RE: Directives, policies, laws, and regulations that reference WCAG 2.1 I

There are actually a number of differences between ADA and the UK Equality Act. Perhaps the most important is that ADA allows lawyers to slap a law suit on an organisation without warning. I have seen this first hand with a couple of clients. In fact, the lawyers do all they can to pressure the defendant to settle out of court (which is their primary goal) rather than fix the problem (which for them is a financial opportunity they do not want fixed).

The lawyers secretly get everything in place, then file the papers and ask the court for the earliest possible trial as a class action (which enables the maximum possible penalties) on the basis that other parties could be similarly affected (even though no other parties are mentioned in the suit or have said they are affected).

By contrast, in the UK if someone believes they have been discriminated against, they must notify the organisation, tell them what the problem is and give them the opportunity to put it right or provide the service or information by alternative means. They can only take the issue to court if the organisation fails to do this in a reasonable timescale. In the case of the airline that Guy mentioned (BMI Baby), that timescale was about a year, and the case had not completed its passage through the courts when the airline was shut down 9 months later.

The phrase “provide the service or information by alternative means” is really important because it is capable of providing organisations with a fast and cheap way to deal with individual complaints.

This is why ambulance-chasing parasite lawyers don’t and won’t go after disability discrimination cases in the UK.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd


From: Guy Hickling <guy.hickling@gmail.com>
Sent: 15 July 2020 21:15
To: WAI Interest Group discussion list <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: RE: Directives, policies, laws, and regulations that reference WCAG 2.1 I

In the UK we have an exact equivalent of the ADA, it's the Equality Act 2010. Like the ADA it did not initially mention websites, but that was solved early on by associated regulations that specified that websites were also covered. Also like the ADA there is no financial penalty specified for non-compliance. I think that is why so few cases have been started.

Two cases went to court many years ago, where the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) supported the plaintiffs. Private settlements, including remediation of the websites, were obtained on both occasions. (On the third occasion the defendant company, an airline, went bust before the case got to court.)

I think what we need here is for lawyers to take the initiative in the same way that lawyers have in the US. We have a thriving "No win no fee" legal industry in the UK, but they concentrate at the moment on accident claims. If they were to interest themselves in website accessibility claims under the Equality Act, we would have an immediate improvement in the websites of private companies. It is a sad fact but true, that only the threat of immediate litigation and/or penalties is sufficient to force businesses to do the right thing in any aspect of life.