If you’re in business offering a service, I daresay you already know that your premises must comply with disability laws, which require you to remove physical barriers that prevent people with disabilities from accessing it. Did you know, though, that if you have a website for your business – you do have one, don’t you – it must comply with accessibility laws, too?
In October 2004, changes to the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) came into effect, and coming up to its second anniversary, the message still isn’t getting through to many businesses. The reason? Well, did you know that it exists? I rest my case.
Broadly speaking, the DDA makes it unlawful to discriminate against disabled people in the way in which you recruit and employ people; provide services; or provide education. Discrimination can take place in two ways - by treating a disabled person less favourably; and/or by failing to make "reasonable adjustments" so that disabled people can participate in employment and education or make use of a service.
How does this apply to websites? A disabled person can make a claim against you if your website makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult to access your information and services. If you have not made reasonable adjustments and cannot show that this failure is justified, then you may be liable under the Act, and may have to pay compensation and be ordered by a court to change your site.
Don’t panic if you’re not sure if your site complies or not. No one has been taken to court…yet. Some things to consider, though: there are around 8.5 million people in Britain with some form of disability, 2 million Britons have sight problems, and the estimated spending power of people with disabilities has been put at up to £50 billion. So, not only does it make sense legally and ethically to make sure you website complies, it makes good business sense, too.
How do you know if your site complies? “Watchfire Webxact” is a nifty tool that will check different aspects of your site including accessibility. Alternatively, have someone run tests on your site and get a report.
