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Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and web accessibility
Web accessibility allows all users to use a website. The DDA places responsibility on suppliers of goods and services to provide reasonable adjustment and to remove any barriers that could result in discrimination. The DDA defines a disabled person as someone with a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Not all disabilities, as defined under the Act, affect the way people access the Internet. In this section, we consider accessibility issues from the perspectives of users with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive impairments. Of course, impairments may exist in combination.
Does the DDA apply to websites?
Part III of the DDA refers to the provision of goods, facilities and services. The Code of Practice, which specifically mentions websites, can be downloaded in its entirety from the DRC website.
The relevant quotes from the 175-page Code of Practice are:
- 2.2 (p7):
The Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide any service which it provides to members of the public.
- 4.7 (p39):
From 1st October 1999 a service provider has to take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services.
- 2.13 - 2.17 (p11-13):
What services are affected by the Disability Discrimination 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.
- 5.23 (p71):
For people with visual impairments, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include ... accessible websites.
- 5.26 (p68):
For people with hearing disabilities, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include ... accessible websites.
At the worst this could mean you could be sued if your website does not comply with the DDA. Already two large companies have been approached and when issues where raised about accessibility under the DDA, both companies made changes. Costs can be very large when emergency changes have to be done quickly. In 2000 a blind man successfully sued the Sydney Olympics organising committee in Australia where the Australian dda closely resembles the UK's.
What needs to be done to comply with the DDA
There are recommendations written by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) the Internet governing body and by following these recommendations allows website to be accessible with a wide range of disabilities.
How users access the internet
Visual impairment - includes people with little or no vision. Visually impaired users typically either customise their browser settings or use an assistive technology, for example a screen reader or screen magnification software. Screen readers require that the code behind the pages of a website is written correctly, images have alternative text as a description and the layout is in a format that can be read. Often sites are layed out in tables which can cause problems for screen readers
Hearing impairment - includes people who are deaf and those who have partial hearing and may use a hearing aid. Text and pictures are generally suitable for those people with acquired hearing impairments. Streaming audio, such as a news broadcast, will be accessible only if the site provides captions or alternative content.
Motor impairment is an extremely broad category and includes people with a range of physical disabilities, such as impairments in upper limb mobility, manual dexterity or physical co-ordination. Some people who experience problems with manual dexterity may still use a mouse (with difficulty when manipulation relies on fine motor movements with small or moveable hyperlinks). Others may use specially adapted keyboards or software. Those whose disability limits their upper limb use may rely on a single switch input device (macros can be assigned to the switch allowing the user to carry out a range of actions with a single button press) but they can encounter problems with sites that require timed responses and long URLs. Users of voice activation software often encounter difficulties with navigation.
Cognitive impairments also cover a wide range including learning difficulties, dyslexia and epilepsy. Learning difficulties includes people with problems with literacy, poor information technology skills and problems with understanding information in general. Access may be improved for those with mild to moderate learning difficulties by making sure simple straightforward language is used. For many dyslexic readers, a high degree of concentration is required to understand text content and remember what has been read. Text and background colours are important for the greatest legibality. People with photosensitive epilepsy must avoid blinking and flashing images as this may bring about an episode.
All designs are developed using accessability guidelines and fully meet the recommendations.
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