Accessibility as a legal requirement in the UK/Europe

Hi,

For some time now I have been trying to preach the accessibility route 
to clients, however the main questions that I seem to get back are (1)  
what standards should we adhere to, W3C's, Section 508 or a subset and 
(2)when is it likely to be a legal requirement.

The first question is difficult to answer until the laws are in place, 
but I generally answer that adhering to the W3C's recommendations are 
the best route for the time being.

The second question is even harder to answer - the big problem I have 
is trying to keep up to date with what is going on with the legal side 
of things.

I believe that there are proposals going through Europe relating to 
accessibility and websites and also that the UK Government is wanting 
government related sites to be fully accessible by a set date (2006?), 
However this is all based on odd snippets/rumours of info that I have 
picked up rather than hard facts or authoritative speculation.

Please could you recommend resources that I can keep an eye on to 
ensure that I am up to date with what is happening.

I thought that this list would be a good place, but it seems a little 
quiet.

Cheers,

Julian Voelcker
Cirencester, United Kingdom

Received on Tuesday, 7 January 2003 08:39:22 UTC