Most businesses are aware of the Disability Discrimination Act ("DDA") ^{(1 2)}, introduced in 1995 to ensure that disabled users are not penalised in any way by businesses, and that all business customers receive the same levels of facilities and support.

Much of the initial focus of DDA compliance was placed on physical building areas, such as; the provision of wheelchair ramps, wider doors, and better counter audio-facilities such as hearing-loops for the hearing-impaired.

With the growth of the web, attention is being more frequently paid to the "online" presence that a business provides, as web sites are also covered by the DDA. This means that a company's web site must be "accessible" by all users, including :-

• Visually impaired users
• Physically handicapped customers
• Users who may have colour differentiation problems ("colour blindness")
• Those who use text-only Web browsers, such as "screen readers" used by blind Web users.

Owners of businesses often mistakenly think that the "DDA" only affects large portals and enterprise sites, but in the same way as all other discrimination laws it affects everyone.

Our team can analyse your web site, and report on its status with relation to the DDA. If you require, then we can also revise your web site to better fit within the DDA guidelines, and make it more "accessible" to your current and potential new users.

As well as legislatory compliance, having a site updated to fit the DDA guidelines has many other benefits :-

• It shows your customers that you care about them. This might sound all "touchy feely", but it has good business benefits as the modern consumer looks at many factors when choosing a supplier, including business ethics and disability policies.
• It provides better usability to customers with mobile devices or slow/limited Internet connections. A more accessible website displays its content in a readable format on portable small-screen devices such as Blackberries, Palmpilots, cellphones and other "PDAs". Viewing websites on portable devices is becoming increasingly popular, why risk losing customers because they couldn't view your web site when they wanted to.
• Better readability to search-engines.  Making a website more accessible to humans typically causes an increase in visits from search engine users and better "ranking".
• Faster loading time. More accessible web sites "load" quicker providing a better user experience. Web user behavioural analysis shows that most people follow the "3 second rule", if your site hasn't loaded and they aren't reading content within 3 seconds then they will click elsewhere. Don't lose your potential customers' attention..