What is accessibility?
The practice of giving people with disabilities equal access to websites and web content.
A law was passed in October 2004 which requires websites to be accessible to people with disabilities. Many organisations and companies fear that building accessibility into their site will damage sales performance. So far, most have chosen to ignore it.
But developments in national and international law are forcing companies to act. In fact, a government backed agency has already started a programme of 'naming and shaming' companies without accessibility in place. Ignoring this law could result in large fines. Australia has its own Disability Discrimination Act and in 2000 Bruce Maguire successfully sued the organisers of the Sydney Olympics for excluding him, as a blind user, from the content of their site and was awarded $20,000 in damages.
10 things you may not know about Accessibility
The practice of giving people with disabilities equal access to websites and web content.
A law was passed in October 2004 which requires websites to be accessible to people with disabilities. Many organisations and companies fear that building accessibility into their site will damage sales performance. So far, most have chosen to ignore it.
But developments in national and international law are forcing companies to act. In fact, a government backed agency has already started a programme of 'naming and shaming' companies without accessibility in place. Ignoring this law could result in large fines. Australia has its own Disability Discrimination Act and in 2000 Bruce Maguire successfully sued the organisers of the Sydney Olympics for excluding him, as a blind user, from the content of their site and was awarded $20,000 in damages.
10 things you may not know about Accessibility
- The deadline for website accessibility was October 2004 when all points of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) become part of British law.
- The Disabled Rights Commission (DRC) is a government-funded body empowered by the Disability Rights Commission Act 1999 to instigate formal investigations aimed at eliminating discrimination and encouraging good practice in the treatment of disabled people.
- The DRC conducted accessibility testing on over 1,000 UK public and private sector websites and published their findings. Stopping short of naming and shaming, they stated that "swathes of businesses may not be complying with existing equal access laws" and that it is "only a matter of time" before they face legal action from disabled consumers.
- One in seven people in the UK - about 8.5 million - suffer from some form of disability (Source: DRC).
- Two million people in the UK have a sight problem (Source: Royal National Institute of the Blind).
- 8-10% of the male population has some sort of colour-blindness - for some reason it is more prevalent in men.
- The world's first successful action over accessibility (Barry Maguire vs Sydney Olympics Organising Committee) netted the litigant just $20,000 in damages. But the legal costs and subsequent web development bill ran into millions.
- AOL settled out of court in an action brought by the US National Federation of the Blind but they continue to be haunted by bad publicity from this case.
- In February 2003 the Guardian newspaper slated Abbey National plc over its poor design and inaccessible web services - we bet they are on the DRC's list.
- Accessibility isn't just about serving groups of disabled users: the same standards also enable web-access by phone and PDA. There will be 743 million people accessing the net through these devices by 2004 (Cahners Instat Group).
- Expertise - we have the skills and necessarry knowledge to make your site accessible.
- Comprehensive services - we can support you every step of the way from orientation and evaluation to formal accreditation.
- Commercial understanding - Foolproof no-nonsense style ensures that explanations are straight-forward, recommendations are practical and costs are minimised.
- All this adds up to a programme that delivers compliance whilst also meeting accessibility standards.
