Web Accessibility
Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the web. More precisely means that they are able to use, navigate and interactive with the internet through a series of software such as screen filters, style sheets and auditory programmes. Sometimes they are even able to use hardware to help them such as people who are partially sighted can use a Braille pad in which the information is transferred from the text on the website onto a electronic device with a series of pins that move up to create bumps for each word so that partially sighted people are still able to interact and read the information on the web. Old people can also be a factor in web accessibility due to aging, this can affect hearing, sight, mental and physical factors. Web accessibility programmes use visual, auditory and physical things to help people with their use of the web. The Different Disabilities someone might encounter using the web are grouped under visual disabilities, hearing impairments, physical disabilities, speech disabilities, cognitive and neurological disabilities, multiple disabilities, and aging-related conditions.
‘Ms. Kaseem uses the Web to find new restaurants to go to with friends and classmates. She has low vision and is deaf. She uses a screen magnifier to enlarge the text on Web sites to a font size that she can read. When screen magnification is not sufficient, she also uses a screen reader to drive a refreshable Braille display, which she reads slowly. At home, Ms. Kaseem browses local Web sites for new and different restaurants. She uses a personal style sheet with her browser, which makes all Web pages display according to her preferences. Her preferences include having background patterns turned off so that there is enough contrast for her when she uses screen magnification. This is especially helpful when she reads on-line sample menus of appealing restaurants. A multimedia virtual tour of local entertainment options was recently added to the Web site of the city in which Ms. Kaseem lives. The tour is captioned and described including text subtitles for the audio, and descriptions of the video which allows her to access it using a combination of screen magnification and Braille. The interface used for the virtual tour is accessible no matter what kind of assistive technology she is using screen magnification, her screen reader with refreshable Braille, or her portable Braille device. Ms. Kaseem forwards the Web site address to friends and asks if they are interested in going with her to some of the restaurants featured on the tour. She also checks the public transportation sites to find local train or bus stops near the restaurants. The Web site for the bus schedule has frames without meaningful titles, and tables without clear column or row headers, so she often gets lost on the site when trying to find the information she needs. The Web site for the local train schedule, however, is easy to use because the frames on that Web site have meaningful titles, and the schedules, which are laid out as long tables with clear row and column headers that she uses to orient herself even when she has magnified the screen display.’
This example shows how people suffering from disabilities can use the web and look for things just as anyone without disabilities would do.
Disability Discrimination Act
"To eliminate, as far as possible, discrimination against persons on the ground of disability in the areas of: work, accommodation, education, access to premises, clubs and sport; and the provision of goods, facilities, services and land; and existing laws; and the administration of Commonwealth laws and programs; and to ensure, as far as practicable, that persons with disabilities have the same rights to equality before the law as the rest of the community; and to promote recognition and acceptance within the community of the principle that persons with disabilities have the same fundamental rights as the rest of the community."
This is an example of the DDA’s objectives
Disability discrimination is treating someone with a disability less favourably because of their disability such as not giving them equal opportunity, giving them jobs, or generally thinking less of them because of their disability. The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) ensures that websites are accessible to blind and disabled users. It gives equal rights and opportunities to everyone whether they have a disability or not and follow other forms of discrimination such as racial discrimination and sexism. A good example of discrimination would be if someone enquired about a job listed their skills and their qualification but didn’t get the job because of their disability, this is what the DDA fights against. Equal rights is the law but is often broken by thousands of people all the time. This isn’t just discrimination of disabled people but also, racism, sexism and anti-Semitism.
Data Protection Act
The Data Protection Act 1998 defines UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people. This Act protects and upholds the right for people who have their data stored electronically such as in Social Networking and makes sure that no-one can steal personal information such as hackers and makes sure that is unauthorized access isn’t granted. An example of breaching the Data Protection Act is if you worked for a bank and backed up some customers details on a memory stick to post to another branch and it went ‘missing’ and someone ‘acquired’ it and accessed their customers details, this would be a definite breach of the Data Protection Act.
Computer Misuse Act
1. Unauthorised access to computer material, punishable by 6 months' imprisonment or a fine "not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale" (currently £5000);
2. Unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences, punishable by 6 months/maximum fine on summary conviction or 5 years/fine on indictment;
3. Unauthorised modification of computer material, subject to the same sentences as section 2 offences.
The Computer Misuse Act works hand-in-hand with the Data Protection Act and helps prevent computer criminals from hacking or retrieving information from other people. The 3 punishments are intended to deter serious computer criminals from using someone else’s detail without permission and this is also an act of fraud. using another person's username and password without permission, accessing data or a program, altering/deleting files or programmes, copy or moving a program or piece of data or to impersonate a person using e-mail, online chat and website are examples of what breach the Computer Misuse Act and contribute towards one of the 3 punishments. A good example of a breach of this act is the work of MafiaBoy- Michael Calce,
‘On February 7, 2000, Calce targeted Yahoo! with a project he named Rivolta, meaning “riot” in Italian. Rivolta was a denial of service type of cyber attack in which servers become overloaded with different type of communications to the point where they shut down completely. At the time, Yahoo! was a multibillion dollar industry and the web’s top search engine. Mafiaboy’s Rivolta managed to shut down Yahoo! for close to an hour. Calce’s goal was not to cripple the top websites in the world, but rather to establish dominance for himself and TNT, his cybergroup, in the cyberworld. Buy.com was shut down in response. Calce responded to this in turn by bringing down EBay, CNN, Amazon and Dell.com over the next week. On 3 August 2000, Canadian federal prosecutors charged MafiaBoy with 54 counts of illegal access to computers, plus a total of ten counts of mischief to data for his attacks on Amazon.com, eBay, Dell Computer, Outlaw.net, and Yahoo. MafiaBoy had also attacked other websites, but prosecutors decided that a total of 66 counts were enough. MafiaBoy pleaded not guilty.’
This example shows how the Internet and Computer can be misused, The Montreal Youth Court sentenced him on September 12, 2001 to eight months of "open custody," one year of probation, restricted use of the Internet, and a small fine.
Obscene Publication Act
Since 1857 a serious of these acts have been put in place to govern what can be published in the UK. The OPA makes sure that no offensive material is published, this can include pornographic images, violent and gory images/games/stories and generally offensive material such as racism or sexism. The first noted prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act was of Penguin Books in R v Penguin Books, 1961, because they published a book called Lady Chatterley's Lover. The book, contained the words "f**k" and "c**t" multiple times, along with graphic sexual scenes. This was banned completely in England and Wales until the conclusion of the trial. By the mid-1980s, it was on the school syllabus. A good example of the breach of the OPC is comic/comedian Frankie Boyle whose jokes are controversial and obscene. Katie Price has called in her lawyers after comedian Frankie Boyle made a vile sexual slur against disabled son Harvey on his Channel 4 show Tramadol Nights. Former Mock The Week star Boyle, 38, said on the show, which is watched by one million viewers...
'Jordan and Peter Andre are still fighting each other over custody of Harvey - eventually one of them will lose and have to keep him.'
By Jordan Szabo
