Accessibility | The current situation

The Internet has certainly been a positive, liberating force for the disabled people who are equipped to use it. For five million disabled people in the UK, this means they can shop, bank, communicate, and so on. without other users knowing about their disabilities and without those disabilities restraining or defining them as they tend to in the physical world. Or they could, if enough sites were designed to included these types of users.

Some organisations categorise their obligations under three headings:

• Legal
• Financial
• Moral

Here is an overview of the issues with each:

Legal

The accessibility issue is now rising to the fore for a variety of reasons. Recent press coverage has described IBM being sued for $2m because of their inaccessible Olympics site.

The potential implications of the revised Code of Practice in the UK DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) to Internet based providers of services are serious. As yet there have been no prosecutions, but it is not a case of whether a prosecution will occur, but when and to whom.

Section 21 of the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) came into effect in October 1999. The Act legislates that reasonable adjustments should be made to services to make them accessible to people with disabilities. From 1 October 1999, a service provider has had to take reasonable steps to:

Change a practice, policy or procedure which makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services;

The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) published the new, revised Code of Practice on rights of access to goods, facilities, services and premises for disabled people on 26 February 2002. This explains how, from October 2004, service providers must make 'reasonable adjustments' for disabled people. This statutory code, agreed by parliament, provides detailed advice on the way the law should work, together with practical examples and tips. Its status means it must be referred to for guidance in court when deciding on DDA Part III cases now!

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Financial

There is a strong business case for organisations to provide accessible interfaces. The RNIB estimate there to be nearly 2 million people that would like to use the Internet but cannot due to accessibility issues. Besides the positive revenues this valuable and untapped market sector represents, there is also, and perhaps the more serious issue of lost revenue due to brand damage, particularly for the better known brands, for not creating accessible sites. In addition there is pressure from organisations representing the interests of disabled people and of course from stakeholders within the organisation.

Moral

Finally, there is the moral issue as to whether an organisation should make its' products and services accessible to all. Standard Life has certainly taken the view that as a mutual organisation it has a moral responsibility to its members to create accessible websites and it has gone a lot further by sponsoring the RNIB to deliver free accessibility audits.

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Partnership

The RNIB leads the way in helping organisations through education and services to create accessible websites. The RNIB 'See it Right' logo is awarded to websites that meet the accessibility guidelines and have undergone an audit by one of their specialists.

The Usability Company is working with the RNIB providing education about usability to the RNIB and gaining valuable knowledge about accessibility in return. 

For more information about how we can help your organisation please call

Conformance to the guidelines
The Usability Company will identify which level of accessibility conformance standards should be reached by the site in question.

We will then audit the site or evaluate it with real users (using standard screen-reading technologies) to assess the accessibility improvements to be made. A description of the Accessibility Audit and Usability Evaluation can be found in the services section by clicking on the links.

Accessibility Conformance Logos we help sites achieve
First, we help you decide which of the following levels of conformance you wish to claim for your page:

Then we help you apply for the Conformance Logo.

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© The Usability Company 2007