Does the law require me to make my site accessible?
The
Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (the DDA), was introduced with the intention of comprehensively tackling the discrimination which many disabled people face. The main part of the DDA that applies to websites and requires them to be accessible came into force on 1 October 1999. Further changes were made to the Act in 2005 which required certain employers and service providers previously exempt from the Act (such as the police and small employers) to comply with the Act and therefore make their websites accessible. Changes to the Act in 2005 also brought in a duty on public authorities to promote disability equality.
How does the DDA apply to websites in employment?
Websites may be covered under the employment provisions of the Act, for example, they may be a means of advertising jobs or there may be an intranet which staff need to use. Under the Act an employer is obliged to make reasonable adjustments where a "policy criterion or practice" places a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage. Below we list a number of examples of inaccessible websites which may contravene the Act in the area of employment:
-
It may be unlawful for a website to have links which are not accessible to a screen reader
-
The application forms found on a website are in a PDF format that cannot be read by a screen reader
-
The size of text, colour contrasting and formatting of a website might make it inaccessible to a partially sighted job applicant
-
An employee may find it difficult to access his employer's intranet because of inappropriate colour contrasting and font size
-
Links/Documents on an employer's intranet may be inaccessible to an employee using a screen reader.
How does the DDA apply to websites in service provision?
Websites will most commonly be covered when they constitute the provision of a service, or they are related to education. The Code of Practice Rights of Access: services to the public, public authority functions, private clubs and premises, includes the example of accessible websites as an example of auxiliary aids and services required under the Act (see below).
Service providers are required to provide auxiliary aids and services where this would enable or make it easier to use a service. As described above this includes accessible websites. Service providers are required to change practices, policies and procedures which make it impossible or unreasonably difficult to access a service. This may impact upon procedures that a service provider expects customers to follow on its website which are not accessible, for example security procedures. Examples of inaccessible websites which may contravene the Act in the area of service provision include:
-
It may be unlawful for a website to have links on that are not accessible to a screen reader
-
The application forms for bank accounts on a bank's website may be in a PDF format that cannot be read by a screen reader
-
Public transport timetables on a transport website are not in a format accessible to screen readers.
-
The size of text, colour contrasting and formatting of a local authority website might make it inaccessible to a partially sighted service user
-
An online retailer changes its security procedures without considering the impact of blind and partially sighted customers that use screen readers. This has the affect of excluding people from making purchases on the website.
Service providers are only expected to make "reasonable" adjustments. 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:
-
the type of service provided
-
the type of organisation you are and resources available
-
the impact of the discrimination on a disabled person.
What happens if my website does not comply?
If an employee or job applicant is discriminated against in employment they can apply to the employment tribunal for an order that the employer makes an adjustment and for compensation for "injury to feelings" for the discrimination that they have faced.
A disabled person who believes they have been discriminated against by a service provider can apply to the County Court for an order that the service provider makes their website accessible and compensation for "injury to feeling" for the discrimination they have faced.
RNIB is not aware of any cases that have been brought against service providers in the UK regarding inaccessible websites. However, a useful reference is the case brought against the Sydney Olympics Committee in Australia in 2000. This resulted in a landmark decision against the website owners, requiring them to pay substantial compensation.
"This response, I am satisfied, was very hurtful for him; the suggestion that he enlist the aid of a sighted person to assist him was wholly inconsistent with his own expectations and what he himself, unaided, had been able to achieve, both at university level and in business, in spite of his disability. To dismiss him and to continue to be dismissive of him was not only hurtful, he was also made to feel, I am satisfied, various emotions including those of anger and rejection by a significant statutory agent within the community of which he himself was a part." Judge Hon. William Carter QC 2
Find out more about the
Sydney Olympics failure.
The Disability Equality Duty
Public authorities such as local authorities and Government Departments are under additional responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act. This requires them to have due regard to the need to promote disability equality in everything they do. This includes considering disability equality in the procurement of services. The Code of Practice gives the following example:
"The head of Information in a government department is overseeing the redesign of the department website, which is being contracted out to a web designer. The head of information ensures that the tender documents include reference to the disability equality duty and in particular the need to ensure that the website is fully accessible to disabled people. The standard terms of contract are revised to reflect the fact that any updating information and/or maintenance work on the website must ensure access for disabled people, in order to ensure that the department is meeting its disability equality duty."
What level of compliance should I be achieving?
RNIB is not aware of any case which 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.
At RNIB, 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 Content 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 AA.
What about websites used in education?
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA) establishes legal rights for disabled students in pre- and post-16 education by amending the DDA to include education. The Act ensures that disabled students are not discriminated against in education, training and any services provided wholly or mainly for students. This includes courses provided by further and higher education institutions and sixth form colleges.
It is unlawful to treat a student "less favourably" for reasons due to disability. If an individual is at a "substantial disadvantage" due to the way in which a body provides its educational services, responsible bodies are required to take reasonable steps to prevent that disadvantage. This may include:
-
changes to policies and practices (these are the only changes required in pre-16 education)
-
changes to course requirements or work placements
-
changes to the physical features of a building
-
the provision of interpreters or other support workers
-
the delivery of courses in alternative ways
-
the provision of material in other formats.
The application of the law will depend on the size and resources of the educational institution, nature of services and the impact it has on the disabled person.
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.