New Guidelines in the UK

Incidentally, the new draft of the Code of Practice that accompanies the 
Disability Discrimination Act in the UK (and tries to shed light on what 
all this legal nonsense means) was officially published yesterday (Wed 27 
2002). This new Code expressly includes a reference to a Web site as an 
online service (in this case an online booking site for an airline):

'Para 2.17 An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking 
service to the public on its website. This is a provision of a service and 
is subject to the Act'

Although the Code is not an authorative statement of the law, it provides 
guidance for service providers and should also be considered by the Courts 
when relevant (although there is no duty to follow it). However, I think we 
can safely say that if and when a web accessibility case comes to court in 
the UK the argument will now be even stronger. This is going to put me out 
of a job...! :-/

For anyone who fancies reading it the Code is available from http://www.  
drc.org.uk/drc/InformationAndLegislation/Page331a.asp

martin.
--
martin.sloan@orange.net
Glasgow Graduate School of Law

Received on Friday, 1 March 2002 05:11:44 UTC