W3C UK and Ireland Regional Office

Web Site Accessibility Guideline Conformance

As part of its Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) W3C has proposed a set of Web Content Accessibiity Guidelines (WCAG) along with a procedure for evaluating that web sites conform to them, and an icon to display on conforming sites.

W3C does not provide a service to independetly evaluate conformance of web sites with these design guidelines. Those UK organisations who require third party auditing of their web sites for conformance to the accessibility guidelines may wish to consider the general web site accessibility conformance evaluation service offered by Segala m test in both the UK and Ireland, or the service offered by the RNIB. W3C does not recommend this service in preference to others. Both Segala m test and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) are currently members of W3C.

Web Site Accessibility and UK Legislation

The UK and Ireland Office of W3C reminds you of the clear distinction between supplying information related to the law and legal developments and the provision of professional legal services. The material contained on this website is general comment only and the reader should not act in any way on the basis of the information without seeking where necessary appropriate professional advice concerning their own individual circumstances. The materials on this site have been prepared for informational purposes only and are not, nor are they intended to be, legal advice. This information is not intended to constitute, and receipt of it does not constitute a contract for legal advice or the establishment of a solicitor-client relationship. Information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments. If you require legal advice, please contact a solicitor.

The principle is that the law requires responsible bodies to anticipate the requirements of disabled people or students and the adjustments they could be making for them. It will be unlawful for responsible bodies to treat a disabled person 'less favourably' than a non-disabled person for a reason that relates to the person's disability. If a disabled person is at a 'substantial disadvantage', responsible bodies are required to take reasonable steps to prevent that disadvantage. This might includechanges to policies and practices and the provision of material in other formats.The provisions in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Part III) that arguably apply to Web sites have been in force since 1 October 1999.The new rights under the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 came into force on 1 September 2002, with two exceptions:

• the provision of auxiliary aids and services were covered from 1 September 2003
• alterations to physical features will be covered from 1 September 2005

The Disability Rights Commission in its formal investigation of "The Web: Access and inclusion fordisabled people" published in April 2004 stated that (pg v):

Organisations that offer goods and services on the Web alreadyhave a legal duty to make their sites accessible. It is clear fromthe investigation that these duties are not being fulfilled. The Commission’s policy is to seek improvement in the first instance through advice and conciliation, and this report contains arange of recommendations to help website owners and developers tackle the barriers to inclusive design. However,where the response is inadequate, we shall be vigorous in theuse of our enforcement powers; these range from “namedparty” Formal Investigations which can lead to sanctions against the owners of inaccessible websites, to the provision of support for test cases being brought by individual disabled people.

In March 2006 the BSI released PAS 78 as a Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites sponsored by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. There are many benefits to using PAS 78 and some of these include: compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), the creation of accessible websites, wider audience reach, improvement of search engine listings due to accessible content, and the easy transfer of this content to other media such as interactive TV or mobile phones.

Several websites provide general legal background and guidance:

• OUT-LAW.com presented a good summary in December 2008
• Martin Sloan provides a comprehensive list of resources for those interested in the legal aspects of Web Accessibility in the UK.
• A detailed article on web site accessibility by Martin Sloan, sets out the rationale for the viewpoint that web sites need to be accessible to priority level 1 of the W3C guidelines to ensure that discrimination does not take place.
• JISC legal information service provides guidance on Disability Legislation and its Effect on Information Services in Further and Higher Education

The UK DTI/DCMS' Communications White Paper mentions that the Government 'support the work undertaken by the [W3C] on making the Web accessible to people with disabilities' but gives no mention to a legal requirement under the DDA.

In contrast, there was the case where Bruce Maguire, a blind user, could not access the Sydney Olympic web site to obtain up to date information on the Olympics. The W3C guidelines were taken by the court to be the accessibility benchmark. The web site was not W3C compliant and the gist of the decision was that the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games was found guilty of discrimination under the Australian discrimination legislation. This was the first case in which the W3C guidelines were looked upon as a benchmark. It is thought that the same decision may also have been reached in the UK courts had the case been heard there.

UK Public Sector Web Site Accessibility

The Illustrated Handbook for Web Management Teams issued by the UK government states guidelines that"all departments and agencies developing government websites will make all reasonable efforts to comply with", including one that:

All new or redesigned government websites [after May 2002] should comply with the Web Accessibility Initiative’s (WAI’s) Level A recommendation for accessibility. This can be achieved by following the Priority 1 checkpoints of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. For example, alternatives should be provided to less accessible scripts or formats.

Although there is no stated, legally enforcable redress for failing to compy with this guideline,many UK public services are adopting W3C Double A conformance, which means meeting Priority One and Two guidelines, this would seem reasonable in order to ensure web based material is available to as wide an audience as possible.

On 11 June 2006, the UK along with 33 other countries signed the Riga Declaration as the conclusion to the Ministerial Conference “ICT for an inclusive society” of the Austrian Presidency of the European Council. Clause 25 of the Riga Declaration states that the signatories agree to commit to the following policy goals:

Promoting and ensuring accessibility of all public web sites by 2010, through compliance with the relevant W3C common web accessibility standards and guidelines. Calling upon the private sector to do likewise, to consider accessibility principles from the outset of the web development process, and to develop the appropriate authoring tools and software.

It has been reported that to overcome their frustration with the UK public sector failing to move towards this goal, the UK's Cabinet Office's has threatened to withdraw .gov.uk domains from any site that doesn't meet W3C WCAG Level AA by December 2008.

In December 2008 W3C made WCAG V2.0 a recommendation. There is no clear statement yet from the UK government about the adoption of the WCAG V2.0 standard as an advance on WCAG V2.0 AA conformance.

British Standard on Web Site Accessibility - BS 8878

In December 2008 a draft British Standard was published which addresses the policy and process issues in building and maintaining an accessible and usable site. Aimed at business owners and marketing managers, BS 8878 entitled "Web accessibility. Building accessible experiences for disabled people. Code of practice" is currently available for public comment and is due to be finalised in summer 2009.

BS 8878 builds on an existing document, PAS 78, Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites. A PAS is a Publicly Available Specification, a document that is not a full British Standard but developed using a similar process.

Like the less formal PAS 78, BS 8878 complements the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, addressing process rather than the appearance of the Website itself.