On the 1st October 2004, part III of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 became law. This part of the act applies to services which are delivered over the Internet, and affects all businesses and public sector organisations.
According to the Disability Rights Commission's 2004 Web Site Report, at least 81% of websites had made no effort to comply with elementary accessibility principles.
Now that all the provisions of the Act are in effect, and the fact that people are increasingly more likely to take legal action, it is only a matter of time before a company finds itself accused of failing to meet their legal obligations to provide a service or information that can be accessed regardless of physical impairment.
Of course, there is a very good business case for a website which implements online accessibilty principles. Not only is it 'best practice', but you could be opening your business up to a potential market of 8.5 million people who are registered as disabled, who have a disposable income of over £5 billion a year.
If you aren't sure whether your website complies with the new legislation, or want to find out how best you can widen your website's appeal and audience, please get in touch with us here at Seamless by calling us on 01274 659000 or email us at ask@seamless-marketing.co.uk.
Click here for more information about the Seamless Web Accessibility service.
Our web team have taken part in the RNIB accessibility training workshops and all our new sites are now designed with accessibility guidelines in mind. For more information on web accessibility an excellent resource is http://www.w3.org/WAI.
For an overview of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, please go to www.direct.gov.uk/DisabledPeople/RightsAndObligations
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