| Bulletin Board With an increasing number of sponsoring employers making pension information available on the web, the following has particular relevance: On 14 April the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) - enforcers of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) - published its "Formal Investigation into Website Accessibility". The findings were drawn from an in-depth review of one hundred UK organisations from all sectors carried out by groups representing all aspects of the disabled community. Automated testing will also take place of one thousand organisations to establish the overall level of compliance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as defined by the World Wide Web Commission (W3C). DRC, DDA, WCAG, W3C... confused? The combination of legislation, standards and enforcement make up the how and why of providing Accessible Websites. Anyone involved in providing information or services via the web must understand their responsibilities as a service provider - or ensure that the people that are managing their site do. Of course additionally there are compelling business and ethical reasons to ensure that your site reaches and is accessible to all members of society. It is unlawful for a service provider to treat disabled people, which is broadly defined, less favourably for a reason related to their disability under Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA). Service providers (i.e. anyone with a Website that is not purely personal) must also consider making reasonable adjustments to the way that they deliver their services where disabled people find these impossible or unreasonably difficult to access. Parliament has empowered the Disability Rights Commission to enforce the provisions of the DDA. Bert Massie, Chairman of the DRC, has stated: "Organisations which offer goods and services on the web already have a legal duty to make their sites accessible" and he has made it clear that the DRC is committed to enforcing the obligations. If your site reaches a UK audience offering goods, services or other facilities - and it is not accessible - then you are already in breach of the regulations. The legislation does not set a maximum limit to the amount of compensation that companies found guilty of discrimination can be made to pay. The DRC, however, would prefer to be seen to be helping organisations achieve compliance rather than pursue them through the courts. Organisations and Web designers have the help and direction of the W3C - the standards body for Web technologies - in the form of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. These guidelines explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities and form the basis for both the automated and manual tests carried out for the DRC's Formal Investigation. The guidelines are available as a series of checklists and specifications that will identify problem areas of sites and any remedial action required. If you feel that your website is not accessible the first step is to carry out an accessibility audit - either by yourself using the guidelines provided by the W3C - or engage an accessibility expert to carry out the audit for you. Armed with this information you should be able to get a good idea of the scope and cost of correcting any problems. The costs of providing a compliant Web site need not be prohibitive.For more information contact:
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