WEBSITE operators who fail to make their sites user- friendly for disabled customers face unlimited compensation payments and legal costs of up to £50,000.

The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) served notice yesterday on private and public service operators that it intends to get tough with the 81 per cent of British-based sites that currently fall foul of accessibility standards for disabled web users.

A survey of 1,000 sites jointly conducted by the DRC found that the average internet home page had not been designed to work with software and hardware systems used by disabled computer users and contained 108 obstacles to ready access.

Many web pages failed to allow those with poor sight to use software which reads out text on the screen or transcribes it into Braille. Poor colour contrast between text and background was found to confuse people with dyslexia and the partially sighted.

The survey also found that site navigation systems that relied too much on the mouse impeded those with arthritis or restricted movement who depend on their keyboards.

The Disability Discrimination Act requires all businesses to provide equal physical access to their products and services or face the threat of prosecution. The legislation does not set a maximum limit to the amount of compensation that companies found guilty of discrimination can be made to pay.

The Royal National Institute of the Blind won out-of-court settlements last year after launching legal action on behalf of two people claiming discrimination against organisations with inaccessible websites. The DRC survey, which found little awareness among site operators of their responsibilities under the Act, presages more cases. Only 9 per cent of website developers had tested their sites on disabled users.

The web operators running inaccessible sites are turning their back on the £50 billion a year spent by Britain’s 8.7 million disabled people, the DRC said.

Bert Massie, the commission’s chairman, said that the survey’s findings were unacceptable: “Eight in ten sites are next to impossible for some disabled people to use — that means no last-minute holidays, cheaper car insurance or lower rates of interest on credit cards.

“It also means a technological lockout from chat rooms and web forums, from recruitment opportunities that are increasingly happening through the web, and education and information services that have had an increased profile.”

The DRC recommendations for making the web more accessible at a relatively modest price included the adoption of formal policies to meet the needs of disabled people and the involvement at an early stage of disabled users in web design.

The DRC survey conducted with the Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design at City University, London, subjected 100 sites to detailed evaluation by users with a range of impairments.

Researchers also canvassed the views of more than 700 businesses that had commissioned websites and nearly 400 website developers.

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