As of 2010, UK public and private sector websites are required to comply with the principles of the Equality Act.
The Equality Act prevents companies from discriminating based on disability and, unlike other international accessibility laws, explicitly applies to websites, including them in the “provisions of services” category.
At a technical level, theBS 8878 Web Accessibility Code of Practice provides non-legally binding guidance for creating accessible products.
Published on November 30, 2010, it applies to all “web products”, including websites, email clients, virtual learning environments, Software-as-a-Service, and Rich Internet Applications (RIA).
In 2019, BS 8878 was replaced by the almost identical international standard ISO 30071-1, which recommends companies to:
- consider accessibility in development processes;
- have a policy for web accessibility and document the process;
- communicate accessibility decisions to users at the time of product launch by issuing an accessibility statement;
- Align with WCAG 2.0 AA guidelines.
