Law and Accessibility

The Disability Discrimination 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.

The Act specifically mentions websites

Section III of the DDA, which refers to accessible websites came into force on 1st October 1999 and the Code of Practice for this section of the DDA was published on 27th May 2002. This means that the majority of websites are already in breach of the law as time passes the likelyhood of some action being taken either by a disabled person how cannot access your web site or the athorities is ever increasing.

Can you be sued?
Well, probably yes. The RNIB claim that they've considered taking up a number of legal cases against organisations with regard to their websites. When they raised the accessibility issues of the website under the DDA, companies have typically made the necessary changes, rather than facing the prospect of legal action.

The DRC launched a formal investigation into 1000 websites of which over 80% were next to impossible for disabled people to use. They warned firms that they face legal action under the DDA and the threat of unlimited compensation payments if they fail to make websites accessible for people with disabilities.