Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 is the UK’s primary anti-discrimination law. It consolidates and modernises the Race Relations Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, the Disability Discrimination Act, and several other prior statutes into a single framework.

How it applies to digital services

The Equality Act doesn’t mention websites or accessibility standards by name. Two sections do most of the work for digital:

• Section 20 — Duty to make adjustments. Service providers must take reasonable steps to remove or reduce barriers for disabled customers. Where a “provision, criterion or practice” puts disabled people at a substantial disadvantage, the service provider must consider alternatives.
• Schedule 2 extends this duty to service providers operating in the UK regardless of where the provider is based.

The duty is anticipatory: it doesn’t wait for a disabled customer to ask for accommodation. A service provider is expected to anticipate likely needs and design accessibly from the start.

What “reasonable” means

The Act doesn’t define “reasonable adjustment” in numerical terms. Tribunals and courts weigh:

• Effectiveness of the adjustment.
• Practicability.
• Cost (relative to the size of the organisation).
• Resources available.
• Disruption to other users.

For digital products, the de facto benchmark — endorsed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s guidance and by case law — is WCAG 2.x Level AA.

PSBAR: the public-sector overlay

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (PSBAR) sit on top of the Equality Act for the public sector. PSBAR:

• Cites EN 301 549 (and therefore WCAG 2.1 AA).
• Requires a published accessibility statement.
• Sets enforcement responsibility on the Government Digital Service for central government and the EHRC for the wider public sector.

The EHRC’s enforcement powers under PSBAR are significant and underused — they include compliance notices and binding agreements.

Brexit, GDPR, and accessibility

Brexit did not affect the Equality Act’s domestic operation. The UK also adopted the Web Accessibility Directive’s substance via PSBAR before Brexit, and that obligation has been retained as UK law.

What Brexit did affect: the UK is not in scope of the EU’s European Accessibility Act (EAA). UK companies selling consumer products and services into the EU still need to meet the EAA — but on the market-access basis, not because UK domestic law was extended.

Enforcement reality

Equality Act claims about web accessibility have historically been rare compared to US ADA filings. The disability charity sector and the EHRC have been the more common enforcement route, often through compliance agreements rather than tribunal claims. PSBAR enforcement has been quiet but real — the EHRC has issued public criticisms of named non-compliant public bodies.