Web Accessibility, the Law and Education

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Web Accessibility, the Law and Education

• Martin Sloan
• Email martin.sloan_at_brodies.co.uk
• Trainee Solicitor
• Brodies WS, Edinburgh
• Techshare 2002, Birmingham
• 21 November 2002

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Web accessibility and the SENDA

• What is Web Accessibility?
• The basis of the legal argument
• Special Educational Needs Act 2001
• e-learning
• Summary and Final Thoughts

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What is Web Accessibility?

• Original concept of the Internet
• Platform Independent
• Universal
• Method of sharing information irrespective of
  disability
• Erosion of these principles
• Proprietary technologies

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Web Accessibility Initiative

• World Wide Web Consortium (W3) Web Accessibility
  Initiative (WAI)
• Designed to promote good design practice
• But low awareness
• Legal argument

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Isnt Education Exempt?

• Excluded from Part III of the Disability
  Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) by s.19(5)
• However Part III still applies to Ancillary
  Services
• For example student unions, catering, lecture
  theatres
• The Public Aspects including Web sites

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The Act and its Obligations

• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• a universal, all embracing right of
  non-discrimination against disabled
  peopleapplicable to all providers of goods,
  facilities and services to the general public
• Minister for Social Security and Disabled People,
• Hansard, H.C. Standing Committee E col. 290

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The Act and its Obligations

• Part III introduced on 1 October 1999
• Code of Practice (the Code)
• fleshes out the Act
• Provides guidance
• Aims to avoid legal action
• Not an authorative statement of the law
• Does mention Web Accessibility

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Who is a Service Provider?

• Not defined in either the Act or the Code
• Non-exhaustive examples listed
• access to and use of information services
• Drafted in pre-Internet era
• Act explicitly includes free services

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Discrimination Defined

• s.20 A provider of services discriminates against
  a disabled person if
• For a reason which relates to the disabled
  persons disability, he treats him less
  favourably than he treats or would treat others
  to whom that reason does not apply and
• he cannot show that the treatment in question is
  justified

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Duties under the Act

• s.19(1)
• not to refuse to provide or deliberately not
  provide any service which he provides or is
  prepared to provide to the public
• to comply with any s.21 duty to make reasonable
  adjustments

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Refusal to Provide a Service

• Where a Service Provider has deliberately chosen
  not to make his site accessible
• Requires knowledge
• But very few sites cannot be made accessible
• Where accessibility is deliberately ignored

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Reasonable Adjustments

• s.21
• (1) where a provider of services has a practice,
  policy or procedure which makes it impossible or
  unreasonably difficult for disabled persons to
  make use of a serviceit is his duty to take such
  steps as it is reasonableto have to take in
  order to change that practice, policy or
  procedure so that it no longer has that effect.

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What is a reasonable adjustment?

• Is it reasonable to provide an accessible Website
  where it had previously been inaccessible?
• Main opposition is cost and work involved
• Question has been considered in Australia

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Maguire v SOCOG

• Visually impaired computer user
• Site was inaccessible
• No ALT attributes on images used for navigating
• Inaccessible tables used in layout of results
• Action under the Commonwealth DDA

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Maguire v SOCOG the findings

• Commission found that
• SOCOG was intending to offer a service to the
  public by creating the Website
• Site was inaccessible
• SOCOGs claims of unjustifiable hardship were
  rejected
• Expert witnesses testified
• Rolling development of the site

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Relevance of Maguire v SOCOG

• Reference to WAI Guidelines
• Standard for Accessibility
• Strict interpretation of undue hardship
• Likely to followed by UK courts when presented
  with the issue

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What does this mean for Education?

• Public elements of the Web site will be
  considered a service
• Will have duties under Part III of the DDA
• Web site should follow the WAI guidelines to
  comply with these duties

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Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001
(the SENDA)

• First duties came into force on 1 September 2002
• Inserts a new Part IV Education into the DDA
• Will effectively confer similar rights upon
  disabled students

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What does the SENDA say?

• Not to treat disabled students less favourably
  without justification
• To make reasonable adjustments so that students
  are not at a substantial disadvantage compared to
  those who are not disabled

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Duties under the SENDA

• Not to discriminate in the arrangements for
  determining admission
• Not to discriminate in the student services it
  provides or offers to provide
• Not to discriminate against a disabled student by
  excluding them from the institution either
  permanently or temporarily

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What is a Student Service?

• Teaching (classes, lectures, seminars, practical
  sessions)
• Curriculum design
• Examinations and assessments
• Informal/optional study skills sessions
• Distance learning
• E-learning
• Learning equipment (handouts, lab equipment)
• Libraries, IT facilities and their resources

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Web/Intranet Pages

• If they provide information in relation to
  education then they will be a student service
• e.g. faculty homepage with course information
• If not will be covered by Part III of the Act
• Will need to be accessible
• Follow the W3C WAI Guidelines

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e-learning

• Specifically mentioned in the Code
• Similar principles apply to e-learning
• Need to ensure that materials and resources are
  provided in an accessible form

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Accessible e-learning

• Provide online materials in an accessible form(s)
• e.g. html not proprietary formats unless you know
  they will be accessible by all students
• Use accessible versions of off the shelf
  products like Blackboard and WebCT
• Caption video/provide transcripts
• Use plain text in email

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Teaching/Lectures

• If using PowerPoint make sure that multimedia is
  made accessible
• Provide handouts online beforehand (in html and
  Word/PDF)
• Provide Videos on the Intranet

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Reasonable Adjustments

• reasonable is undefined
• Likely interpretation can be drawn from Maguire v
  SOCOG and Part III of the Act
• Providing course materials online is a far easier
  and cheaper adjustment than providing in Braille

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Academic Standards

• Defence under the Act
• Unlikely to be relevant in these examples
• May apply where an external body sets the
  standards for a course
• e.g. the General Medical Council. Law Society etc

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Summary of the implications

• Accessible Web sites and teaching resources
• Accessible e-learning
• Provision of the necessary ICT to students to
  access (from 1 September 2003)

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Final Summary

• Duties to make reasonable adjustments to student
  services are now in force
• Duties are anticipatory should not wait for a
  problem to arise
• Ultimate responsibility lies with the governing
  body of the institution
• But

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Final Thought

• Check your contract
• At Edinburgh University members of staff are
  contractually obliged to indemnify the University
  against any losses that the University might
  incur as a result of material they post on the
  University Web site

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Further Information

• TechDIS
• http//www.techdis.ac.uk
• RNIB See It Right Campaign
• http//www.rnib.org.uk/digital/siraccess/
• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
• http//www.w3.org/wai/
• UK Resources for Web Accessibility and the Law
• http//www.btinternet.com/martin.a.sloan/