digital media access group
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Web Accessibility and Legislation
Articles
These are written by Martin Sloan, who graduated with Honours in Law from Glasgow University in 2000 and is currently studying for a Diploma in Legal Practice at Glasgow Graduate School of Law. His Honours dissertation was carried out in association with the Digital Media Access Group, and concentrated on the application of the UK's Disablity Discrimination Act to web sites.
- Web Accessibility and the Disability Discrimination Act
- An article on UK disability legislation and its application to Web design - essential reading for all web designers and content providers.
- Web Accessibility and the DDA Code of Practice
- A revised version of the Code of Practice for the UK's Disability Discrimination Act was published in February 2002. This article outlines the implications for web accessibility.
Other Useful Web sites
These links lead to pages on other web sites.
- Martin Sloan: Web Accessibility and the Law Links
- a comrehensive and up-to-date list of links relating to legislative issues and web accessibility.
- UK Disability Rights Commission
- Information about the UK Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), including the latest Code of Practice for the DDA.
- The UK's Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA)
- An article by Sophie Corlett of SKILL (the UK's National Bureau for Students with Disabilities), on the implications of the SENDA act. Published on the Technology for Disabilities Information Service (TechDIS) web site.
- Section 508: The Road to Accessibility
- Find out about Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of the USA - legislation specifically dealing with accessibility of technology, including Web sites.
- International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI)
- Among many other subjects, ICDRI provides further information on legislative issues and accessibility of Internet resources.
- Maguire v Sydney Olympics Organising Committee - Official Ruling
- A landmark ruling took place in Autumn 2000, when the Sydney Olympics Organising Committee (SOCOG) was found to be in breach of Australia's Disability Discriminatation Act, as the official site of the Sydney Olympics was not accessible to blind people using screen reading technology. Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission dismissed the arguments in defence presented by SOCOG and IBM, the providers of the web site, who argued that it would be excessively expensive to retro-fit the site to remove the accessibility barriers preventing blind people from accessing information on the site.
- W3C Policy Links
- The World Wide Web Consortium's list of links to policies relating to disability and technology around the world.
Disclaimer
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of all information and links contained within these resources, it is the responsibility of the user/reader to check the accuracy of relevant facts before entering any financial or other commitment based upon them. If you do happen to come across any inaccuracies, DMAG would appreciate your help in informing us.