Lawyer Makbool Javaid explains how disability laws affect online
firms.
Many website owners appear to be unaware of their legal obligations
under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
Although no one has yet taken a claim against a website owner in
the UK to court, reasonable steps need to be made to ensure
websites can be used by people with visual impairments or physical
disabilities.
The government estimates that about nine million people in the UK
have some form of disability. Given the importance of the internet
in its ability to communicate information, it is surprising that so
many businesses have yet to grasp this opportunity, let alone
comply with the law.
The law
The Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for companies
to provide an inferior service to, or discriminate against, a
disabled person.
The Act states that people should have "access to, and use of,
means of communication", and "access to, and use of, information
services".
Can the internet be defined as a service?
Although there is no explicit reference to the internet as a
service, it is a reasonable assumption that the internet would fall
within this definition.
The government has already taken this view. Its policy is to
encourage central government departments and agencies to make their
services as accessible to disabled people as is reasonably
possible. The Department of Trade & Industry now ensures that
all its websites are designed with accessibility in mind.
Given this legal duty, service providers must consider making
reasonable adjustments to the way they deliver their services where
disabled people find these impossible or unreasonably difficult to
access.
Reasonable adjustments
There is no definitive list of adjustments a website owner should
make to avoid liability. The UK courts will decide whether it would
be reasonable for a service provider to make a particular
adjustment to enable a disabled person to gain access.
However, there are some basic steps a website developer should
consider taking to improve accessibility for people with
disabilities.
The Department of Trade & Industry recommends that website
design take into account the following issues:
Text and graphic links. Not all users choose to
view websites using graphics and many are unable to access images
at all. For example, some users may have small-screen browsers that
only display text.
Therefore it is advisable to use alternative text to describe the
content of a picture. This can be useful for text-based browsers
and/or for users with visual impairments.
Use of cascading style sheets. This is a method of
producing web pages which makes it easy for a user to override the
author's website page settings and make it easier for them to view
the page, for example, by changing the colour of the text or the
background.
Developers can test web pages for accessibility using one of the
accepted validation software tools, such as Bobby.
Would a potential claimant succeed?
In an Australian case, a claimant who was blind could not access
the website of the Sydney organising committee for the Olympic
Games. The claimant alleged that as the website was only accessible
in full by a fully sighted person, this was discrimination on the
grounds of disability.
The organising committee argued that to comply with the
requirements of the claimant was not justified. This was based on
factors including the nature of the benefit or detriment likely to
be accrued or suffered by any persons concerned and the effect of
the disability of the person concerned. The Australian Human Rights
and Equal Opportunities Commission ruled in favour of the
applicant.
Although the case took place in Australia, the provisions of
Australian law are similar to those of the UK. As such, this case
would be persuasive in a UK court.
Makbool Javaid is an employment partner at UK
law firm DLAwww.dla.com
Bobby website testing tool
http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp