In the UK, stricter regulations have meant that public sector organisations, in particular, have had to step up their game. While in the US, an increase in litigation has caused more people to focus on the importance of accessibility compliance.

So what are the legal requirements to make your website accessible?

UK commercial sites

Website accessibility in the UK is covered by the Equality Act 2010. This protects all individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fairer and more equal society. Website owners are required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to make their websites accessible to people with disabilities. The law requires service providers to anticipate the needs of potential disabled customers for reasonable adjustments.

As far as we know, the act has not been examined by law in regards to website accessibility. Several companies faced legal action brought by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), but these cases were settled before being heard in court. So there is no legal precedent as to what constitutes a ‘reasonable match’. However, given that the government has adopted WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the appropriate standard for public sector websites (see below) and is more widely recognized as a ‘good’ approach, any website that complies with these guidelines will have a very strong defense against any legal action.

UK public sector websites

On September 23, 2019, the accessibility regulations came into effect. These days, public sector websites will have to meet certain accessibility standards and publish a statement saying they have been met. Existing sites had to comply from September 23, 2020, while the deadline for applications was June 23, 2021.

These regulations do not cover 100%, but according to Gov.uk public sector bodies include:

The central government and local government organizations
Some charities and other NGOs
But the following organizations are exempt:

Non-governmental organizations such as charities – unless they are mostly funded by public funding, provide essential services to the public or are intended for people with disabilities
Schools or kindergartens – apart from the content that people need to use their services, for example a form that allows you to outline school meal preferences
Public sector broadcasters and their subsidiaries
The standard they have to meet is WCAG 2.1 level AA. However there are some exemptions. For example if it will cause a ‘disproportionate burden’. This means that if you are a small, poor organization (e.g. the community council) with few or no disabled users you can claim that compliance with the regulations is a ‘disproportionate burden’. But you need a formal assessment to make this case.

More information is available on the government website.

Commercial websites in the USA

In the US there are no specific laws that refer to the accessibility of websites but they are covered under Title 3 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Like the UK Equality Act, this covers all types of disability discrimination in businesses open to the public (eg restaurants, schools, leisure facilities) as well as commercial facilities (eg factories, warehouses or office buildings).

Following a successful case in 2017 (Gil v. Winn-Dixie), a cottage industry emerged in the US filing ADA Title III lawsuits against companies. It’s a really easy gig, just run an accessibility tool on a website and most of them will fail at something! Since then, the industry is booming with the number of ADA Title III lawsuits relating to website accessibility increasing 255% from 814 in 2017 to 2,895 in 2021, according to the Seyfarth law firm. The total number of ADA Title III claims (not just accessibility) also continues to rise, 320% in just 8 years.

Although compliance with the WCAG guidelines is not written into US law, as it is in the UK, it will provide good protection against ADA Title III lawsuits for Internet accessibility.

US government websites

US government websites (federal, state, and local) must comply with Section 508 regulations. This states that all electronic and information technologies developed, purchased, maintained, or used by the federal government must be accessible to people with disabilities.

These regulations were updated in 2017 to include the WCAG 2.0 Level AA guidelines. So compliance with the WCAG 2.0 AA guidelines will meet Section 508 requirements for website accessibility.

Europe

The European Union (EU) Directive on accessibility of websites and mobile applications requires EU member states to ensure that their websites and mobile applications meet common accessibility standards. The directive uses the four principles of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, which require public sector organizations across the EU to take steps to ensure that their websites are “conceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Then again, by complying with WCAG 2.1 AA will also comply with the EU directive.