Businesses have been warned that they should read the Publicly Available Specification 78 (PAS 78) prior to designing a website.

The document outlines the obligations and responsibilities of website designs and is due to become a British standard in the near future.

The UK-based Web Design and Build company Fortune Cookie asserts that PSA 78 instructs businesses on how to make websites available to disabled users and measure accessibility.

Julie Howell, director of accessibility at Fortune Cookie, said: "When it comes to the law, businesses have to understand that it is their legal duty to make sure that their sites are accessible."

She added that the document is written in very user-friendly language as one of its aims is that it is easily understood by its audience.

The World Web Consortium recently announced that a key principal of web accessibility is to design websites that are flexible to meet different user needs.

A Family Resources Survey cited in the PAS 78 states that there are almost ten million disabled people in the UK, with an estimated combined spending power of £80 billion a year.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent) In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'