Accessibility and UK Law
Did you know that by UK law, every website must be accessible to blind and disabled users? On 1st October 1999 the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) came into force. The Code of Practice states that “The Disibilty Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide any service which it provides to members of the public.”
What Does This Mean?
This does not mean there is a 'Cyber Police Force' trawling the web for inaccessible sites - that would be too easy. What it does mean though, is that if an individual finds your website inaccessible, you can be sued. This is highly unlikely, but that's not the point. Why discriminate against an entire group of people who could be potential customers? An inaccessible website tells them you don't want their business.
What Is The Evidence?
To date, as far as I am aware, there has only been one case where a company has been sued as a result of having an inaccessible website. In 2000, a blind man successfully sued the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games over their inaccessible website. Although this case took place in Australia, the outcome will have worldwide implications in discrimination cases.
In the UK, the RNBI (Royal National Institute for the Blind) and the DRC (Disability Rights Commission) are the standard bearers for accessibility rights. Both have approached organisations with respect to their inaccessible websites.
In 2004 the DRC published a report on the accessibility of 1000 UK public and private sector websites. Although the majority of the testing was done by less than perfect automated tools, the results suggested that at least 81% of websites tested failed to meet the most basic accessibility criteria laid down by the Web Access Initiative.
More recently, a study on Web Accessibility in UK Small Businesses found that most SMEs are unaware of web accessibility requirements and the current UK legislation.
Ok, So What Now?
At the end of the day it is up to you how accessible you want to make your aite. If you want to make as many visitors as possible welcome, as well as comply with UK Law, then insist your website designer makes your site accessible. However, if you choose to exclude certain groups, don't say you haven't been warned!
