The Disability Discrimination Act 1999 can be interpreted as placing a legal duty on website owners to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people can use their website. If your website is deemed to be inaccessable to disabled users you could potentially be sued as a result and have damages awarded against you.
The general concensus from most authorities and support groups is for web designers to follow the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to ensure disabled users are not excluded from having access to the website.
I use a checklist of these accessibility guidelines in all my website builds and place an Accessibility Statement on your website for clarification.
The language used in the text files that make websites is called HTML (HyperText Markup Language) - this provides the framework for the website. The presentation, colours, fonts, boxes etc is handled by CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international organisation that develops web standards. They set out the guidelines that all web authors should aspire to keep to.
They have tools on their website where you can check if any site's HTML or CSS is correctly written. You will often see the following buttons on many websites - give them a click to test whether that site's code makes the grade...
European Law states that websites should show the company's (Service Provider's) business name and state whether this is a trading name of any other company. A full postal address should also be supplied. If your company is a Limited Company the registration number, place of registration (Scotland or England and Wales) and Registered Office address (often the accountant's) should be displayed. VAT Registration numbers should also be shown on the website. It is also neccessary that a valid email address and telephone number should be made available for your website users to contact you.
Under European Law, prices on your website must be clear and unambiguous. Also, your website must state whether prices are inclusive of tax and delivery costs. The Law gives consumers a right to:
For more information on the UK's eCommerce Regulations go to http://www.out-law.com/page-431
For more information on the UK's Distance Selling Regulations go to http://www.out-law.com/page-430
For your own and your website users' protection, it is a good idea to also include the following on your website:
I provide all these documents on each of my website builds.
I will deliver to you a website that is completely bespoke, hand-built to the highest level of craftmanship. A website both you and I can be proud of!
Contact me to discuss your website requirements and get a quote.
