Accessibility and the Law

In this article I will attempt to answer common questions regarding laws and regulations surrounding website accessibility. For a more detailed view at accessibility itself, please see the article on common accessibility oversights.

Does a website have to be Accessible?

“The part of the DDA that states websites must be made accessible came into force on 1 October 1999 and the Code of Practice for this section of the Act was published on 27 May 2002.”
RNIB 2005

You do have a responsibility at some level, whether or not you are the designer or the commissioner of the website, to ensure your website design does not discriminate against disabled visitors to your site.

“You now have a legal obligation - following the implementation of section 21 of the Disability Discrimination Act (1999) - to make reasonable adjustments to ensure blind and partially sighted people can access your service.”
RNIB, 2005

The DDA does not specifically address website design standards but it does make reference to any provider of a service.

“For the purposes of section 19, a provider of services also discriminates against a disabled person if he fails to comply with a section 21 duty imposed on him in relation to the disabled person; and he cannot show that his failure to comply with that duty is justified.”
DDA 1999

As an example, the Code of Practice cites an airline website as a service online:

“What services are affected by the 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.”
Code of Practice 2.13 - 2.17 (p11-13)

Service providers have a duty to make adjustments before there's a problem. The DDA Code of Practice makes this clear.

“Service providers should not wait until a disabled person wants to use a service which they provide before they give consideration to their duty to make reasonable adjustments. […] They should anticipate the requirements of disabled people and the adjustments that may have to be made for them. […] Failure to anticipate the need for an adjustment may render it too late to comply with the duty to make the adjustment. A service provider's duty to make reasonable adjustments is a duty owed to disabled people at large. It is not simply a duty that is weighed up in relation to each individual disabled person who wants to access a service provider's services.”
DDA Code Of Practice 1999

What happens if a website is not accessible?

Unsurprisingly, you leave yourself open to criticism, bad press and more seriously legal action if your site is not accessible.

“A disabled person can make a claim against you if your website makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult to access information and services. If you have not made reasonable adjustments and cannot show that this failure is justified, then you may be liable under the Act, and may have to pay compensation and be ordered by a court to change your site.”
RNIB 2005

As yet, no UK business or organisation has been prosecuted for having an inaccessible website. There is, however, a risk of legal action.

“If the dispute is not resolved, you could be taken to court. If the customer wins the case, they could win compensation for financial loss, for injured feeling or both.”
Disability Rights Commission

However, over two companies thus far have been sued on accessibility grounds (using the DDA law) with the help of the RNIB, with both cases having been settled out of court.

If, or when, a company is taken to court in regards to an inaccessible website, it is likely the W3C Recommendations will be taken into account as well as the EU Parliament recommendation of Level AA WCAG compliance—just as they were during the successful Bruce Macguire vs. Sydney Olympics case in 2000.

What is meant by “reasonable adjustments” to a website?

Steps that should be taken to make reasonable adjustments include changing:

• a practice, policy or procedure which makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to use a service;

• any physical features which make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to use a service.

Reasonable steps must also be taken to provide:

“Auxiliary aids and services (an example of which would be an accessible website) where these would enable or facilitate the use of a service.”
RNIB 2005

These changes have been required since October 1999. Note that "reasonable" is not defined in the Act, but the Code of Practice does give some guidance on this, and indicates that it will depend upon:

1. The type of service provided

2. The type of website and resources available

3. The impact on the disabled person

What level of compliance should a website meet?

No case has been brought to court in the United Kingdom to date, so there is no case law guidance. In any event, case law can only provide broad guidance - what websites have to do may vary from site to site. What is important, however, is the outcome: the DDA requires that you make what it refers to as “reasonable adjustments”, to your services to ensure that a person with a disability can access that service. This means making changes to websites - which offer 24 hour service, and a variety of features not available via, for example, a telephone service - so that disabled people can use them.

“...as outlined in our “See it Right” website accessibility requirements, we recommend that websites exceed the basic level of compliance that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommend in their Website Accessibility Guidelines (WAG) version 1.0 and aim for double AA compliance. If you are a UK government website you should be aiming to achieve double A.”
RNIB 2005

In addition, the European Union has emphasized the importance of triple A (WCAG) conformity. European institutes and member state governments are asked to fulfill priority 1 as well as priority 2 of the W3C/WCAG guidelines.The W3C itself recommends Valid HTML/XHTML and Valid CSS. In addition, the W3C states that Priority 1/Level A must be satisfied, Priority 2/Level AA should be satisfied and that it is generally a good idea to satisfy Priority 3/Level AAA.

Delivering Inclusive Websites

Whereas the PAS78 document was very informative on the process of commissioning an accessible website, it lacked practical advice for developers and organisations wishing to produce one. To resolve this, the UK Government released a public consultation document in May 2005 called “Delivering Inclusive Websites: User-Centred Accessibility”.

This document is available here:

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/government_it/web_guidelines/consultations.aspx

‘Delivering Inclusive Websites’ made note of several things:

1. The minimum level of accessibility for all public sector websites was Level AA, according to the European Parliament. A survey hosted by the Cabinet Office reveals a staggering 70% of websites failed to conform to even Level A of the W3C Guidelines.

2. Any public sector websites must achieve Level AA Accessibility by December 2008 or have their .gov.uk domain name withdrawn.

3. There are 14 defined major issues faced by users, disability or not, which will impact their use of a website and are subject to necessary accessibility measures.

4. Assistive technologies and how to best make use of accessibility testing.

If a case is brought up in the British courts regarding website accessibility, it is very likely this document will be referenced. In short, there is no longer an excuse for ignorance because ‘Delivering Inclusive Websites’ is thorough in its research and advice.

What can a website do to “comply with UK Law”?

Nobody is capable of producing a website that is fully “compliant with the law” or “compliant with the DDA" in the UK, as stated in the PAS78 document:

“9.1.1 It is not possible to provide a definitive specification for a fully accessible website which will satisfy the requirements of the DDA. Website commissioners should therefore be sceptical if contracting companies declare that they will create websites that are “DDA-compliant” or “compliant with the law”. Conversely, website commissioners should not require a web designer to design a website that is “DDA-compliant” or “compliant with the law”. Until case law has been established such claims cannot be made or honoured.”
PAS 78 , 2006

The best that can be done is to comply with W3C Guidelines and the WCAG, make the best use of assistive technologies, test thoroughly and endeavour to build websites for people.