I took a look at the Disability Discrimination Act on the following website:

http://www.drc-gb.org/publicationsandreports/publicationdetails.asp?id=223&section=0&all=1

I quote from it:

"What does the Act make unlawful?

2.2 The Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person:

by refusing to provide (or deliberately not providing) any service which it provides (or is prepared to provide) to members of the public;

or in the standard of service which it provides to the disabled person or the manner in which it provides it;

or in the terms on which it provides a service to the disabled person".

Now it could well be reasonably argued that a company/organization is discriminating against visually impaired people by requiring them to phone a premium rate 0870/0845 number as such people cannot use the FREE email alternative; or indeed the regular mail.

In such circumstance the company/organization could be forced/required to provide a geographic number for such people. This would show that they are doing all that could be reasonably expected of them to not discriminate against visually impaired people.

This is especially true where one of the options given to "avoid" the premium rate call is to use free email or low-cost regular mail (such options not available to visually impaired people).

Sort of reminds me of cases where the government has not been able to successfully prosecute people for criminal behavior (eg. drug dealing); but has been able to hit them for tax avoidance.

What we need is a visually impaired member of this site (or a friend/relative) to start the ball rolling. For instance to go after a big offender - Currys or the BBC - and get a judgment/ruling that the company must list a geographic number for the visually impaired.

Companies and organizations are VERY sensitive about this sort of thing (Disability rights etc...) and we would be hitting a weak spot.

I have asked the BBC's Watchdog to justify their behavior under this Act.

I like the idea.

I see however that the Royal National Institute for the Blind,actually use 0845!!

In that case, I suggest targetting RNIB to start with, and asking them to justify their position.  That is a disgrace - they have seen the last of my donations until it changes!