A SOUTH WALES design company is offering start-up companies a free website design service conforming to the latest legislation on disability accesss.

SpinDogs, an Aber-cynon-based company, is offering any start-up a free basic site. Any extra bells and whistles have to be paid for.

The service is called Web Vision Wales and the company boasts special expertise in the disability arena having worked for a client who demanded state-of-the-art online access facilities.

SpinDogs director Liam Giles said: "We hope many new business starts in Wales will take advantage of our offer. It will give them an edge over competitors whose sites may not be as accessible to those with special needs."

When the Disability Discrimination Act became law last autumn, it required companies to make their websites disabled-friendly.

But a recent Disability Rights Commission study of 1,000 UK-based websites found that 81 per cent failed to meet minimum standards for disabled access.

Mr Giles said: "We now include disabled-friendly design into all our products as we've seen first-hand how many websites are failing these users.

"Nowadays people use the Internet to book cinema tickets, buy books, cds and even holidays.