Blind People need not apply, the truth about online accessibility discrimination

A lot has been said lately about the Disability Discrimination Act and whether or not your website is illegal. What does this mean to your business, how can you find out, what are the implications if your jobsite isnít compliant and what can you do to fix it? These are questions all business owners with an online recruitment strategy should be asking themselves. More importantly, if your jobsite is non-compliant, that means it is effectively straight employer discrimination, which is even more serious. Would you ever consider adding a ìblind people need not applyî to your job ad?

Is your website legal?

It is very easy to see if your jobsite is legal or not. There is plenty of information on the net, but if you would like a check-up free of charge, just contact us.

How many people have a disability in the UK?

The office of national statistics states that there are 8.5 million people living in the UK with a disability. Only 5% of these people need the use of a wheelchair, so this demonstrates the diverse range of impairments that are classified as a disability.

To be officially recognised as impairment, the disability must affect one of the following functions:

Mobility

Manual dexterity

Physical coordination

Continence

Lifting, carrying or moving objects

Speech, hearing or eyesight

Memory or the ability to concentrate, learn or understand,

Perception or the ability to recognise the risk of physical danger

Conditions such as impaired vision or hearing, dyslexia and depression are also officially recognised as disabilities.

A recent survey revealed that 1 in 6 young people with a disability said they had been turned down for a paid job, and told it was for a reason related to their disability or health problem (Disability Rights Commission 11/2002).

One out of every four consumers in the UK either has a disability or has a person in his or her immediate circle with a disability (Achieving Access 2002).

By the year 2010, 40% of the population will be over 45: the age at which disability begins to increase significantly, and the annual buying power for people with a disability is 40 - 50 billion.

What can you do about it?

If your website isnít legal, it is reasonably easy to correct this. You must go back to the original code and make simple adjustments to the layers, images and style sheets of your site. The content doesnít have to be altered and nor do the images, however, the format of them does. We can help you with this, or we can offer you a full report on the changes that will need to be done by your development team to ensure that the correct changes are made and the website is fully compliant, making it legal.



What does this mean to your business?

In the UK it is illegal to discriminate against people because of their colour, religion, gender or whether they have a disability or not and it is now illegal to discriminate online as well. Any argument against accessibility is an argument for discrimination

Implementing a direct recruitment strategy is fantastic, but if you ignore the accessibility aspects, you may be opening your employer brand up to a whirlwind of negative press.