UK
businesses risk facing legal action from disabled users unless they
ensure their websites comply with equal access laws, the Disability
Rights Commission warned yesterday.
At the end of a
comprehensive year long examination into accessibility – covering
1,000 government, business, leisure, web services and e-commerce
sites – the DRC said the majority are ignoring the needs of
disabled users.
Only 19% of the
websites met the minimum standard for web access as outlined by the
World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines,
with only two meeting level-two compliance and none achieving the
highest level.
Website operators
are leaving themselves open to legal action under the Disability
Discrimination Act, under which organisations are required to make
reasonable adjustments to their systems to allow people with
disabilities to access them.
Bert Massie,
chairman of the DRC, said, “The investigation was never about
naming and shaming but we have had cases in Australia and sooner or
later it is going to come over here. If necessary we will fund such
cases. If you are going to spend money in court you may as well
spend it on your website.”
Making sites more
accessible will have wider benefits than simply meeting
legislation, Massie said. “It should not be viewed as an add-on for
disabled people as our research showed that making sites accessible
improves usability by as much as 50%,” he said.
The investigation
also showed that website developers have very little knowledge of
accessibility guidelines, with only 9% claiming any expertise. The
government should promote a formal accreditation process for
website developers, Massie said.
Organisations
should also be given help to meet the guidelines, according to
Martin Greenwood, programme manager at local government association
Socitm Insight. An independent testing service for website
accessibility should be set up, he said.
Research
findings and recommendations:
Problems commonly
cited by disabled people using the web were: cluttered and complex
page structures; confusing and disorienting navigation mechanisms;
failure to describe images; inappropriate use of colours and poor
contrast between content and background.
The steps that
online service providers are expected to take include converting
text into speech, making forms accessible via assistive technology
and providing text equivalents for important images.