Access for the Disabled

“The power of the Web is in it's universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.”

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director

Who are the disabled

The disabled fall into several categories. There are the physically disabled, the visually disabled, those with hearing problems and those with learning difficulties. Their disabilities can range from mild to severe and in some cases they may be only temporary.

For example some visually disabled people have no vision at all whilst others may have some functional vision, others may be temporarily blind following an accident or operation. There are also those who suffer from colour blindness. The blind are probably the largest group requiring help with internet access, however those with physical disabilities such as upper limb mobility, manual dexterity and coordination problems need help as well. As people get older age related problems may make internet access difficult.

The Business Case

Here let me take a quote from Jeffrey Zeldman's excellent book 'Designing With Web Standards' which makes the point:

When asked an accessibility question, during a lecture to a professional audience, one respected web designer answered thus: “We create cutting-edge branding work for the elite consumers our client is trying to reach. That accessibility stuff that's a very small part of our market and…uh…our client doesn't mind loosing these few people. I mean, hey, our client makes high-definition wide screen televisions. Blind folks aren't buying those this year (chuckle, chuckle).”

Well blind people might buy them for a sighted family. Also the majority of visually impaired people are not totally blind, they might only be colour blind or slightly short sighted.

I should point out that the crawlers, spiders and robots that the search engines use to index web sites are in effect blind users. They work in a similar way to Screen readers sometimes called voice browsers or text readers.

The Legal Case

To make this in a few paragraphs and translate the legalese is beyond me. Suffice to say there is a Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to which we have been obliged to adhere since 1999.

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995

Excerpts from the Act, section III.

19. - (1) It is unlawful for a provider of services to discriminate against a disabled person-
(a) in refusing to provide, or deliberately not providing, to the disabled person any service which he provides, or is prepared to provide, to members of the public;
(b) in failing to comply with any duty imposed on him by section 21 in circumstances in which the effect of that failure is to make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for the disabled person to make use of any such service;
(c) in the standard of service which he provides to the disabled person or the manner in which he provides it to him; or
(d) in the terms on which he provides a service to the disabled person.

Excerpts from the Code of Practice

2.2 (p7): “The 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 Act? An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking service to the public on its web site. 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 web sites.”
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 web sites.”

The full 175 page document in pdf format is available from the Disability Rights Commission's web site.

You might find this article from 'Computers and Law' interesting if you can get through the legalese.

If you would like to find out more there is a wealth of information on the RNIB web site.

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