Recognising that web accessibility isn’t just a moral obligation, but a legal requirement, Jadu Limited has created a new accessible design policy.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) introduced new laws aimed at ending the discrimination that the 8.5 million disabled people in the UK face.
The Act gave disabled people new rights of access to goods, facilities and services, as well as in employment and buying or renting property. As of October 2004, the DDA comes into full force and the implications may have a significant effect on business web sites.
Since many businesses provide goods and services via the Internet, it is likely that their web sites do not conform to the accessibility standards required for disabled people to easily browse through.
Some web sites may even restrict or simply not function for disabled people - and these businesses may be subject to lawsuits demanding they defend their designs in court.
"Jadu is committed to ensuring that our web sites comply with all aspects of international accessibility standards, from now on all Jadu web sites will be designed for full accessibility for the disabled... we are starting the process of re-designing our own web site as well as many of our current users. " - Suraj Kika of Jadu
Jadu have recently developed a content managed web site for Effective Communications using Jadu Publishing.
Effective Communications is an interpersonal skills training consultancy run by Judith Gilmore. Judith as helped over 10,000 people to professionally present themselves and their ideas to increase their company's sales and profits.
"I am delighted that Jadu have developed a website that I can manage myself easily - the site has been built to be future-proof and to comply with accessibility standards, without compromising on the visual design..." - Judith Gilmore
The Effective Communications web site is among a number of new sites that Jadu will be launching during the Spring.
Lee Pilmore, lead designer at Jadu said: "We spent months researching standards for accessibility, using resources and information from the RNIB and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to engineer a new process for design... we now no longer rely on traditional methods of web design - in fact, we have completely changed the way we build web sites..."
"We sincerely hope that other website developers will also take this responsibility seriously."
