According to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, equal access for people with a disability to the Web is required by the Disability Discrimination Act. This requirement applies to any individual or organisation developing a World Wide Web page in Australia, or placing or maintaining a Web page on an Australian server.

An example

The right to access information and services on the internet was upheld in a decision in response to a complaint against the Sydney Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (SOCOG) in 2000. 

According to the HREOC web site, the complainant, who is blind, complained that he was unlawfully discriminated against in three ways:

• the failure to provide Braille copies of the information required to place orders for Olympic Games tickets

• the failure to provide Braille copies of the Olympic Games souvenir programme

• the failure to provide a web site which was accessible to the complainant.

Bruce Maguire, the complainant alleged that:

“… prior to the lodgement of his complaint with the Commission, he had on 7 June 1999 spoken to SOCOG personnel in the course of which he had sought information about the availability of the Ticket Book in Braille and had been told inter alia that ‘blind people can access information if it is available on the internet.’ He had replied, ‘That is not correct. We can only access information if it is presented in accordance with international accessibility guidelines. The SOCOG website does not comply with those guidelines, so a lot of information is not accessible to me.’  The reply allegedly was to the effect that a blind person would have to engage the assistance of a sighted person to assist him.”

The Commission consulted with experts in the design of accessible web sites, and determined that:

• the respondent had engaged in conduct that is unlawful under section 24 of the DDA in that it has provided for the use of the complainant a web site which because of his blindness is to a significant extent inaccessible.

• the respondent do all that is necessary to render its web site accessible to the complainant by 15 September 2000 by:

• including ALT text on all images and image map links on its web site;

• providing access to the Index of Sports from the Schedule page; and

• providing access to the Results Tables to be used on the web site during the Sydney Olympic Games.

This information was drawn from:

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/decisions/comdec/2000/DD000120.htm

HREOC Advice

HREOC has published Advisory Notes at:

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/standards/www_3/www_3.html

Through these Advisory Notes, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) is drawing attention to resources that will help authors and designers make their Worldwide Web documents accessible to the broadest possible audience. In these Notes HREOC provides advice about how web designers and website owners can avoid disability discrimination without sacrificing the richness and variety of communication offered by the Worldwide Web. (HREOC, 2002)

These notes are not guidelines or standards.  International guidelines for accessible web design are discussed later in this section under the heading International Guidelines.

More information

Responsibilities of training providers (CD)