Cyberspace may soon become the liberator of millions of disabled and elderly people across the world thanks to a group of academics at the University of Dundee.
The Digital Media Access Group (DMAG), world leaders in the field of making websites and the digital media accessible to disabled and elderly people, are to convey an important message to Tayside businesses which may have reverberations across the globe:
A recent court case in Australia which found against the organisers and designers of the Sydney Olympics Website because of its lack of accessibility for disabled people is already causing a stir in the UK because of legislation provided in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
The UK wide legislation is already in place and S 21 of the Act in particular states that if possible a provider of services must take reasonable steps to provide such services to disabled persons - this would, for instance, include providing appropriate technology such as audio devices for the blind.
At a presentation organised by Interactive Tayside at the headquarters of Scottish Enterprise Tayside in Dundee, David Sloan and Lorna Gibson from DMAG announced their message to a gathering of selected Tayside companies involved in the field of digital media.
According to David, project leader of the DMAG based in the Department of Applied Computing at Dundee University, if a company designs a web site so that say, a blind person can't access the site, there already exists an increasing possibility that they will face legal action.
"Disabled and elderly people have rights when it comes to providing wheelchair access etc. so it is a logical extension to confer these rights to the users of websites," he said.
David added that the focus of the presentation was not merely from a legal point of view but also from a common sense business angle.
"I think it is important to convince companies to provide disabled access to websites because it is good business practice to involve all of the population in the buying and selling of goods - if disabled persons are excluded from using websites then potential customers are being ignored."
Among the companies taking part in the event are NCR based at Kingsway West, Dundee- world leaders in the field of ATM technology who have a substantial interest in providing accessible technology to their customers.
Chief Technology Officer, Mark Grossi, said that NCR were keen to be supporting the initiative.
"We recognise the value of providing accessible public technologies. We are committed to furthering our knowledge and understanding of all individuals' needs and applying these to our ATM solutions," he said.
Event organiser, Gary Grant of Interactive Tayside, said that it was important for businesses to realise that accessibility applied not only to the disabled and elderly but also to children and everybody who requires a more user-friendly approach to technology.
"We are delighted to invite the Digital Media Access Group to talk to Interactive Tayside because they are the leading academic group in the UK and their involvement only goes to show the strength and depth of the capability of the digital media companies in Tayside," he said.
Note to Editors