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Interactive Advertising Bureau
Helping build the online advertising market 

 

IAB Public Affairs: Disability Discrimination Act 

 

! NEW LEGAL OBLIGATIONS FOR IAB MEMBERS ! 

 

    2 9 th  October 2004
www.iabuk.net

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>> About this briefing

• The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) aims to end discrimination towards people with disabilities in a number of areas, including access to goods, services and facilities.  A new  Statutory Code of Practice regarding access to services, including the internet, came into force on 1st October 2004. This affects websites, and their advertising.
• Part 3 of the act deals with goods and services, and is intended to ensure that service providers “consider making reasonable adjustments to the way they deliver their services so that disabled people can use them”.
• Essentially, you should consider whether a disabled person using your  service would have to expend an unreasonable amount of extra time or effort in order to use that service compared to a non-disabled person.  
• We have produced for IAB members a set of  Top Ten Tips for creating accessible ads to help you comply with the law. These are attached, together with a more detailed checklist on compliance. 
• You are exempt if you can argue that making these “reasonable adjustments” would make the service un-usable by non-disabled users, or if such changes would fundamentally alter the nature of your service.

 

>> How can I comply with the guidelines?

·         The DDA offers no specific rules for websites on compliance with the general objectives which it sets out.   However, it is clear that you must ensure that users are able accurately to identify advertisements.  They should not be disguised. This is especially important for users who are blind who will not be able visually to distinguish advertising which may therefore be confused as content. The user must have the possibility to distinguish between what is promotional content from editorial, as they are able to do in the press. The combination of "title" and "alt" attributes can help. E.g. Add “Promotional content” first to the Alt Tag.  More information is attached in the "Top Ten Tips for Making your Ads Accessible".

• For additional information,  the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines on website accessibility, which can be found at: http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/wai-pageauth.html, offer specific solutions to problems which websites may pose to some disabled users.
• As the W3C is the Internet’s “governing body”, these guidelines are likely to be used if and a when a case is brought by a disabled person against a website.
• The guidelines are split into three levels: what you must do, what you should do, and what you may do.
• A full checklist of these guidelines, sorted by priority, is attached, and can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist.html
• These guidelines affect any content on the Internet, whether editorial or advertising.
• One of the main criteria is that all content must easily be accessible through screen reader technology which assists blind users.
• In any dispute, it is the advertiser who is responsible.
• However, it has been found that 49% of accessibility problems with websites are not picked up by complying with these checklists, and that full compliance can only be achieved by sitting down with a disabled user and getting them to use your content as you watch. This is the only way to ensure compliance with the standards to which you would be held in any eventual court case.
• On the other hand, the claimant cannot receive criminal damages in cases of this kind, so the financial damage to a company found guilty would be minimal (although the bad publicity may have a higher cost).

 

>> What is the IAB’s position?

·         The IAB  suggests you follow the top ten tips and make sure your advertising as well as editorial content is accessible and distinguishable from each other through the standard screen reader technologies.  At the very least, you must ensure that your advertising is identifiable as such and that disabled users are able to click through and follow links.

·         Please note that this briefing does not constitute a legal briefing. Please check with your legal advisers that you are compliant with the legislation.

 

>>>Want more information?

·         The Disability Discrimination Act can be found at:  http://www.drc-gb.org/uploaded_files/documents/2008_223_drc%20cop%20rights%20of%20Access.doc

·         Attached: a formal investigation into web accessibility by the Disability Rights Commission.

·         The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines on website accessibility can be found at: http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/wai-pageauth.html

·         The RNIB website has a useful set of resources for ensuring that your content can be read by blind surfers’ screen reader technology, including legal requirements, recommendations, and case studies: http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/code/public_rnib008789.hcsp

·         http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp is a website which will test your site’s accessibility.

 

 

For more information contact the IAB Secretariat on secretariat@IABuk.net or call 020 7886 8282.

You can also request our briefings on other Public Affairs topics, such as:

·          Financial Services and Pharmaceuticals Advertising

·          Cookies and Commercial Email Marketing

·          Email Tracking

 

 

 

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