Website Accessibility & UK Law
Table of Contents
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- The Disability Discrimintation Act
- The Disability Rights Commission
- Recent Cases
- How does this affect you
The Disability Discrimination Act
In 1995 the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) was passed to introduce new measures aimed at ending the discrimination faced by people with disabilities.
The DDA requires goods, facilities, services and premises to be made more accessible, in various stages, by the year 2004. The final stage of this act comes into force on 1st October 2004.
The DDA states:
For service providers (e.g. businesses and organisations):
- since December 1996 it has been unlawful to treat disabled people less favourably than other people for a reason related to their disability.
- since October 1999 they have had to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, such as providing extra help or making changes to the way they provide their services.
- from 2004 they may have to make reasonable adjustments to the physical features of their premises to overcome physical barriers to access.
The Disability Rights Commission
There was some ambiguity in the wording of the DDA at the time, due to it not explicitly stating that it applies to services provided online. However, this was addressed in the Disability Rights Commission's (DRC) Code of Practice (Word Document), published in February 2002. The code of practice explicitly mentions accessible websites in section 5, under Auxiliary Aids and Services.
The code of practice provides the following, as an example of a service that is subject to the DDA:
An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking service to the public on its website. This is a provision of a service and is subject to the Act.
Recent Cases
The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) is currently engaging in proceedings with several organisations with non-compliant websites on behalf of its members. The most publicised case to-date, whilst not in the UK, was brought against the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. It was successfully sued because its website was not fully accessible to the blind.
How does this affect you
If you provide a service over the Web, it has to be accessible by law. For a website to be accessible, there must be no technology barriers, or barriers that would make it impossible for visitors with disabilities to use.
The legal definition says a "disabled person" is someone with "a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities".
Failure to ensure your website is accessible could result in your company facing legal action.