>An individual who brings a case under the DDA can seek >monetary compensation. However, the law is supposed to be a >last resort, and users are expected to give the website owner >the opportunity to make the website accessible before >resorting to law. Failure to do so suggests that the plaintiff >is just looking for a payout and that they are not actually >interested in being able to use the website. The situation may >be different in the US but you're not going to get >ambulance-chasing lawyers stirring up trouble in the UK. >
However, even in the UK, precious few lawyers, if any, ever lose money on a case - one side or the other generally has to bear the costs of both sets of lawyers, unless there is an out-of-court settlement. Incidentally, the DDA does not specifically mention that it applies to websites - in fact, the specific regulations that state that .gov.uk websites MUST achieve WCAG AA could easily be taken as an indication that the DDA poses a lesser burden. I am not a lawyer, and even if I was, this has never been tested in court (to my knowledge) and therefore there is no legal precedent. In addition to what Steve said, it is my understanding that legal action cannot be taken in the UK until after notification has been made of the specific issue at hand. In other words, it is perfectly legal to create a site that breaks every WCAG guideline. If someone points out that it is inaccessible in a particular way, only then does it become necessary to work out what changes can reasonably be made to accommodate the issue - if it is unreasonably expensive then you don't have to change. If you change that one thing, but someone then points out another issue, you again get the chance to fix it before a lawsuit may be issued. None of this has anything directly to do with WCAG - knowledge of the latter is arguably as likely to get you into trouble as out of it, since you could then be deemed to be deliberately ignoring something from the AAA guidelines! Like so much of the Law, it is all a big mess, which is why Lawyers make big money, whether they win or lose. Regards, Mike ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
