Jul 26Disability Discrimination and what it means to you

• By Carl Crawley in Legal,
• tagged Compliancy, DDA and Standards

Disability Discrimination and what it means to you

There is widespread speculation about the legislation introduced under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), which tries to ensure that websites are accessible to disabled users. As an act itself and with little or no solid information on the Internet about it – web site owners find it difficult to understand how the legislation applies to them and their site.

The Royal National Institute for the Blind and the Disability Rights Commission are two of biggest advocates of the Disability Discrimination Act, although they have no specific rules governing what websites specifically need to do in order to meet the legal requirements, they have however, in conjunction with the W3C published guidelines on ‘A’, ‘AA’, and ‘AAA’ conformance levels.

Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act refers to ‘the provision of goods, facilities and services’. The code of practice which mentions website specifically is downloadable from the Disability Rights Commission website, however the relevant quotes are:

2.2 (p7): “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.”

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 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.”

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.”

The enclosed document is available for users to download and explains as much as possible the information websites owners should know and the consequences of not adhering to DDA compliancies.

WORD Doc : Disability Discrimination and what it means to you