Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and Website Accessibility

If your website is not fully accessible to all, your business could be missing out on a share of the £40 - £80 billion that is spent by the 9.6 million UK people with disabilities each year.

Through the rapid evolution of the Internet, service providers have a new means by which to reach potential customers and clients. However, by offering their services through the Internet, such service providers will also be governed by Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which makes it unlawful for service providers to discriminate against a disabled person.

Part III came into force on 1st October 1999, which means that a vast number of websites have been in breach of the law for the past 6 years.

There have not been any cases in the UK as yet as companies which have been approached have rectified their websites immediately. However, the scope of disability discrimination legislation was tested in 2000 by an Australian case brought against the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG). The claimant was unable to view the Olympic Games website as his refreshable Braille display software was not compatible with the website. SOCOG was fined A$20,000, and was forced to pay all legal costs and the costs of rectifying the website to make it accessible, as was its duty under law.

This case is significant for UK business because: there are a great number of similarities between Australian and UK disability discrimination legislation; and also the SOCOG website was a free-to-view website designed to provide free information about the Sydney Olympics Games, yet was still found to fall within the disability discrimination legislation.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published its own Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to assist web designers to make websites which are accessible to the greatest range of users of the Internet.

The WCAG provides guidance by dividing potential accessibility problems into three main categories:

• Priority 1 guidelines MUST be complied with;
• Priority 2 guidelines SHOULD be complied with; and
• Priority 3 guidelines MAY be complied with.

Although the WCAG are not legally binding, they do provide extremely useful guidance. You must comply with the Priority 1 guidelines at least should you wish your website to comply with the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

If you require any further information about the relationship between website accessibility and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, please contact Sonya Pennington of Follett Stock either by email at sonya.pennington@follettstock.co.uk, or by telephone on 01872 241700.