FYI
Call for disabled internet revolt
By Mark Ballard
The Register (UK), March 10, 2006
Being nice has achieved little
The Disability Rights Commission plans to call upon disabled internet
users
to rise up against inaccessible website owners and help it take complaints
with the force of law.
The rabble-rousing message will be broadcast by the DRC following the
launch
of new guidelines to amend what it says are limitations in the WAI
accessibility standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium .
Threats to website owners accompanied the DRC's first notable publicity
grab, marked by the publication of its formal investigtion into web
accessibility two years ago.
"We are serving notice that the Disability Rights Commission will use all
its powers to secure compliance on this very important matter," warned DRC
commissioner Michael Burton at the time, while his lawyer said those who
refused to settle out of court would be "pursued all the way".
But the warning has never been honoured, even though a high profile court
case would do wonders for its cause. Six years since the Disability
Discrimination Act made it illegal to produce an inaccessible website in
the
UK, the laws have gone limp through disuse.
Even the Royal National Institute for the Blind, which has been more
diligent in its pursuit of ignorant web owners, has only brought legal
action against two sites, and both of those cases where settled out of
court.
The problem is that the campaigners need disabled people who are prepared
to
complain and bring action with their assistance. The DRC gets around 2,000
calls a week, but very few complaints. Most calls are pleas for advice and
help. The commission reckons that when disabled people come across
inaccessible sites they usually just move on to one they can use.
Without disabled people prepared to challenge the establishment in the
courts, the DRC can do little more than provide advice and guidelines. But
the marketing for its latest latest publication will include a call for
disabled people to complain about offenders so it can take action against
them.
"It will be a part of our marketing to encourage people to ring us and
complain," a DRC spokeswoman said today.
Of course, corporations and public sector organisations are easily
embarrassed into making their sites accessible, as many already have. And
few are likely to want to commit commercial suicide by making a bigoted
stand against accessibility in the courts.
Then the educational work of the DRC does help. The criticism in its
formal
report that the WAI guidelines were too technical has been followed up
with
the launch this week of its own code, which recommends adhering to WAI
standards, but provides further advice on non-technical issues such as
commissioning websites.
This could be useful, as 80 per cent of developers told the DRC that their
clients were not interested in building accessible sites.
Most notable is the guide's insistence that the automated testing most
website owners do to ensure accessibility is inadequate. The DRC asserts
that it is vital that disabled people are used to test a site.
Its new guidelines have been developed in conjunction with the British
Standards Institute, so have some significant kudos. That does mean,
however, that it costs #30 to acquire them and the price does not include
a
kite mark that considerate site owners can use to display their
credentials.
Yet the softly-softly approach appears to have achieved little. The DRC
revealed two years ago that 81 per cent of websites were inaccessible.
They
still are, it says. .
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/10/disabled_web_revolt/
If it's sanity you're after, there's no recipe like laughter.
--Henry Rutherford Elliot/*
