenge, not least because of the diversity of the projects and partners involved.

SNCF Connect is used by tens of millions of passengers and we are constantly improving our processes to broaden the needs we serve, so that the vast majority book and travel with peace of mind, including the 12 million French people with disabilities.