I. The Day I Opened the Hood
When I joined Réfugiés.info, I had this strange sensation of taking the helm of a ship already at sea. A solid ship, used every day by refugees and asylum seekers, but where each piece told a different story. The site worked, yes. But its code vibrated like an old floorboard: it holds, but you can't jump too hard on it.
Under the hood, technical generations mixed together: custom components, disparate conventions, successive attempts to structure the interface. The service wasn't inaccessible… but it wasn't yet inclusive.
I thought to myself: we can help it breathe better.
II. The Starting Point — A Mosaic That Held Together by Miracle
To understand where to start, I put myself in the shoes of a user who doesn't have the same supports as me. I navigated by keyboard, let VoiceOver guide me, tested modals, errors, subtle behaviors. And I saw a welcoming product, but not yet welcoming for everyone.
The team, for its part, was very small: a CTO at half-time, three project managers who succeeded each other, and me as a nearly full-time developer. With this configuration, a complete redesign would have been unrealistic. And yet, the interface needed real realignment.
We needed a gentle, stable, progressive method.
III. The Strategy — Moving Forward in Small Steps, Like Repairing a Ship at Sea
In the Beta.gouv ecosystem, intrapreneurs, POs, and developers know: a public product doesn't have the luxury of stopping. So we had to improve accessibility and migrate to DSFR, without ever blocking production.
We adopted a simple rule:
Every time we touch a page, it comes out more accessible than before.
This incremental approach was our strength.
It allowed us to move forward without drama, without redesign, without additional debt. DSFR didn't become a monolithic project, but one brick after another. We created a clear accessibility backlog, page by page, criterion by criterion. Even after a budget pause, we naturally picked up the thread.
DSFR did the rest: each migration, however modest, increased overall coherence.
IV. The Challenges — The Places Where We Really Sweat
Making Two Design Systems Coexist
The in-house design system told the product's story.
DSFR told the story of the digital state.
Both were right — but not always in the same way.
Coexistence was therefore an exercise in precision.
The main navigation, for example, required specific behavior that DSFR didn't offer by default. So we rewrote it: focus management, vocalization, multi-level. Fine watchmaking.
Bringing Tailwind Into an SCSS World
The inherited SCSS was becoming hard to maintain.
We introduced Tailwind, while mapping DSFR tokens into the configuration.
Result: a lighter, more coherent front… but a transition that required real technical attention.
Accessibility, This Invisible Work
Accessibility isn't "add an alt".
It's making sure the entire experience holds together: focus, vocalization, transitions, errors, micro-interactions.
It's patient, subtle work, sometimes thankless — but essential.
V. Beta.gouv Support — The Moment the Light Came On
The Beta.gouv accessibility team didn't do an audit to "grade" us.
They supported us.
Onboarding, advice, quick answers, surprise audits along the way… That's what transformed an intimidating project into a clear, manageable, sustainable process.
With them, we moved from accessibility "to fix" to accessibility integrated into our reflexes.
VI. The Results — When a Product Breathes Better
A year later, the product had changed its posture.
It hadn't changed its soul, but it had gained coherence, smoothness, robustness.
- Keyboard navigation is fluid.
- DSFR components coexist cleanly with remaining in-house elements.
- Vocalizations arrive at the right time.
- The front is lighter, cleaner, more predictable.
- Accessibility became a collective reflex, not a one-off project.
For POs, it's a clearer vision.
For intrapreneurs, it's the assurance of having a public product but above all inclusive.
For developers, it's finally stable ground.
VII. Lessons That Go Beyond Réfugiés.info
This project taught me that:
- Accessibility isn't a sprint. It's a way of working.
- DSFR isn't a constraint: it's an accelerator.
- Small teams can accomplish a lot with a progressive method.
- The "small step" is more powerful than an unrealistic grand plan.
And above all:
A public product doesn't need to be redesigned to get better. It needs to be cared for.
VIII. What's Next — Continuing to Move Forward Without Stopping
There's still work to do: finalize certain vocalizations, harmonize secondary pages, modernize the back-office… and welcome the next RGAA audit as a new compass.
But now, it's no longer a mountain.
It's a routine.
A natural movement.
Réfugiés.info will continue to evolve — without disruption, without panic, without redesign.
Just with method, time, and care.