Internet still covered under Australian discrimination law

This reflects the position in the UK, although there is still no guidance in the UK as to the standard that should be met. However, a decision in a US district court last week found that the US disability discrimination law does not cover the internet – which is why Dr Sev Ozdowski, Australia's Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner, felt moved to clarify that, "having an inaccessible web site is definitely in breach of Australian disability discrimination legislation."

Dr Ozdowski continued:

"Under the Federal Disability Discrimination Act - as well as under equivalent laws in all Australian States - it is unlawful to discriminate against a person on the grounds of their disability by having a web site which they cannot access.

"The World Wide Web Consortium has developed web access guidelines, and non-compliance with them by the operators of Australian web sites is in breach of the Act."

The W3C guidelines set out ways in which web site operators can provide access for people who surf using speech or braille, people who need more time when using a keyboard, or people who can only use a keyboard or a mouse. The guidelines require such things as images and frames to be labelled, and do not prevent use of software such as Flash but require text alternatives.

In fact, the W3C provides three levels of compliance and the Acting Commissioner's statement did not clarify which of the three standards should be met. But many commentators take the view that meeting the most basic standard should be sufficient to avoid liability.

Australia has led the way in clarifying how disability discrimination laws apply to the web. Two years ago, damages of AU$20,000 (approximately £7,130) were awarded against the organisers of the Sydney Olympic Games, SOCOG, because their site was not accessible. There has been no case in the UK to identify how the relevant laws apply to web sites.

Information on the W3C web access guidelines can be found at: www.w3.org/WAI/