BCC Website and Disability and Deaf Access

Dear Sir or Madam,

Freedom of Information request: BCC Website and Disability and Deaf
Access

I am writing to request information about the process of building
and delivering the new website www.birmingham.gov.uk in relation to
Disability access under the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

Under the FOI response dated 31 July to Heather Brook Reference
SS/FOI 3122 an approved spend estimated at £2.803m has been
identified.

A Progress Report on the new council website dated 10 July 2009
available from BCC website makes reference to the new website and
disability access to quote:

15. Users will notice immediately a new design and layout (the
"look and feel") for the site. The underlying code will be much
closer to being fully standards compliant and correspondingly more
accessible to people with disabilities *; with the intention to
become fully compliant as soon as possible after the launch. There
will also be new tools to allow users to add address and event
details directly from web pages into their electronic address books
or calendars. A new, Google, search facility will make it much
easier to find content on the site.

*Note: It is a statutory requirement for the external facing web
site to comply
with the Disabilities Discrimination Act.

The report indicates that the website won’t be fully accessible for
all disabled people until after it goes live.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 BCC has a statutory
duty to deliver a Disability Equality Duty.

To quote BCC website:
The general Duty on all public authorities, when carrying out their
functions, to have due regard to the need to:
• eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under this Act
• eliminate harassment of disabled persons that is related to their
disabilities
• promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and
other persons
• take steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities,
even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably
than other persons
• promote positive attitudes towards disabled persons
• encourage participation by disabled persons in public life
Therefore if as the Progress Report of 10 July 2009 indicates the
new website won’t be fully accessible and therefore excluding many
disabled constituents from accessing the website and is therefore
discriminatory and doesn’t meet the Council’s legal requirements
under the DDA Act 2005.

In reference to the terms disabled/deaf I am following the
definition of disability laid out under the DDA Act 1996 and 2005.

I would like to know:

What budget has been allocated towards the accessibility of the
website to ensure disabled and deaf people are able to use the
website to the same level as non-disabled people?
How much of the allocated budget earmarked for accessibility has
been spent to date?
What audience/user testing research took place at the beginning of
the project to identify access issues faced by disabled people?
What usability testing has been done since?
Were disabled/deaf groups and/or individuals involved in either 1.
and 2. above?
If so what disabilities were represented during 1. and 2. above?
How the website’s development reflects in the council’s Equalities
Impact Assessment?
If the website is not to be fully compliant until after it goes
live - which disabled users will be able to access the website and
which disabled users won’t?
What aspects of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 will
be met before going live?
What level of accessibility is the website intending to be once
“fully compliant” A, AA or AAA?
What is the timescale to ensure www.birmingham.gov.uk is fully
accessible?
Who is responsible for delivering this aspect of the website?

As the website developers will be aware it is not just a case of
running a test via a web accessibility tool such as
http://wave.webaim.org// but to also run live tests with disabled
people themselves.

My preferred format to receive information is by email. If part of
my questions can be answered sooner than others, please send that
first followed by any additional data. If you need me to clarify
any part of my request please email me. If FOI requests of a
similar nature have already been asked please could you include
your responses to those requests.

Yours faithfully,

Nick Petrie