Your corporate Web site may have the latest in Shockwave presentations, more colours than Tammy Faye's lipstick collection and enough GIF and JPEG files to sink a battleship, but how much information will that convey to a blind person?
A new report from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission looks at the special needs of older people and those with disabilities.
Deputy Disability and Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes said that while new technology has the ability to benefit people with disabilities, there is also a danger that it will produce a digital divide.
The report welcomes the trend for online services and EFTPOS terminals to cater for people with special needs. This includes having text-only options for Web pages and standardisation of interfaces for terminals.
Telecomms policy researcher Michael Bourk said a lack of provision for handicapped people on Web sites can leave the operators open to legal action on the grounds of discrimination. He believes that this will be a rapidly growing trend in Australia, following successful lawsuits in the US. He said that in 1995 a West Australian person successfully sued Telstra over its refusal to provide him, a deaf person, with a teletypewriter just as it provides a hearing person with a telephone.
Bourk has written a book on the subject, Universal service? Telecommunications policy in Australia and people with disabilities. A free copy can be downloaded from www.tomw. net.au/uso. The Australian Human Rights report can be downloaded from www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/ecomrep.htm. The World Wide Web consortium's guidelines on accessibility can be viewed at www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/. DO-IT is a resource for people with disabilities who want or need to use technology. It can be found at www.washington.edu/doit/
