At the beginning of October 2004, the final part of the Disability Discrimination Act came into force. This does not in fact refer to websites, but requires service providers to consider making physical adjustments to their premises to ensure they are accessible to all.
However, section III of the DDA, which does refer to websites, has been in place since October 1999, and the related Code of Practice was issued in May 2002. The issue now is simply that with the current interest in the DDA and accessibility to services, websites are at an increased risk of legal action.
And yes, there is a precedent. In 2000 a blind man successfully sued the Sydney Olympics organising committee over their inaccessible website, and they were fined A$20,000. Can your company afford for that to happen to you ?
The points within the Code of Practice that are relevant to websites are as follows:
2.2 (p7): “The Disability 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.”
4.7 (p39): “From 1st October 1999 a service provider has to take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services.”
2.13 - 2.17 (p11-13): “What services are affected by the Disability Discrimination Act? 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.”
5.23 (p71): “For people with visual impairments, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include ... accessible websites.”
How to comply?
W3C accessibility guidelines are used to assess a website's accessibility. The W3C is the Internet governing body and its web accessibility guidelines can be found on its website. However, they are rather technical and long-winded, so to simplify matters we have put together a quick reference checklist.
...in
appropriate media.
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