The 2003 European Year of People with Disabilities is both an opportunity and a challenge to IT.

It's a chance to show how technology has transformed the lives of many disabled people. But it will also highlight how far we still have to go in the workplace.

AbilityNet will be at the forefront of the debate. It has been working to find IT solutions for users with disabilities since the late 1990s.

The company can trace its history back to a decade earlier, when IBM first turned its attention to disability.

Big Blue set up a group in the US called the National Support Centre for People with Disabilities, and engineers, such as Jim Thatcher, began to develop a range of IBM-branded special needs products, including screen-readers.

The UK operation followed suit, setting up a small group in the IBM community affairs department. AbilityNet senior consultant Bill Fine, a life-long IBM worker, was one of three people appointed to the team.

"The starting point was to make sure that people wanting the company's products could get them," he explained.

"We began to publicise a free phone number and said that IBM would help people with their questions on disability. If we didn't know the answer, we'd research it."

Fine and his colleagues were unaware of how successful this set-up would prove. After three years, the in-house organisation had seven staff and was taking more than 200 calls a month.

The organisation split from IBM in 1992 and a separate Computability Centre charity was formed alongside the University of Birmingham and the British Computer Society.

It became a national source of information for anyone with a disability who wanted to use a computer.

It regularly referred clients to a group called the Foundation for Communication for the Disabled, which soon became a close associate.

The foundation, formed in 1981, was the largest independent supplier of adapted computer hardware and software to disabled users in the UK.

In January 1998, the relationship became a marriage when the charities merged to establish a greater presence and funding strength.

"We had to take absolutely committed people in small groups and mash them together to create a larger organisation," said Fine.

"There were principles at stake. Good people had strong discussions and it was not a pain-free process."

Out of that merger was born AbilityNet, a charity based in Warwick, Malvern and West Byfleet.

The charity has grown so much in the past five years that it is now based at 11 locations, mostly hosted by large IT suppliers such as IBM, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard.

"We are unique in providing a service for all disabilities and all ages," insisted Fine. "And we do everything from advice and information to the fully supported provision of a mixed hardware and software solution."

He believes that AbilityNet, in tandem with the Disability Discrimination Act, has been a catalyst for a radical change in attitudes to IT.

The Act aims to end the discrimination faced by many people with disabilities, and obliges all providers of goods and services to ensure that appropriate information is available.

Fine has been working with one company which realised that it had essential systems that could not be accessed by people with disabilities, including legacy applications that had not originally allowed for the use of AbilityNet's adaptive services.

The organisation was concerned by the implications of the Act, as companies failing to make appropriate information available to all could face legal action.

AbilityNet was called in to offer third-party advice, and Fine talked to the company about the available solutions and the potential adaptability of its existing platforms.

Worldwide, many organisations understand the necessity and benefits of providing IT services for people with disabilities. AbilityNet's role is to encourage, advise and set standards, working in real partnerships.

The charity recently helped Reid Kerr Further Education College in Paisley to set up an assisted education unit to meet the demands of the Disability Discrimination Act.

And from September, car manufacturer Ford will host a new AbilityNet centre in Dagenham as part of the company redevelopment plans.

"Half the people that use IT could benefit from having their PC adjusted in some way," explained Shuna Kennedy, chief executive of AbilityNet."It's a question of productivity. We just need to raise the awareness among IT professionals."

Bridging the accessibility gap
Some big businesses have a lot to learn about web accessibility.

"Pick any site at random and the chances are that there will be significant accessibility issues," said Robin Christopherson, AbilityNet's web consultancy manager. "That's where our services come in."