Legal Context to accessibility
Special Educational Needs and Disability Act - SENDA
Since 1st September 2002 the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 gave disabled people legal rights in relation to their access to post school education. Under DDA Part 4 education providers have legal responsibilities:
a) not to treat disabled learners less favourably for a reason related to their disability
b) to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled learner
These new duties apply not just to teaching and learning but also to any service, which is provided specifically for students or learners. The duties are anticipatory, that is providers will need to anticipate the likely needs of disabled learners and not merely respond to individual needs as they arise.
Section 21 of the Disability Discrimination Act - DDA
David Blunkett, said (sic.):
"Access to information is vital for all of us...for those without immediate access to the written word, reading is just as important as for everyone else...that is why I support the campaign to bring about greater accessibility for material ..."
The remaining Rights of Access in Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 are now in place. Under Section 21(4) of the Act:
"A service provider must take reasonable steps to provide auxiliary aids or services if this would enable (or make it easier for) disabled persons to make use of any goods, facilities or services which it offers or provides to the public."
Are you prepared? Is all your information accessible? Are you missing potential clients or customers?
Revised Code of Practice to accompany the DDA
In February 2002, the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) published a revised Code of Practice to accompany the DDA (available from www.drc-gb.org). The Code of Practice explains fully the duties of those providing services. for example, a fashion retailer with the facility to buy on-line constitutes the offering of a service under the terms of the Act. A service can be free of charge or chargeable and all e commerce sites are covered by the Act as well as single page websites that simply offer information about services.
In April 2004, the DRC published the findings of extensive research into web accessibility for disabled people. The survey included detailed analysis of 1,000 websites by a panel of disabled people and gave rise to extensive findings and recommendations intended to guide service providers to enable them to meet the requirements of the DDA.
The DRC's DDA Code of Practice and the report "The Web Access and Inclusion for Disabled People" are available at www.drc-gb.org
Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act
In America Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act required all federal (Govt.) websites and their vendors to be fully accessible to people with disabilities by June 2001. Although enacted more than 14 years ago, amending the law in 1998 to give members of the public and government employees with disabilities the right to sue agencies in federal court for non-compliance, ensured an active programme for successful website compliance. How long before the UK gets tough?
Accessible W3CAAA Web Design - More information
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