Web Accessibility and the Law?
Under UK Law, website accessibility is covered by the Disability Discrimination
Act, which was brought about in 2004. It states the following:-
- 2.2 (p7): “The 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.”
- 4.7 (p39): “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.”
- 2.13 - 2.17 (p11-13): “What services are affected by the 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.”
- 5.23 (p71): “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.”
- 5.26 (p68): “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.”
In layman's terms, all business that provide a service through the web are
affected by the law, and should be compliant to this by 2004. If they are not,
and a disabled visitor finds the site difficult to use, a complaint could be
lodged.
When you have a site designed by Livetech, we use the W3C
Guidelines for Accessibility to incorporate into the design. As well, alternative
designs can be easily incorporated. For example, the Linc
Y Gogledd site incorporates both English and Welsh text, as well as plain
text and high contrast designs.
On top of this, we test the website on a number of different systems and browsers,
to ensure a uniform design in recent browsers, and usibility in older browsers.