DDA

The British Standards Institute is inviting website owners, web
product managers, web procurement managers, usability and
accessibility specialists, marketing professionals and disabled
web users, to review and comment on the draft of a new standard on accessible websites.

The National Standards Body of the UK is developing the new code of practice  
DPC BS 8878 Web accessibility – Code of Practice
, to ensure the web is more accessible to elderly and disabled users.

Almost a quarter of disabled people are still regularly suffering from discrimination, a charity has warned.

Leonard Cheshire Disability said there were "shockingly high" levels of discrimination despite the presence of the Disability Discrimination Act.

Common complaints included difficulty in using public transport, a lack of user-friendly facilities and not enough information being made available for
disabled people, a report by the charity found.

OPINION: The UK's law on web accessibility is being re-written in an apparent attempt to make it impenetrable. But even though algebra has replaced plain
English, the duty to make information accessible to disabled people survives, thanks to a blind peer.

The Equality Bill is nearing the end of its Parliamentary journey. It is likely to be in force in October, at which time it will replace the Disability
Discrimination Act (DDA) in England, Scotland and Wales.

As we embark on another decade most of us take surfing the web for granted. But for the nearly eight million people* in the UK who have health conditions
such as blindness or visual impairment, colour blindness, hearing impairment, dyslexia or mobility impairment, this simple everyday task can be an extremely
frustrating experience.

The reason behind this exasperation is almost certainly the fact that many websites have not been built to make them easily accessible to disabled people,
many of whom are increasingly using assistive technology to help them glean information from the internet. This software can provide users with a speech
or Braille output via a screen reader, text magnification to make reading online content easier and allow them to move around websites using their voices
instead of a keyboard or mouse.