Website reviews

site of the month:

www.drc-gb.org

Most people will be at least vaguely aware that the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 applies to suppliers of services, including law firms. What may not be so well known, even to the 40% of Scottish law firms with websites, is that services provided to the public may include websites. So a website that is not accessible to those with disabilities may not be compliant with the Act. That becomes clear if one looks at the recently issued Code of Practice relating to the provision of goods and services which can be found, along with lots of other goodies, on the curiously named website of the Disability Rights Commission, a statutory watchdog: with some teeth. This website is an excellent starting point to delve into complexities of disability discrimination law and practice. It is, as you would expect, extremely accessible and clear. The structure has been well thought out, being divided into five main areas: Site Tools (including the option to change the text size); Rights and Requirements; About the Commission; Information and Legislation and Campaigns. There is an enormous wealth of information contained within these areas including the texts of the statutory Codes of Practice (including the most recent one), guidelines for employers, providers of services and landlords; impact assessment guides and factsheets. Most, but curiously not all, are available in a variety of formats including Braille, audio, diskette and, of course, Welsh. But not Gaelic. Tucked away in the website under the heading “legal” (best accessed from the Sitemap: icon at top of Home page) is a copy of the DRC’s legal strategy 2001-2003 which reveals that the Legal directorate has an annual budget of just £1.25 million per year a quarter of which goes on direct support for individual cases. In the “legal” section, one finds what could have been one of the most valuable sections for lawyers which is “legal cases”. this section comprises a summary of over 100 disability discrimination cases all otherwise apparently unreported. However, the usefulness of that section is marred by the indifferent quality of the summaries and by the absence of any citation other than the DRC’s internal reference. Nevertheless, they do provide an interesting range of examples of DDA cases fought, won, settled and lost. From 1 October 2004, the remaining provisions of the Act come into force which will oblige all service providers (yes, you, and maybe your clients too) to make reasonable adjustments to the physical features of business premises to overcome barriers to access. This site provides the tools for understanding the new law and planning any necessary changes. Websites of course are already covered by the Act...

Subjective Rating (where 5 is excellent and 1 is poor and no rating indicate that that category has not been assessed)

Usefulness to practitioners  4/5

Usefulness to non-practitioners  4/5

Site design 4/5

Ease of use 4/5

Updating frequency 3/5

www.absolvitor.com

This is a recent entry to the still rather limited number of Scottish legal websites. The author, and for all I know, the owner is Iain Nisbet, a Scottish solicitor. The attractively designed site opens with a tightly drawn page that would have been too busy had the whole site not been so well thought out. That page takes you to wherever you want to go. You can go to a law firm’s index (interestingly done by subject area as well as the usual A to Z), links to a variety of service providers germane to law or click for lists of links to legal websites. Then there is a miscellany of other resources. Through a link up with Amazon.com, you can browse through selected videos and CDs (in case you haven’t seen enough of it, ‘Twelve Angry Men ‘ is out now on DVD!) all with a legal theme. There is also a news section. Finally, and surely not to rival this column, the site offers to review other law websites and give awards depending on how good they are. My award is below. Just as well I don’t have a website. This site is in its early stages. It deserves to succeed.

Speed 4/5

Usefulness to practitioners  4/5

Usefulness to non-practitioners  2/5

Site design 5/5

Ease of use 4/5

Updating frequency 4/5

Derek O’Carroll welcomes comments on the reviews and suggestions for sites to review