MeAC – Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe

Legislation/regulations

The Disability Act came into effect on 31 December, 2005. It is a positive action measure which provides a statutory basis for making public services accessible. It places responsibilities on public agencies to ensure that their services are accessible to people with disabilities, with the direct obligation being placed on the head of each public agency covered. It covers a wide range of public bodies, including central and local government. It does not specifically mention web services, but these fall within the scope of the Act in a number of ways.

The three requirements with most relevance for accessibility of public websites are in Part 3.

• Section 26 requires public bodies to ensure that the services they provide to the general public are accessible to people with disabilities where practicable and appropriate. In practical terms, this means that people with disabilities can avail of public services at the same point of access or location, at the same time as everyone else, where practicable and appropriate.
• Section 27 requires public bodies to ensure that the goods and services that they purchase are accessible, unless it would not be practicable or justifiable on cost grounds or would result in an unreasonable delay.
• Section 28 states that following a request, communications by a public body to a person with a hearing or visual impairment must, as far as practicable, be provided in an accessible format. Information provided electronically must, as far as practicable, be compatible with adaptive technology. Published information, relevant to persons with intellectual disabilities must also be, as far as practicable, made available in easy to read formats.

Compliance is defined in the Act in terms of compliance with an approved code of practice. The relevant code of practice for accessibility of public services has been prepared by the National Disability Authority (NDA). It is designed to guide public bodies in meeting their statutory obligations by providing practical advice and examples. In fact, the code only gives limited attention to website accessibility, referring to WAI AA conformance as a good practice target and noting the earlier policy statements to have all public websites compliant by the end of 2001.

The Act also makes provision for disabled people to make complaints if public services are inaccessible, first to an inquiry officer of the public agency in question and then, if necessary, to the Ombudsman.

The Equal Status Acts 2000 and 2004 are anti-discrimination legislation that provide rights of redress for disabled people in relation to discrimination in access to, inter alia, public services. The guide to service providers on compliance (the Reasonable Accommodation of People With Disabilities in the Provision of Goods and Services guide) encourages them to check that the communication technologies they use are accessible.  Examples given include websites (and telephone services and interactive technologies). Prima facie, the Equal Status Acts would appear to cover discrimination in the provision of online and web-based services, although to date there is no specific case law which might clarify this.

The Equal Status Acts also apply to private services and would thus appear to cover private online service provision.

Other measures

eAccessibility of public websites was first addressed in policy in January 1999, in the context of the development of quality standards for public service websites within the Government’s action plan on the Information Society. Access to public websites for people with a disability was defined as a specific action point. Guidelines and standards for all public sector websites were produced in November 1999, recommending adherence to international best practice in relation to design and accessibility.

The Government’s information society policy was further detailed in the document ‘New Connections’ (March 2002). This recognised the importance of providing online services in a way that makes them accessible to all citizens, including those with disabilities. It referred directly to the eEurope 2002 recommendation to adopt the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines for public websites. The need to monitor standards in this area was recognised and it was decided that the National Disability Authority should have a major role in this regard.

In June 2002, the National Disability Authority (NDA) launched the NDA IT Accessibility Guidelines v1.1. The guidelines cover websites and online applications, and also public access terminals (such as ATMs, information kiosks, ticket vending machines, information displays, and card readers), telecommunication devices and services (such as desktop telephones, mobile phones and Interactive Voice Response services), and computer application software. NDA is currently updating these guidelines.

The Excellence Through Accessibility (EtA) Awards scheme (launched in October 2005) accredits public bodies that reach high standards in accessibility across key aspects of their services including buildings and facilities, publications, websites, customer services, human resources and procurement procedures. Web accessibility is one aspect of the award scheme – guideline 14 requires that the organisation’s website is WCAG 1.0 AA compliant.

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