The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) last year launched a formal investigation into the accessibility of websites in the UK and has now published its findings: ‘The Web: Access and Inclusion for Disabled People’. Accessibility is a legal requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, but the report concludes that many public websites are impossible for disabled people to use. The DRC investigated a representative sample of 1,000 public websites and of these just 19% met the Web Accessibility Initiative minimum standard. In the second stage of the investigation the DRC conducted a detailed user evaluation of 100 websites, selected from the original 1,000. Of the 913 tasks undertaken by the user panel, around one quarter could not be completed successfully, with blind participants in particular failing to complete around a half. The report contains 15 key recommendations, including the need for best practice guidance and a formal accreditation process to be developed. Egg.com and Oxfam.org.uk were among just five sites praised for their excellent accessibility.
