Disability Discrimination Act

The Disability Discirimination Act (DDA) - which has been on the statute books since 1995 - finally enters it’s last phase, in which small businesses are no longer exempt from catering to the accessibility needs of disabled people.

Whilst most people consider the issue most particularly applicable to physical access, there is a very real argument that small businesses will also have to ensure that they provide accessibility features for disabled people on their websites - for example, as argued here: Is Your Website Legal? by the Ecru design team, which has built in accessibility features for government websites.

Some web design companies already deal very specifically with design and accessibility issues - for example, Randall Designs has made a particular crusade on the issue.

However, not all design companies are necessarily aware of accessibility issues - especially those presented in the W3C accessibility Initiative.

Ultimately, the actual extent that the DDA will impact the website accessibility as whole is as yet untested, and the DDA itself remains to be tried out in the courts. However, if you have never attempted to address accessibility issues with your website, then now is perhaps the time to get started.

After all, you probably would not want it to be your own business that has to fight a test case on the matter.