Controlled Environment

A controlled environment refers to a context where an organization controls its users' workstations: operating system, browser, installed assistive technology. This applies to intranets, business applications, and partner extranets. When equipment is known, accessibility audits target this actual configuration instead of following the RGAA's default test combinations.

Your business application runs on 2,000 identical workstations: Windows 11, Chrome, JAWS 2024. The RGAA requires testing with VoiceOver on macOS. None of your users have a Mac. The controlled environment allows you to adjust tests to this reality.

#What the RGAA provides

By default, the RGAA imposes standardized test combinations: NVDA and Firefox on Windows, JAWS and Chrome on Windows, VoiceOver and Safari on macOS. These combinations cover the case of a public website open to unknown equipment.

In a controlled environment, the organization knows its workstations. It provides them, installs software, and configures assistive technologies. The auditor replaces the default combinations with those deployed across the fleet.

If your workstations only have JAWS on Windows, the audit is conducted with JAWS on Windows. Not with three combinations, two of which don't match anything.

#The most common mistake

"We're in a controlled environment, so accessibility doesn't concern us."

Wrong. All 106 RGAA criteria remain applicable. Intranets and business applications are subject to the same legal obligations as public websites. What changes is the testing environment. Not the level of requirement.

Another pitfall: declaring a controlled environment without formal documentation. The auditor needs a precise list: which OS, which browser, which version of assistive technology per workstation profile. "We're on Windows" is not enough.

#When no assistive technology can be installed

A reception kiosk in a town hall, an ordering kiosk in a restaurant: the user cannot install a screen reader. The EN 301 549 standard calls these cases "closed functionality." The interface must compensate on its own: built-in speech synthesis, accessible navigation without external peripherals.

This is the controlled environment taken to its extreme. The organization controls not just the workstations. It controls everything.

#In summary

The controlled environment adjusts the scope of testing, not accessibility obligations. Document the actual configuration of your workstations. Test with what your users have in their hands.

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Assistive Technologies

Assistive technologies are the software and hardware that people with disabilities use to navigate the web: screen readers, magnifiers, voice commands, braille displays, switches. They depend entirely on the quality of the HTML code to function correctly.

Accessible Version

An accessible version is a copy of a web page that complies with WCAG, offered as a replacement for a page that does not. It must provide the same information and functionality as the original, be kept up to date, and be directly reachable from the non-conforming page.

Compatible with Assistive Technologies

Web content is compatible with assistive technologies when the browser correctly transmits its information (name, role, value, states) to screen readers, braille displays, and other assistive tools. Native HTML elements like <button> or <input> are automatically compatible. Generic elements like <div> are not, unless manual addition of WAI-ARIA attributes and keyboard behaviors.