Accessibility Law
A growing number of countries around the world have introduced legislation concerning accessibility. These laws directly address the need for website's to be accessible to people with all sorts of disabilities.
United Kingdom
In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act does not refer explicitly to website accessibility. The DDA does make it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities. The DDA applies to everyone who provides a service. A Code of Practice published by the UK government called 'Rights of Access - Goods, Facilities, Services and Premises' does refer to websites. The document refers to websites as a public service which should be considered by the DDA .
Ireland
In Ireland, the Disability Act 2005 was supplemented by the National Disability Authority's Code of Practice on Accessible Public Services in July 2006. It is a practical guide to help all Government Departments and public bodies to comply with the Disability Act.
Australia
In 2000, an Australian blind man won a court case against the Sydney Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. This was the first successful case under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. The court case was brought because SOCOG had failed to make their official website accessible to blind users. All Australian Government bodies in Australia have policies and guidelines that require public websites to be accessible.
Canada
Canada has the 'Common Look and Feel Standards'. These standards require federal government websites to meet WCAG1.0 checkpoint priorities 1 and 2. The standards have existed since 2000 and were updated in 2007.