How does the Disability Discrimination Act affect my site?
The disability discrimination act of 1995 sets down rules to ensure the fair treatment of disabled persons. The act does cover web sites, but in a recent study the DRC carried out a formal investigation into 1000 websites, of which over 80% were next to impossible for disabled people to use. They warned firms that they face legal action under the DDA and the threat of unlimited compensation payments if they fail to make websites accessible for people with disabilities.
"The disabled community alone in the UK is estimated to possess a spending power of £33 billion."
The Legal requirements that interest us are:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- For people with hearing disabilities, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include ..... accessible websites.
The complete Code of Practice can be downloaded from the DRC website.
What can I do?
The w3c (World Wide Web Consortium) have designed a system to rate the accessibilty of websites. There are 3 levels of conformance to these standards:
- A - A Web content developer must satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it impossible to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint is a basic requirement for some groups to be able to use Web documents.
- AA - A Web content developer should satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will remove significant barriers to accessing Web documents.
- AAA - A Web content developer may address this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will improve access to Web documents.
- Section 508 - This is the American standard, which is very close to W3c A level.
In practice, addressing the key points of AA should allow almost all users to be able to access the site. Satisfying AA should be the target of all website owners. Once this is complete, several badges can be displayed on the site which may serve as a promotional tool.
"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."
-- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web
Testing your site
There are several automatic online test programs for checking your website. Use of these will tell you what needs to be done to get your website accessible to disabled persons. The two key tools to try are:
- Cynthia Says - Tests for all possible levels of conformance
- Bobby - Slightly older tool, requires more manual work
These tools can only check for a certain number of things and require the user to check some other points. For example, a machine cannot tell you whether the ALT text on an image is correct - its up to you to do that.
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