[Sigia-l] Accessibility guidelines in Great Britain

[kalbach at scils.rutgers.edu]

Accessibility laws in the UK and many other European countries are
not about checking off WCAG guidelines – they are performance
standards. You have to make the site accessible. It is possible to
satisfy all priority 1 checkpoints and still have an inaccessible
site (or part of the site) depending on your situation.

For instance, if your product comprises mostly of forms, WCAG
priority 2 guidelines 10.2 and 12.4 may be showstoppers for use of
your product. Or, if you have a frequent mix of content in different
languages, indicating change in language could be more important
than priority 3. Complying with priority 1 is the minimum place to
start, will likely cover the most critical problems, and shows good
faith; but it may or may not prevent all legal action that could
possibly be taken against you.

Peter pointed out in some quotes that there is no test case in the
UK yet. The Royal National Institute of the Blind is helping
individuals and organisations sue companies that have inaccessible
products, but up to now all have been settled out of court. I think
we’ll see more “first warning” suits for a while. But in the long
run you’ll need to know what really makes your site accessible or
not.

How?
- Visual / manual inspection (check code, turn images off, run a
screen reader yourself, etc)
- Run automated tests
- Get a consultant to review the site
- Test with real disabled users

ALSO: Get a formal, published accessibility policy

Note that testing disabled users may uncover issues different than
the priority 1 checkpoints. That’s likely why the BBCs
recommendations diverge somewhat from WCAG, in actual findings and
in priority of items:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/newmedia/pdf/BBCi_Accessibility_Study_7-10-02.pdf

It’s a very tricky issue. Although there was a case in Australia in
favour of the plaintiff (the disabled user), there are other
instances where courts decided on the side of the defendant (the
site owner). There are other issues that weigh in here as well, such
as alternative access to services, third party content, etc.

If you feel uncertain about accessibility of your site, you’re not
alone.

Ciao,
Jim