One of the most important pieces of accessibility legislation in the United Kingdom is the Equality Act UK, which provides a cohesive framework to protect persons with disabilities from discrimination based on nine protected characteristics, including age and gender.
The Act’s main goal is for organizations to make their digital spaces and brick-and-mortar locations fully accessible, with reasonable adjustments such as physical alterations to buildings, readily accessible information, employment protections, and more.
Keep reading to learn more about the Equality Act UK, including what it is, how it pertains to web accessibility, and how accessibility widgets like Accessibly can help your website or mobile application increase compliance, allowing full and equal participation for individuals with disabilities.
Introduction to the Equality Act UK
The Equality Act UK is a landmark legislation in the United Kingdom, providing robust protection to the disabled community against discrimination. It establishes a legal framework that prohibits direct and indirect discrimination based on nine characteristics, including age, gender, disability, race, religion, sex, and pregnancy status.
Another key provision of the Equality Act UK is its invigorated focus on public sector equality, which requires public sector companies to dive deeply into business practices, working towards the goal of eliminating discrimination.
Before the Equality Act UK, several pieces of legislation offered overly complex provisions and exceptions. These include the Sex Discrimination Act (1975), the Race Relations Act (1976), and the Disability Discrimination Act (1995). All of these were interpreted differently, with plenty of inconsistencies along the way. Each was specific to one or two protected classes, unlike the Equality Act UK, which covers nine classes.
Web Accessibility and the Equality Act UK
Simply, websites must comply with the Equality Act UK as it relates to web accessibility. Critical provisions of the Equality Act UK include but are not limited to the following:
Preventing Indirect Discrimination
One critical tenet of the Equality Act UK is to prevent indirect discrimination. It establishes a full scope of indirect discrimination, addressing web issues that could indirectly discriminate against individuals with disabilities, such as a lack of readable fonts, poorly constructed navigational elements, or incompatibility with assistive technologies like screen readers.
By keeping all of these considerations in mind, expect digital spaces and physical locations to be barrier-free, inclusive, and fully accessible for individuals with disabilities.
Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)
Another area of the Equality Act UK is the responsibility of public sector organizations to promote anti-discriminatory practices within their organizations.
This includes creating fully accessible websites and online services and complying with WCAG, a set of internationally recognized standards for building accessible websites that mandates everything from focus management to alternative text for images.
Reasonable Adjustments
A third essential component of the Equality Act UK is for all service providers to make a focused and consistent effort to adjust brick-and-mortar and digital services by making physical or digital modifications. For example, a bus stop could use digital signage with text-to-speech options, while a typical brick-and-mortar location can benefit from widening entryways to accommodate wheelchair users.
In short, the Equality Act UK is an essential piece of legislation ensuring that all individuals with disabilities have full and equal access to physical brick-and-mortar locations and online services. Consolidating past forms of legislation into one robust and complete framework simplifies the process for all businesses and organizations to understand and meet web accessibility standards.
Why Web Accessibility Matters
Arguably, the number one reason for web accessibility is to promote inclusivity and equality for people with disabilities, allowing them to enjoy free and equal participation in both physical and online services.
Recognizing that approximately 15% of the world’s population suffers from some form of disability, focusing on accessible web design elements like alternative text for images, semantic HTML, and larger cursors allows users to enjoy and improve their user experience. This also helps boost retention rates, lower bounce rates, increase average time on site, and enhance numerous other metrics for increased engagement and revenue.
Today, internationally recognized accessibility frameworks are used to make websites accessible. These include the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which call for website elements like larger cursors, highlighted links, compatibility with screen readers, and dozens of other accessibility upgrades to keep individuals with disabilities on the page for much longer.
Failure to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) results in legal repercussions, including lawsuits by nonprofits, disabled advocacy groups, and similar organizations, ongoing ADA Title III enforcement action, and compliance audit requests by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Even the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) could become involved. The EEOC is responsible for investigating complaints, initiating lawsuits, and providing technical assistance for all eligible businesses and organizations to meet ADA compliance.
How Accessibly Helps Businesses Increase Compliance with the Act
Accessibly is one of the leading digital accessibility widgets available.
It helps businesses and organizations increase compliance by introducing an overlay on their sites. This overlay allows users to customize their navigation or experience, adjusting everything from brightness to helpful tooltips that label images.
Integration is straightforward and takes less than 5 minutes. It can be integrated into any website using custom code and offers native integration with popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify, WordPress Elementor, and WooCommerce.
Key Accessibly Features
Here are some of our favorite Accessibly features:
Quick Implementation
Accessibly can be integrated into any website using custom code. It also offers native integration with Shopify, WordPress, Elementor, and WooCommerce.
15+ Features
Accessibly allows any website owner to upgrade their website. These upgrades include enlarging cursors and text, introducing helpful tooltips, and adding additional reading lines to make it easier to digest information.
Increases ADA and WCAG Compliance
Arguably, the most important benefit of installing Accessibly is increased compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and WCAG guidelines. These essential legislation and accessibility standards enable individuals with disabilities to enjoy full and fair participation in all website services.
Free Trial
If you’re not ready to commit to a paid monthly subscription, users have the option to enjoy a free 7-day trial with access to all features. Monthly costs are manageable, starting at $20 (Shopify) and $25+ for all other platforms.
Additionally, the Accessibly accessibility widget for a website is led by a world-class customer support team constantly focused on redesigning the widget and introducing new features.
It only takes a minute to get started! Download the Accessibly app and enjoy a free 7-day trial today!
