The following is an example of a breach of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) by an organisation whose website could not be accessed by a person with a vision impairment.
This case highlights the legal consequences of developing websites that are inaccessible to users with a disability.
In June 1999, Bruce Maguire lodged a complaint against SOCOG alleging discrimination under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth). His complaint related to SOCOG's failure and refusal to provide:
The web accessibility complaint was handled by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), and resulted in the finding of unlawful discrimination by SOCOG.
During the hearing, IBM (the website developer) confirmed that the tables used to display results would be inaccessible to people with a vision impairment. The tables had no structural information that would enable screen-reading software to distinguish one data cell from another.
SOCOG argued unjustifiable hardship, claiming that to correct the site would cost $2 million and take 368 days.
These arguments were refuted by expert witnesses who claimed that the real cost of correcting the site would be about $30,000 and would take from two to four weeks.
SOCOG was directed by the Commission to do all that was necessary to establish a website accessible to Mr Maguire. SOCOG failed to comply with this order. The hearing reconvened and the Commission found that SOCOG had been dismissive of Mr Maguire's complaint.
The Commission declared that SOCOG should pay the complainant the sum of $20,000.