It has four parts:

This part - the Introduction - provides an overview, highlights key issues and points to what's new or noteworthy

Part 1 - Legislation - accessibility and anti-discrimination legislation, rapidly becoming important in Australia and overseas

Part 2 - Standards - global online accessibility standards and tools

Part 3 - Studies -  writing about online accessibility.

    new and noteworthy

In Australia SOCOG ignored the adverse ruling by the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission in Maguire v SOCOG, likely to be the landmark 'online accessibility' case under the Disability Discrimination Act.  Mr Maguire claims that SOCOG breached the legislation by refusing to format the Olympic Games website in a way that can be converted to braille or synthesized speech.

Offshore, during the last week of July the National Federation for the Blind (NFB) - the largest US consumer advocacy group for the visually disabled - announced that it had withdrawn litigation against AOL under the Americans With Disabilities Act. The decision resulted from agreement by AOL to recognise the needs of the disabled and in particular to ensure the next generation of software on the largest US internet service provider is compatible with screen reader technology.

The litigation commenced in 1998.  The NFB argued that AOL, like many internet service providers, had breached the anti-discrimination legislation by failing to provide appropriate access for the blind. AOL services were not compatible with devices that translate on-screen text into sound.

AOL has marked the agreement by publishing an accessibility policy statement (better late than never) on its corporate site.

   issues

Is your site accessible? Is it visited by people with hearing, sight or other disabilities (around 25% of the population, according to some studies). 7% of your visitors are likely to be colour blind.  Are your visitors from regional Australia, often equipped with older browsers or who choose text-only access because of connection times/costs. Irrespective of legal requirements - particularly the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act - ensuring your site is accessible is good practice. 

As we've noted throughout these guides, not everyone has the same browser, machine or connection to the web.  The World Wide Web Consortium comments that many users will be operating in contexts very different from your own and may:

• not be able to see, hear, move, or may not be able to process some types of information easily or at all
• have a text-only screen, a small screen, or a slow Internet connection
• have difficulty reading or comprehending text
• not speak or understand fluently the language in which the document is written
• not have or be able to use a keyboard or mouse
• be in a situation where their eyes, ears, or hands are occupied (eg driving or working in a loud environment)
• have an early version of a browser, a different browser entirely, a voice browser, or a different operating system.

The major report by the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission, the national anti-discrimination watchdog, on its inquiry into Access to Electronic Commerce and New Service and Information Technologies for Older Australians & People with a Disability is now available.  

The Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation (RIRDC) in its landmark 1999 report on Web Sites for Rural Australia: Designing for Accessibility highlighted issues relating to regional use of the web, including uncertain (and expensive connections), slow download times and older machines or browsers. The report cited the W3C guidelines as a useful tool for addressing accessibility problems experienced by regional Australians, disabled or otherwise.

The Internet Industry Association (IIA), though its Disability Access Taskforce chaired by John McKenna, is developing Australia's first ever industry-wide Web Access Disability Action Plan (WADAP) in conjunction with the Australian Interactive Multimedia Industry Association. 

WADAP aims to provide all internet businesses with a framework for implementing accessible site design and will be registered with the HREOC when complete. The IIA site includes resources such as the paper by US advocate Dennis Hayes on A Vision of the Web.

  next part (1: accessibility legislation)

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