Accessible Web Design
Page 3 of 5
- What Is Accessible Web Design? |
- Accessibility & Disabled Visitors |
- Accessibility & The Law
- Accessibility Makes Commercial Sense |
- Do Out of the Trees Make Accessible Web Sites? |
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Accessibility & The Law
Most Western governments have introduced anti-discrimination legislation which has implications for the accessibility of web sites. In 1999, the UK's Disability Discrimination Act 1995 was extended to cover all "Goods, facilities and services" provided by businesses in the UK. Web sites are also covered by the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, and by the Human Rights Act. Other countries now have similar legislation, for example the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Briefly, this means that if your web site provides a service, you may be liable to legal action if you do not take all reasonable steps to ensure that the service is available to people with disabilities. Also, if inaccessible company web sites or intranets prevent someone from doing their job, they may be entitled to legal action against the company.
Recently the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games was successfully sued for not making its web site — designed by IBM — accessible. The fact that companies such as the Royal Mail and Tesco have now implemented accessible versions of their Web sites shows that businesses are beginning to take accessibility — and the consequences of failing to comply — seriously.
Out of the Trees specialises in ensuring that Web sites meet these legal requirements, in accordance with the recommendations of the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
