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Home > Web Services > Resources > You are here eNation reports

State of the eNation Reports

Top airlines losing millions by barring disabled people from websites

18 July 2003

The UK’s top airlines are effectively barring millions of disabled people from booking flights on-line by failing to meet minimum accessibility standards on their websites, according to a survey released today by national computing and disability charity, AbilityNet.

Not one of the nine airline websites audited and checked for accessibility using a comprehensive series of both manual and automated tools (including Watchfire’s Bobby (v5), satisfied the criteria required to facilitate access for users with visual impairment, dyslexia or those with a physical disability making mouse use difficult. Thus the selected airlines – EasyJet, British Airways, Ryanair, Bmi, British European, Monarch, Virgin Atlantic and Mytravelite – are preventing up to 15% of the population from enjoying the benefits of booking their flights on-line and the associated advantages that this offers in terms of price and availability.

EasyJet’s website (www.easyjet.co.uk) came out as the most accessible of the sites tested, but, in company with BA (www.ba.com) and Monarch Airlines (www.flymonarch.com), it could only manage a two-star rating on a five-star scale. The remaining six were given a single star rating and dubbed “very inaccessible” by AbilityNet, with the Virgin Atlantic website (www.virgin-atlantic.com) deemed to have “the most serious issues of accessibility of all those tested.”

Much of the Virgin site’s content and critical functionality, the AbilityNet report notes, is embedded in interactive presentations known as ‘flash movies’ so that visitors to the site who cannot use a mouse, are vision-impaired, or use speech output or voice recognition software will not be able to use the site at all.

Other drawbacks common to the sites tested include the lack of ‘tooltips’ that blind people depend on for spoken descriptions of pictures on the screen and the reliance on mini programs called Javascript that are built into a page and that are not recognised by many older browsers, or some special browsers used by those with vision impairment. The EasyJet site, for instance, relies on Javascript for the essential task of booking a ticket.

With a potential market of 1.6 million registered blind users as well as a further 3.4 million with disabilities1 preventing them from using the standard keyboard, screen and mouse set-up with ease, e-businesses are losing out on some £50 - £60 billion per year buying power.

“Internet access to information for disabled people isn’t only a commercial and moral duty of care,” said Shuna Kennedy, AbilityNet’s CEO. “According to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) it has been a legal requirement to have an accessible website since 1999” she pointed out.

State of the eNation reports

AbilityNet is at the forefront of a number of initiatives both at home and abroad to improve website accessibility for disabled people and provide both private and public sector organisations with the expertise they need to ensure that their websites are meeting guideline levels of compliance (such as those recommended by the W3C/WA1).

The survey of airline sites is the first of a planned series of ‘State of the eNation’ reports designed as an awareness campaign to draw attention to the issue of accessibility and to help disabled people find the best websites for their needs. The top sites selected by search engine ranking in a number of specific industries will be evaluated and the findings published – future sectors to be reviewed will include on-line newspapers, supermarkets and banking services.

“All the airline companies involved in the present survey were contacted a month before and then again immediately prior to the publication of the results. They were asked to make a public commitment to improving the accessibility of their sites and, to date, only Virgin Atlantic has taken this important decision – a step which we welcome unequivocally,” commented Robin Christopherson, AbilityNet’s Web Consultancy Manager, who is himself blind. View Virgin Atlantic's response statement regarding improving the accessibility of their sites.

1. HumanITy - 2003
2. Employers Forum on Disability - 2003

Ends
18 July 2003

Issued by the AbilityNet Press Office
01926 429595

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Editor’s notes

W3C/WA1
These guidelines, first published in May 1999, provide a framework for accessibility. There are over 65 individual W3C checkpoints arranged in three levels of compliance to test for and only about a third can be assessed for conformity by an automated tool such as Watchfire’s Bobby.

Euroaccessibility project

On 28 April 2003 in Paris, 24 European organisations from 12 countries agreed to establish a certification authority for web accessibility leading to an Accessibility Quality Mark. AbilityNet joined other disability charities, universities and communications companies in cooperation with US-based W3C/WA1, to pursue this objective, which aims to harmonise standards Europe-wide.

About AbilityNet

AbilityNet is a charity that brings the benefits of computer technology to adults and children with all types of disabilities. Through its network of eleven centres, it offers a comprehensive range of services to disabled people, professionals, employers and statutory bodies. It provides free information and advice on any aspect of computer use by disabled people including individual assessment of technology needs, adapted computer equipment with full training and technical support, a programme of awareness education, and consultancy for employers on system and workstation adaptations, as well as website accessibility.

Last year AbilityNet handled over 19,000 enquiries from disabled people and those supporting them through its national freephone service and regional centres. In addition, the charity's consultants saw over 2,000 disabled children and adults face-to-face for individual assessments, equipment, training sessions and home support visits.

In 2002, AbilityNet's professional education courses and seminars attracted nearly 4,000 staff from public, private and voluntary sector organisations, seeking to develop their awareness of adaptive technology for those with disabling conditions and learn practical solutions to apply in the workplace, at home or in education.
AbilityNet is dependent both nationally and locally on grants and donations from charitable trusts and companies, to carry out its work on behalf of disabled people and those who support them.

For further details check www.abilitynet.org.uk or call AbilityNet’s freephone helpline on: 0800 269545

Issued by:

Caroline Saint Freedman,
AbilityNet Press Office
Tel: 01926 429595
Fax: 01926 407425
Email: AbilityNet Press Office

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For more information:

• Email accessibility@AbilityNet.org.uk
• Phone 0800 269545

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