Web Accessibility - more information
The right to access
web site information by people with sensory impairments or
physical disabilities is enshrined in UK law by the Disability
Discrimination Act 1997 (DDA).
It is in your interests to comply with this
legislation. Wensley House Limited develop and publish
web sites that meet the current requirements.
Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act
(DDA) makes it unlawful for a service provider to treat disabled
people less favourably for a reason related to their disability.
Service providers must also consider making reasonable adjustments
to the way that they deliver their services where disabled
people find these impossible or unreasonably difficult to
access.
There are provisions in the DDA (section 19(3))
that state that ‘access to and use of means of communication’
and ‘access to and use of information services’ are both examples
of services which would be covered by Part III.
However, it would be for a court to decide whether
it would have been reasonable for a particular service provider
to make a particular adjustment to enable access for a disabled
person, taking into consideration all the circumstances of
the case.
On 26 February 2002, the Disability Rights Commission
published a new, revised Code of Practice on rights of access
to goods, facilities, services and premises for disabled people.
This statutory Code, agreed by Parliament, provides detailed
advice on the way the law should work. It also provides practical
examples and tips. The status of the Code is that it must
be referred to for guidance in court when deciding on Part
III DDA cases.
The Code of Practice makes express reference
to websites in:
-
Chapter 2. What does the Act say about providing
services - paragraphs 2.14 and 2.17 and
-
Chapter 5. Reasonable adjustments in practice
- Provision for people with a hearing disability and for
people with a visual impairment - paragraphs 5.23 and
5.26.
The Code is available from:
http://www.drc-gb.org/law/codes.asp
Back to
top
Recent disability figures for the UK suggest that there are:
-
over 8.54 million people registered with
one form of disability or another;
-
of these over 2 million have a visual impairment;
-
eight million people suffer from some form
of hearing loss;
-
one million people have a form of learning
difficulty;
-
over seven million people have literacy
problems.
Potentially a significant proportion of your customer base
may appreciate improved accessibility to your web site information.
You could benefit too. |
