So here is the top 10 accessible tips: 1.With the deadline for website accessibility is October 2004 when all points of the DDA become part of British law. 2.The Disabled Rights Commission (DRC) is a government-funded body empowered by the Disability Rights Commission Act 1999 to instigate formal investigations aimed at eliminating discrimination and encouraging good practice in the treatment of disabled people. 3.The DRC conducted accessibility testing on over 1,000 UK public and private sector websites and published their findings. Stopping short of naming and shaming, they stated that "swathes of businesses may not be complying with existing equal access laws" and that it is "only a matter of time" before they face legal action from disabled consumers. 4.One in seven people in the UK - about 8.5 million - suffer from some form of disability (Source: DRC). 5.Two million people in the UK have a sight problem (Source: Royal National Institute of the Blind). 6.8-10% of the male population has some sort of colour-blindness - for some reason it is more prevalent in men. 7.The world's first successful action over accessibility (Barry Maguire vs Sydney Olympics Organising Committee) netted the litigant just $20,000 in damages. But the legal costs and subsequent web development bill ran into millions. 8.AOL settled out of court in an action brought by the US National Federation of the Blind but they continue to be haunted by bad publicity from this case. 9.In February 2003 the Guardian newspaper slated Abbey National plc over its poor design and inaccessible web services - we bet they are on the DRC's list. 10.Accessibility isn't just about serving groups of disabled users: the same standards also enable web-access by phone and PDA. There will be 993 million people accessing the net through these devices by 2006 |
