Legal Issues

Seale (2006) suggests that the introduction of standards, guidelines and legislation has not led to a significant improvement in accessibility. I would disagree. Yes, there is no doubt that there is a long way to go and progress is slow – but to say that there has been no significant improvement – I think is unfair. 45,000 public bodies across Great Britain are covered by the Disability Equality Duty.

In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in 1995, made it unlawful to discriminate against disabled people as employees, as students, and as consumers of goods and services. The author of the JISC TechDis Accessibility Legislation section expresses the view that some of the terms used are ‘fluffy’ or imprecise. Problems are caused by this imprecision. The DDA states employers, education establishments, and providers of goods and services need to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to avoid discriminating against disabled people. Many ask what exactly ‘reasonable’ means and are confused about their responsibilities by law.Where ‘reasonable’, websites, software, buildings and other entities involved in employment, education or other services, need to be made accessible. As long as guidance is just that and not enforced – compliance will never be 100%.

The legislation does bring benefits. I think it benefits both teaching institutions in terms of guidance and support and funding available; but more so to disabled students. Teaching institutions can now receive guidance on all they need to know from improvements to physical environments like advice on lighting and paint schemes to help visually impaired students to making adjustments that help disabled students have better access to the curriculum. Disabled students’ allowances provide extra financial help if you have a disability or a specific earning difficulty like dyslexia. This is paid on top of the standard student package and does not have to be repaid. The allowance helps with specialist equipment, helpers, extra travel costs and other costs like tapes or Braille paper.

The DDA gives disabled people important rights of access to every day services and many local councils, doctors’ surgeries, hotels, banks, pubs, post offices, theatres, hairdressers, schools etc have access by installing ramps and widening doorways for wheelchair users. When I visit a bank now, there is always an induction loop for people who are hearing impaired. Awareness has improved and many are aware of the requirements to improve accessibility on the web. Many services are now available by email and phone and in many companies disabled awareness training is run.

Since December 2006, there has been a legal duty on all public sector organisations to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. People who work in the public sector have to consider the impact of their work on disabled people and take action to tackle disability inequality. Significant public authorities have had to publish a ‘Disability Equality Scheme’.

The UK has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but has signalled it will do so by the end of 2008. It was one of the first to sign the treaty. The UK has expressed reservations to parts of the Convention, for example, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), have asked for reservations to be attached to the ratification. Where the Convention says that children with disabilities should be included within “the general education system”, the DCSF wants to make a declaration about how it interprets the word “general”. It should not be taken to mean “mainstream”, says the ministry, but simply the existing range of provision, retaining separate special schools. And where the Convention talks about inclusion in the local community, the DCSF wants to issue a reservation that will enable it to carry on providing “specialist provision, which may be some way from [the children’s] home”, i.e. residential schools.

 

Wong-Hernandez, L. (2001) identifies common factors for hindering progress:-

1. Accessibility awareness training and education is needed for everyone for both disabled and non-disabled people.
2. Compliance to legislation has to be enforced and monitored.
3. More resources and support is required.

I think the issues relating to disability and accessibility are similar from those arising with regard to other aspects of equality and human rights, such as racial discrimination. The similarities, I have identified are that both seek to promote equal opportunities; the use of appropriate language; eliminate discrimination; promote positive attitudes towards people; monitor services etc. There is a Disability Equality Scheme’ and similiarly there is a ‘Race Equality Scheme’. Both are concerned with training and development, grievances and disciplinaries etc. Both take steps to meet the needs of people and for everyone to have full participation in public life. The big difference for disablity rights is the requirement for access and the need for equipment. Knowledge, training and education is required so that everybody has disability in mind, when they design and implement anything. Would it not be great if no website could go live and be launched on the web without meeting accessibility requirements?