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Press Information

Press Release - 19th March 2005:

Holidays made accessible.

Oxfordshire, UK - March 19, 2005 - In 2004, a change to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) made it a legal requirement for any small business trading online to make "reasonable adjustments" to provide access for disabled visitors.

However, spend just a few minute searching the web and you'll quickly find that only a small percentage of UK business' comply with the new regulations.

So does this mean that as a small business you need not worry about then impact of the DDA and having to comply with it?

Discovery Villas Ltd, a family run company based in Oxfordshire, has recently restructured its website in order to offer the first truly "accessible" site, aimed at bringing holiday makers and holiday home owners closer together.

Kieran Thomas, Managing Director, had this to say:

"In Britain alone there are approximately 9 million disabled people, with an estimated 36% of these using the internet. This is a significant customer base for any business and any company that ignores their diabled customers does so at their peril."

But complying with legislation isn't the only good reason for making your site accessible as Kieran explains.

"Initially we only expected the benefits to effect a small number of our customers, specifically those who would be using the new accessibility features such as 'Access Keys' and resizable fonts. However, we quickly realised that there were seeing a number of benefits appearing 'behind the scenes'."

Most significantly, since the launch of the new site www.discoveryvillas.co.uk has seen an amazing daily increase in visitors of over 400%

[ Ends ]

Notes to Editors:

First launched in October 2002, Discovery Villas is a young, family run company that aims to meet the needs of holiday makers and holiday home owners.

Discovery Villas allows holiday home owners to market their holiday rental at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing, and provides a quick and easy way for holiday makers to find a high quality holiday home in locations around the world.

Contact Details:

For further information please feel free to contact Kieran or Jo Thomas at:
customerservices@discoveryvillas.co.uk