ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY
I can’t read you! The importance of website accessibility for legal services NATALIE WADE, PRINCIPAL LAWYER, EQUALITY LAWYERS
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t is well accepted that disability access and inclusion from a business perspective involves ramps, elevators and wider doorways. When designing our office spaces and thinking about how to deliver legal services to the community, we are aware that these features need to be embedded into practice. In 1992, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) cemented the legal obligation to have these practices and over the last 26 years, buildings and infrastructure have undoubtedly become more accessible. However, when designing those core features of a legal service or law firm we can often forget the website. Websites are one of the most common ways in which people connect with businesses. When facing a legal issue, people will “google it” or if they see an advertisement for a law firm, may search for the website before picking up the phone. If you are a person with a disability who is looking for a lawyer, clicking on an inaccessible website is no different to arriving at an office in a wheelchair to find that the front door is accessed by a flight of steps. An inaccessible website could mean losing clients and those clients losing access to legal services. Neither is a good outcome. Technically, website accessibility means “websites, tools and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them”.1 The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) apply to information in a webpage such as text, images and sounds but also the structure and presentation of a page.2 The WCAG should be applied in the development or revision of all websites for legal services and law firms. Practical examples of website accessibility include being able to use software to convert text
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into speech or using a keyboard to move through content rather than the mouse. Intuitively, law firms may realise that a WCAG-compliant website would provide access to people with vision impairment. But website accessibility is much broader than that. It can assist people with other disabilities including auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical and speech.3 People with disabilities make up 20% of the Australian population,4 which makes for a significant group of people who may be denied access to legal services because websites make it impossible to know what is on offer and who to contact. That presents a serious access to justice issue which all law firms must take responsibility for. It is critical to the success and integrity of our profession to ensure that services are accessible and inclusive for all. While website accessibility is fundamental to access and inclusion for people with disabilities, it is worth noting that accessible websites present other benefits. An accessible website will be easier to navigate for people using mobile phones, smart watches and TVs, those who are trying to view the screen in bright sunlight or with a slow internet connection.5 Like the iconic ramp to a building, website accessibility makes it that little bit easier for everyone. Behind the scenes of the website, those which are accessible are also easier for search engines to read so those Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) results which bring people to a website when they are looking for a particular service (for example, searching “family lawyer, Adelaide”) will be better for accessible websites. In October, 2019, the Royal Commission into the Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of people
with disabilities (“Disability Royal Commission”) was criticised by disability advocates as not having an accessible website.6 The advocates pointed out that the language, legibility and appropriateness of content was not appropriate for use by most people with disabilities. Vision Australia provided a public statement confirming that while they had been consulted on the accessibility of a draft version of the Disability Royal Commission website, they had not been asked to conduct a final audit to confirm it meets the WCAG.7 The Disability Royal Commission have since provided specific information on the accessibility of their website.8 It goes without saying that inaccessible features on the Disability Royal Commission website are especially disappointing given the work they do, but it does highlight the importance of why all services, public or private, need to ensure their websites are accessible. Recognising the need for website accessibility is one matter, but it is entirely another to know how to get it into practice. There are several ways to get your website compliant and accessible. The obvious and easiest way is to engage a graphic design company that works to the WCAG to make it happen for you. If that is not appealing or practical, the South Australian Government has launched an Online Accessibility Toolkit (www. accessibility.sa.gov.au) which provides a host of guides, policies and support for making your website compliant. The Toolkit is a good place to start to learn more about what is involved in an accessible website and what it looks like. The WVAG are also available online (www. w3.org) which provide the technical detail required for a complaint website.
