denotes premium content | Feb 8 2012 
Regular
posted 31 Aug 2004 in Volume 1 Issue 3
Access denied ?
It is probably not the compliance issue you are most familiar with, but starting in October 2004, the Disability Discrimination Act will require employers in the UK to make their internal IT systems accessible to those with disabilities. The costs of not doing so, writes Harry Wilson, could be enormous if enterprises don’t take action sooner rather than later.
The concept of usability has steadily gained importance since the internet’s inception. Conferences are held on it; volumes are published on it; self-styled gurus are made from it. But for all the attention the essential functionality of a site (design, content and ease of navigation are examples) gathers from the industry, one point that can be easily overlooked is accessibility.
The UK’s Disability Discrimination Act is legislation that is helping take the internet, and extensions of it, out of its infancy. Since October 1999, the Act has required public-facing websites to be accessible to people with disabilities. Similar legislation exists in the US. If businesses haven’t been paying attention to the legislation, they may be shocked to learn that, as of October 2004, they have a responsibility to ensure the same standards of accessibility apply to their internal IT systems – including intranets and extranets. Employers in the UK will not be allowed to wait until their staff cannot use the system; their duties to provide accessibility are, as the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) says, “anticipatory and ongoing”. This means, for example, that if you have an intranet a partially-sighted employee can’t use, you could wind up in court if you don’t make “reasonable adjustments” so that they can.
Vague as that phrase might sound, it’s not inconceivable that non-compliance will end up costing you. In August 2000, the case of Maguire v The Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games found organisers had been in breach of the Australian Disability Discrimination Act by failing to provide a website to which Bruce Maguire, who is blind, could have access. Maguire was awarded A$20,000.
Closer to home, in July 2003, the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) took two companies to court, complaining that their public-facing websites were inaccessible. Although both cases were settled out of court, the mere mention of lawsuits should have enterprises paying much closer attention. In any case, it’s logical to assume that if these organisation’s websites need accessibility work, their intranets and extranets probably do too.
Julie Howell, digital policy development manager at the RNIB, says organisations who haven’t yet complied with the act still have some breathing room – but not much. Since the legislation is based on case law, a precedent for an inaccessible intranet or extranet doesn’t yet exist. “It’s hard to predict when it will happen,” says Howell. “But it will.” Howell has fielded calls from businesses asking about the deadline and what it entails, but believes most have no idea what’s required of them as employers. “I’ve not heard a great deal of talking about internal IT systems,” she says. “The awareness out there is very low. Employers need to be more conscious of effective interaction with software that people with disabilities use.”
Enterprises would do well to follow the example already set by some branches of local government. As outlined in last month’s issue of ei magazine, the Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council website already boasts a AAA rating from the World Wide Web Consortium. The site has made allowances for visually impaired users by using technologies such as screen reader or magnification software. Hearing-impaired users can exploit text-captioning software to gain a similar advantage.
With that in mind, businesses should be asking themselves what they can do to make their intranet or extranet compliant with accessibility guidelines. The DRC makes 15 recommendations for web accessibility in its April 2004 report, The Web: Access and Inclusion for Disabled People.1 These include having written policies, involving disabled users in the design process, performing an access audit and conducting intranet-usability tests. Again, it is logical to apply these guidelines to an intranet or extranet.
Employing any of these options is an expensive proposition when your bottom line is profit. The alternative, however, could force businesses to spend more than their IT systems are worth on damage payments or out-of-court settlements.
Reference
1. http://www.drcgb.org/publicationsandreports/theweb1.rtf
