Increasing awareness of the needs of disabled and elderly people and the introduction of UK Government legislation and European initiatives has resulted in web accessibility becoming an important issue.
The economics of web accessibility
Disabled and elderly people should be addressed as two distinct groups.
However, in examining the issues related to website usage it becomes apparent
that they have similar problems in how they access materials and perform tasks
online. For example he or she may face similar issues to those experienced by a visually
impaired person (such as deteriorating eyesight). The spending power of these
demographic groups is not well defined, however, the UK Government estimate
that their combined spending power is in excess of £200 billion broken down
into the following:
In addition:
Legislation affecting web accessibility
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 does not specifically mention web accessibility.
However, new sections of the Act come into force in October 2004 affecting
Goods, Facilities, Services and Premises . The accompanying Code of Practice
on Rights of Access Goods, Facilities, Services and Premises states:
"An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking service to the public on its website. This is a provision of a service and is subject to the Act."
Additionally Europe is increasingly impacting on this aspect of UK markets. The eEurope Action Plan for 2002 , agreed by Heads of State and Government, declares that "special attention should be given to disabled people and the fight against 'info-exclusion' " and that "public sector websites and their content in Member States ... must be designed to be accessible to ensure that citizens with disabilities can access information...".
A Ministerial Declaration from November 2001 takes note of various reports on the topic of e-Inclusion and concurs that "greater account must be taken of specific needs, for example of the physically disabled".
It is evident, with Europe focusing on the area of accessibility and the removal of barriers to disabled people, that more EU directives will begin to appear. If previous patterns are followed, it will not be long before Member States are required to integrate the principles contained within these directives into their own laws, and UK based companies, organisations and government bodies will need to apply them to their digital information.