Website Accessibility and The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA)

Bournemouth based website consultancy Moov2 can help you with your web accessibility concerns.

What is Website Accessibility?

Many people have not even heard of the term "web site accessibility," yet it plays such a vital role in so many people's experience of your website.

It has been reuqired by law since 1999 that all UK commercial websites are accessible. Since that date it has been considered that commercial entities should make "reasonable adjustments" to ensure that their websites are accessible by people regardless of disbility or ability. Whilst the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 does not explicitly set out what "reasonable adjustments" are, one would suggest that it would be neccessary for a company to demonstrate that an effort had been made to ensure a website was accessible by disabled persons, should a claim be brought.

The Business Case for having an Accessible Website

Whilst having an accessible website is both socially responsible and a legal requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, it is also of commercial benefit to companies in the following ways:

• Allows your pages to be accessed by the largest possible cross section of the public, including people with disabilities and those using different browsers and platforms (e.g. Mobile devices)
• Improves the usability of your website for all site visitors
• Reduces website maintainance requirements as the site is well structured, clear and follows development best practices
• Allows sites to remain accessible over time as technology changes because they are built to comply to recognised international standards.

According to the Employers Forum on Disability the combined spending power of the disabled population is around £40 to £50 billion. The Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) states that there are two million people with sight problems and 8.5 million people in the UK with disabilities (source - ONS), these figures alone highlight the neccessity and social responsibility of UK companies to ensure that their websites meet web accessibility guidelines and legislative requirements.

Legal Action

In a bid to support blind people, the RNIB have been involved in a number of legal actions brought against organisations with inaccessible websites. These actions, however, were settled before the claims came to court.

The RNIB digital policy development officer, Julie Howell, claimed that the institute shall continue to support such claims against organisations that refuse to make their sites accessible. Disabled users are often unable to access the contact details of the company operating the offending website and as such contact the RNIB as a first port of call when they wish to bring an action against a company.

Select your web development agency carefully

Many web development agencies do not even know that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published guidelines on how to help ensure that your website is accessible. Furthermore many agencies are not familiar with the latest web design standards (XHTML 1.1) set out by the same body, all of which play a major part in making your website both usable and accessible to able and disabled users.

Moov2 build websites conforming to the latest in web accessibility guidelines and can arrange for your website to be tested by both abled and disabled users.

If you require help or guidance on the development of a new web accessible site or the re-development of a current site then call us on Bournemouth 01202 398 380 or e-mail info@moov2.com