RNIB launches legal action over accessibility of bmibaby website 1

Governance | Niki May Young | 30 Jan 2012

The Royal National Institute of Blind People has entered legal proceedings against airline bmibaby for failing to make its website accessible to blind and partially-sighted people.

RNIB was made aware of accessibility failings on the bmibaby website in 2010 when a number of customers contacted the charity. A spokeswoman for RNIB told civilsociety.co.uk that it contacted the airline "repeatedly" after receiving the complaints asking for changes to be made. bmibaby subsequently commissioned RNIB's services to resolve the situation, but RNIB does not believe the action is being carried out fast enough:

"In 2011 RNIB was commissioned by bmibaby to carry out a full audit of the website and an initial report was sent to bmibaby. Legal proceedings were commenced as no changes had been made and no dates of when the changes could take place confirmed," said the spokeswoman.

Customers complained that they had to phone the airline rather than use its website, the cost of which "can mount up", said Alexandra, a customer from Loughborough who is registered blind. Hugh Huddy, RNIB campaings officer for inclusive society, said that blind and partially-sighted customers may also miss out on the best online prices and flight information. "Why should those with sight loss risk missing out on a web-only deal or be forced to ring a call centre simply because companies are failing to take accessibility standards seriously," he said.

In a statement advising of the action being taken, RNIB said: "Despite receiving expert advice, recommendations and a full audit report from RNIB, bmibaby is still to make any significant progress. RNIB has now served bmibaby with legal proceedings as the website remains inaccessible to those using screen readers or those who cannot use a mouse."

However responding to the action, bmibaby repeated a message on its website that advises the actions necessary to make the site accessible will take time to implement: "We have a project team in place to action the recommendations which requires the bespoke development of bmibaby’s website technology," says the airline.

"This inevitably takes a period of time to develop but in the meantime we have a new local rate telephone number for people to call to speak to our call centre to obtain our discounted website fares. We have also added an accessibility page to bmibaby.com in order to keep customers up to date with our progress."

Directory: Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)

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Jonathan Hassell
Director
Hassell Inclusion
31 Jan 2012

It's interesting to see this action gaining widespread coverage.

It's a shame accessibility only hits the headlines because of a legal dispute rather than when a website is created which is very accessible.

But actions like this help bring home the risks organisations take when they neglect the accessibility of their websites.

It's been a long time since someone filed a website accessibility lawsuit in the UK, and this is the first such suit since the Equality Act 2010 replaced the old Disability Discrimination Act.

As the lead-author of the BS 8878 Web Accessibility Code of Practice which would likely be used to judge this case if it gets to court, I've written a blog on what BMI-baby should do now to turn round this adverse media coverage by fixing their site and using BS 8878 to ensure their future websites and apps are created to be accessible from day one.

It can be found at: http://www.hassellinclusion.com/2012/01/rnib-bmi-baby-accessibility-lawsuit/

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