At 11:59 AM 10/6/2005, Alex wrote:
>'Not getting sued' seems to be the other popular reason to address
>accessibility. ...
Getting sued doesn't seem to motivate Australian companies to implement
accessibility. This is despite accessibility legislation and a legal precedent.
I was one of the expert witnesses in the Sydney 2000 Olympic games web
accessibility case. Part of the defence was that the web site was built by
IBM, who were supposed to be experts. I used IBM's accessibility guidelines
(as well as W3Cs) to test the site. The complainant won the case and
damages were paid. Details of the case are linked to my presentation for
the Beijing 2008 Olympic Committee <http://www.tomw.net.au/2003/bws.html>.
After the Sydney case I assumed that Australian companies would make their
web sites accessible to avoid legal action. But they seem to have decided
the risk was low and it was cost effective to quietly pay up if someone
complained.
>I'd like to quote on you on my blog - but these archives aren't public on
>the web ...
I was able to read the archive at <
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/DC-ACCESSIBILITY.html>. A web search didn't
find it, but did find the W3C archive
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/wai-xtech/2005Oct/0002.html>.
Tom Worthington FACS HLM [log in to unmask] Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617 http://www.tomw.net.au/
Director, ACS Communications Tech Board http://www.acs.org.au/ctb/
Visiting Fellow, ANU Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml
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