Does the law require me to make my site accessible?
Yes. If someone with a disability, such as sight loss, can't access the information on your website then it could be seen as discrimination.
The
Equality Act came into force in October 2010, replacing the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in England, Scotland and Wales.
Like the DDA, the Equality Act was introduced with the intention of comprehensively tackling the discrimination which many disabled people face.
The Act is 'anticipatory', which means you cannot wait until a disabled person wants to use your services. You must think in advance (and on an ongoing basis) about what disabled people with a range of impairments (sight loss, hearing loss, mobility and cognitive impairments) might reasonably need.
For instance, it may be unlawful for a website to:
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have links on that are not accessible to a screen reader
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have application forms (for instance, for bank accounts or job application forms) in a PDF format that cannot be read by a screen reader
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have core service information (for instance, timetables on a public transport website) that is not in a format accessible to screen readers.
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use text, colour contrasting and formatting that make the website inaccessible to a partially sighted service user
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change security procedures (for instance, on an e-commerce website) without considering the impact of blind and partially sighted customers that use screen readers.
What level of compliance should I be achieving?
We are not aware of any case which has been brought to court in the United Kingdom to date, so there is no case law guidance. However, we are currently suing BMI Baby over its failure to deal with the poor accessibility of its website.
In any event, case law can only provide broad guidance - what websites have to do may vary from site to site.
At RNIB, as outlined in our "Surf 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 Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 1.0 and aim for Double AA compliance. If you are a UK government website you should be aiming to achieve Double AA.
Disclaimer
This content is not an authoritative statement of the law and the information is not a substitute for obtaining legal advice. Whilst we have made every effort to ensure that the information we have provided is correct, we cannot accept any responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions.