Jan Faerber wrote:
> Why does this violate any laws?
To quote a couple of random passages from something I am working on at
the moment:
_Americans with Disabilities Act_
"Deval Patrick (US Assistant Attorney General in 2001) states that the
ADA does apply to all Websites, as long as the public entity that
created the site employs 15 or more employees"
_Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act_
"Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which was most recently amended
in 1998, states that Federal agencies are prohibited from ``procuring,
developing, maintaining or using EIT (Electronic and Information
Technology) that is inaccessible to people with disabilities."
_Canadian Charter of Human Rights_
"Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to
the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination
and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or
ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, or \textbf{mental or physical
disability}.
This legislation applies to all situations encountered in all walks of
life, and in particular it covers goods and services provided to the
public. Whether or not this can be extended to online goods and services
is not, however, a matter of debate as it has already been shown that
the law applies to other forms of media --- specifically television."
_UK Disability Discrimination Act_
"Part three of the DDA refers to the ``provision of access to goods,
facilities and services, including the general prohibition on unlawful
discrimination''\citep{cooper1996}, and as such any online service, such
as the example given above, should be deemed as a service covered by
Part three of this act. Section 19(3) of the Act does list the
generalised examples ``access to and use of information services, access
to and use of means of communication, and facilities for entertainment''
as cases where the Act is deemed to apply. It can be seen that all three
of these cases can equally be applied to Websites, and as such the DDA
would appear to apply here."
_Australian Disability Discrimination Act_
"On a Federal level, Australian disability legislation consists of the
Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), which was introduced in 1993,
several years before its UK counterpart. Just like the UK DDA, the
Australian version was created long before the advent of the World Wide
Web, and so does not mention Website accessibility as a specific case
where it applies. It can be seen, however, that this legislation covers
almost exactly the same areas as the UK DDA, and so should apply in
cases of Website accessibility."
I have more examples of legislation that applies to Websites (by which I
mean Internet and Intranet) from various other countries, including
Germany, Ireland and New Zealand, but I don't want to make this post any
longer!
The important thing to note here, especially with the ADA legislation,
is that they all apply to both members of the public accessing a site
*and* employees of the company who need to use it too.
--
Dylan Parry
http://webpageworkshop.co.uk -- FREE Web tutorials and references