Background – The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)
(excerpt from www.direct.gov.uk official UK Government website)
“The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 aims to end the discrimination that many disabled people face. This Act has been significantly extended, including by the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. It now gives disabled people rights in the areas of:
employment
education
access to goods, facilities and services, including larger private clubs and land-based transport services
buying or renting land or property, including making it easier for disabled people to rent property and for tenants to make disability-related adaptations
functions of public bodies, for example issuing of licences
The Act requires public bodies to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people..”
How the DDA is applied to Websites
While the text of the DDA does not directly address web accessibility, there are strong indications that the DDA could successfully be applied to web sites and that the W3C Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) would be used in determining web accessibility.
The 3 levels of compliance are -
Priority 1 guidelines (which must be satisfied according to the W3C).
Priority 2 guidelines (which should be satisfied and are the EU recommended level of compliance).
Priority 3 guidelines (which may be satisfied to enhance websites accessibility to the limits of current technology, and most likely future technology as future technologies are likely to be built with accessibility compliance).
An article published by The International Centre for Commercial Law[6] states:
“The Web Accessibility Initiative has published Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG). Although the WCAG does not have any legal effect in the UK, a minimum standard of web accessibility could be interpreted to mean compliance with all Priority 1 checkpoints of the WCAG.”
The XO site and Accessibility
The www.x-o.co.uk website has been built with the aim of meeting the WCAG 2.0 Priority 1 checkpoint, however this is an on-going process of improvement.
The WCAG 2.0 Summary
The following is a summary of the considerations when assessing a website against the WCAG 2.0, although this is for illustration purposes only.
1.1 Text Alternatives: Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.
1.2 Time-based Media: Provide alternatives for time-based media.
1.3 Adaptable: Create content that can be presented in different ways (for example simpler layout ) without losing information or structure.
1.4 Distinguishable: Make it easier for users to see and hear content including separating foreground from background.
2.1 Keyboard Accessible: Make all functionality available from a keyboard.
2.2 Enough Time: Provide users enough time to read and use content.
2.3 Seizures: Do not design content in a way that is known to cause seizures.
2.4 Navigable: Provide ways to help users navigate, find content and determine where they are.
3.1 Readable: Make text content readable and understandable.
3.2 Predictable: Make Web pages appear and operate in predictable ways.
3.3 Input Assistance: Help users avoid and correct mistakes.
