Disability Discrimination Act
By Chris Eden -
A little while ago I was called by a man who claimed that he was having difficulty accessing my website and on further investigation it turned out that he was visually impaired. Apparently, and I must admit I was totally unaware of this requirement, all web-sites which offer goods or services to then public must take into account that some people wishing to access these sites may have disabilities.
I discussed this with Debbie Harrison of DVH Design, who looks after my website, and she has done a great deal of research and is in the process of upgrading my website to comply with this requirement.
Some people have difficulty reading the standard font used on sites and it should be possible for a user to select an enlarged font or a greatly enlarged font. In addition I understand that some users find difficulty reading black on a light background so the user should be able to select a different colour background.
The other requirement is for the user to be able to use a keyboard instead of a mouse.
I ran an internal quality auditing course some years ago where three partially sighted men from Action for Blind People, attended. They requested that I provide the written material for them in 36 point Times Roman instead of 12 point as had been the case for other delegates. This was easily provided and all three delegates not only passed then course but said that they had really enjoyed the two day.
It is a pity that those of us who have no such disabilities do not automatically think of those less fortunate and make then necessary adjustments need to allow easy access to our material.
Chris Eden FIBC, MISSA, ACQI is a director of Quality Matters Limited an established independent management consultancy based in Essex, UK which specialises in ISO27001 Information Security Management consultancy.
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