The organisers of the Sydney Olympics have been told to cough up AU$20,000 in damages for their failure to comply with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's order over Web site accessibility.
Bruce Maguire has been awarded the AU$20,000 in general damages for the "hurt and humiliation" he suffered at the hands of the Games' organisers, Greg Kirk, principal solicitor at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), told ZDNet.
PIAC represented Maguire in his case against SOCOG and sought general damages, legal costs as well as aggravated damages - for the element of aggravation in SOCOG's conduct during the term of the complaint - from the Games' organisers.
Although HREOC's front man, Commissioner Carter, did not distinguish between general and aggregated damages, "he strongly criticised SOCOG and said they had made things worse by being so dismissive of [Maguire's] complaint," Kirk said.
At the hearing, Maguire's solicitor maintained that SOCOG did not comply with the Commissioner's declaration of August 24 that it make www.olympics.com accessible to blind users of the Internet in time for the Sydney 2000 summer Games.
Furthermore, Maguire's solicitor claimed that the difficulties he encountered when attempting to access the site during the course of the Games occurred because the site had not been designed in accordance with Web accessibility guidelines and was not the fault of the Internet service provider, as implied by SOCOG.
"SOCOG regrets any difficulty Mr Maguire experienced in relation to access to the Web site," SOCOG's solicitor said today. "Those difficulties he asserts to have experienced are not the result of any deliberate discrimination on [SOCOG's] part against people with sight difficulties and [SOCOG] rejects any assertion that this is or was the case," he added.
However, "SOCOG is not a bottomless pit of money," its solicitor said, pointing to the fact that it's government-assisted financially and that any payout to Maguire would come partially out of the tax-payers' money.
"SOCOG should not be made some sort of whipping boy to make some sort of point," he added.
Kirk said that SOCOG has simply not complied with the law and that "the people damaged by that should be compensated".
Although Maguire was said to be "very pleased" with the result, time will tell if SOCOG actually puts its hand in its pocket.
HREOC may have ordered SOCOG pay the AU$20,000 in damages, but its not strictly enforceable, according to Kirk.
However, if SOCOG doesn't agree to pay-up "it would be enforceable in a federal court," Kirk said.
Kirk said PIAC would be writing to SOCOG "to try to get a response as soon as possible".
