Accessibility is an issue that many organisations are unaware of when it comes to websites. Most organisations realise they need to provide wheelchair access to their business premises, but fail to realise that poor website design means they are discriminating against a large number of users with disabilities - partially sighted users being a perfect example. This means that they are actually in breach of legislation, and risk prosecution.
In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 is the relevant legislation that organisations must comply with. Unfortunately a recent survey by the Disability Rights Commission found that over 80% of UK websites surveyed failed to meet basic requirements for accessibility.
In the US, there are a number of laws that are relevant - the Americans with Disabilities Act, and section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act being the two main ones.
Our webmaster recently completed a major exercise to review the entire site in terms of its accessibility, and a number of changes were made to the site design and layout as a result to improve the sites compliance with relevant standards.
The Predator Conservation Trust website has been carefully designed to ensure it is fully accessible, and complies fully with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act, as well as the US legislation.
If any users with disabilities find any problems with using the site, we would be grateful if they could let us know so we can investigate and take action to deal with the problem.
© Predator Conservation Trust.
