Australian accessibility cases

This page looks at some Australian online accessibility litigation.

It covers -

• SOCOG
• other Australian cases

     SOCOG and other Australian cases

During 2000 in Australia SOCOG was fined $20,000 after ignoring the adverse ruling by the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) in Maguire v SOCOG, the landmark 'online accessibility' case under the Disability Discrimination Act (Cth).

Mr Maguire claimed that SOCOG breached the legislation by refusing to format the Olympic Games website (archived here) in a way that can be converted to braille or synthesized speech.

Ironically the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens faced criticism that organisers had not learned the lessons of the 2000 Olympics.

     other cases

There appears to have been no major litigation about Australian websites for several years after the SOCOG decision. In 2009 however Les Kerr of Brisbane gained attention after initiating legal action in the Federal Magistrates Court against budget airline Virgin Blue and foreshadowing action against the Seven Network, Yahoo and regulator the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.

Kerr reportedly claimed that the airline's site unfairly discriminates against people with visual impairments, commenting that its use of light grey text on a white background and difficulty in enlarging the text without distorting the page meant that it was especially difficult to use.

Kerr reportedly approached Virgin Blue directly, then took a claim under anti-discrimination legislation to the national Human Rights & Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) before going to court under the same legislation. The airline claimed that its site is "fully compliant with all relevant legislation" and that it had previously "engaged Vision Australia to review our websites".

     next page  (overseas accessibility cases)