The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) is now a law and websites have to be made accessible to people with range of disabilities, including visual impairment and hearing difficulties.

All offices, departments and projects that own, manage or partner a website or online service that is not based in corporate CMS Obtree are required to seek formal assurance that their sites are compliant with minimum level ‘A' of W3C guidelines. If you are unsure about compliance of your site and need help please contact Javed Iqbal, Senior Internet Business Development Manager.

A recently concluded independent audit has confirmed that there is some work required on websites prepared using corporate CMS Obtree in order to meet the required minimum standards. Over the coming months Global IS and e-Strategy teams will put in place measures to make sure that we meet the minimum required standards set by the DDA.

Making our online presence accessible is in line with our organisational values and our Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy. Non compliance is open to legal challenges and risk to reputation. Marketing and Customer Services has identified this as a risk in its BRMF and will be monitoring developments.

e-Strategy has produced the accessibility guidelines for content managers (PDF 1.1Mb) to help them build accessible sites. For further help and advice please contact Javed Iqbal who leads on accessibility issues.