Accessibility and websites – The Legal Issue
The law with in the UK
The UK Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 states that it is unlawful for “a provider of services” to discriminate against a disabled person in failing to comply with its provisions.
The wording of the Act did not mention on-line services specifically. In May 2002 The Disability Rights Commission published a Code of Practice which removed any ambiguity by defining that the Act does apply to on-line services such as websites.
Therefore if your business or organisation has a website, it should be accessible to the disabled and you could be sued for discrimination in the UK if your website does not meet certain standards.
4th October 2004 - It's widely thought that there are changes to the legal position of websites that come into affect in October 2004 when the final part of the UK Disability Discrimination Act comes into force. This final piece of legislation refers to physical access to buildings etc and is not related to the Internet in any way.
The law concerning accessible websites has been in place since 2002.
Disabled
May include people with:
- visual impairments such as registered blind, those who are colour blind or those who suffer from tunnel vision or cataracts
- motor disabilities (preventing them from using a mouse for example)
- with cognitive disabilities (who have difficulty understanding complex sentences)
- hearing difficulties (who will need transcripts or visual alerts of any audio web content)
If your website is unnecessarily hindering access to individuals suffering any such disabilities this
may be interpreted as disability discrimination.
What are the standards your website should meet?
The World Wide Web Consortium or W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides a list of checkpoints that a website should satisfy. The checkpoints are split into 3 levels of importance or PRIORITY (known as Priority 1, 2 and 3 or Levels A, double A and triple A or High, Medium and Low Priority). These are defined as:
Priority 1 checkpoints (High Priority)
(Level A compliance)
A Web content developer must satisfy these checkpoints. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it impossible to access information in the document. Satisfying these checkpoints is a basic requirement for some groups to be able to use Web documents.
Priority 2 checkpoints (Medium Priority)
(Level double A compliance means satisfying all Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints)
A Web content developer should satisfy these checkpoints. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying these checkpoints will remove significant barriers to accessing Web documents.
Priority 3 (Low Priority)
(Level triple A compliance means satisfying all Priority 1, 2 and 3 checkpoints)
A Web content developer may address these checkpoints. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying these checkpoints will improve access to Web documents.
Conclusion
The law in the UK does not define which level is acceptable, it simply states that discrimination is illegal.
It would seem reasonable for website owners to expect some level of protection if they at least ensure their website is W3C WAI compliant to Level A.
Note however that W3C WAI standards use the terms "must satisfy" in respect of Priority 1 checkpoints (Level A), the term "should satisfy" in respect of Priority 2 checkpoints (Level double A) and "may address" in respect of Priority 3 (Level triple A) checkpoints. This implies that a website needs to be Level double A compliant to be comfortable with their position relative to the formal standards available. Level double A is arguably the industry standard.
However frequently now various tests and studies are undertaken and websites are being 'named and shamed'. So arguably the higher the level of compliance the better especially when your website is being publically compared to others.
3rd party web developers should discuss accessibility with clients. Should the clients insist upon designs which fail to meet the minimum W3C WAI standard the web developers should ensure that their contract with their client absolves them of responsibility for failure to comply with accessibility legislation.
Useful External Links
Disability discrimination act 1995