Many disabled people find it impossible to book a holiday, open a bank account or buy theatre tickets online, according to new report by the Disability Rights Commission, published on April 14.
And failure to take account of the needs of disabled users could precipitate fresh legal challenges in the courts.
In a way it's a double whammy for marketers. The new EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communication made sure we couldn't plant cookies on surfers' computers just because they took a look at what we had on offer.
We had to seek permission first.
And on top of this, irrespective of whether or not someone's interested in visiting our web site, we must comply with standards of accessibility for disabled users.
This situation has come about as a direct result of the powers granted to the DRC under the Disability Rights Commission Act 1999.
Powers of the DRC
The DRC is empowered by the Disability Rights Commission Act 1999 to conduct a Formal Investigation for any purpose connected with the performance of its duties under section 2 (1) of the 1999 Act.
Those duties include:
With the Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design at London's City University, the DRC looked at a representative sample of 1,000 public websites.
Among these, 100 sites were subjected to in-depth evaluation by a disabled users group who had a range of impairments. Researchers also canvassed the views of more than 700 businesses that had commissioned websites and nearly 400 website developers.
Findings
More than 80% of all public web sites failed to meet minimum standards for disabled web access and were not compliant under the terms of the 1995 Act.
The survey also found that the average home page contains 108 barriers that make it impossible or very difficult for disabled people to use.
The evaluation of 100 websites by the disabled user group revealed that because of poor accessibility over a quarter of the most routine and straightforward online tasks couldn't be completed successfully.
Discrimination
Blind people faced the most discrimination. They were unable to perform nearly half the tasks set them despite using devices such as screen readers.
In the same study, the DRC found that levels of accessibility expertise amongst website developers were low and only 9% of developers had used disabled people to test their sites.
This would appear to contravene the 1995 Act which states that it's unlawful for "a provider of services" to discriminate against a disabled person in failing to comply with its provisions.
Solution for marketers?
The report didn't name and shame offenders but revealed a number of web sites that were acclaimed for adopting best practice:
So marketers need to get surfing and ensure that they comply with industry best practice if they want to avoid ending up on the wrong side of a legal challenge.
Ardi Kolah appears on the Chartered Institute of Marketing's global . He is author of 'Essential Law for Marketers' (Butterworth Heinemann, £25.00). Read the review of the book on Brand Republic and order your copy online
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