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Date: 30 August 2001
Acknowledgments:
Mr Graeme Innes, Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Human Rights And Equal Opportunity Commission.
Dr Ruth Shean, Chief Executive Officer Of The Disability Services Commission.
Mr Charles McCathieNevile, W3C staff member in the web accessibility initiative domain of the W3C.
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I’m very pleased to welcome all of you to this seminar on creating websites for everyone.
This seminar has been organised by the department of industry and technology and the disability services commission. I am sure you will find it of great benefit.
Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with creating the World Wide Web once said the power of the web is in its universality. By definition, universality means “access by everyone”. Universality is now an essential requirement when building a website or putting information on the web. The principal aim of universal access is to allow the benefits of the Internet to be made available to all people in our community. This means access no matter the configuration of hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical location, physical or mental ability. That’s true universality.
On an international level, the W3C guidelines have been established with the intention of taking the World Wide Web to its full potential. It has done that by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its accessibility to all members of the community. The manner in which the Internet and information technology has altered our capacity to provide services, information and connect people promises an extremely exciting future. It is therefore imperative that these developments take account of the needs of everyone in our community and make sure that no one is excluded from arguably one of the most revolutionary informational tools in history.
Any barriers can seriously limit people’s ability to receive an education, build a career, live independently and live the lifestyle that they want. The Internet can provide huge benefits for all members of the community if they can access the information through good accessible web design. This will increase choices instead of creating restrictions and dependence.
As a society, we should work towards technological inclusions to help advance these choices and independence by breaking down barriers which foster restrictions and dependence. Today’s event will focus on how to improve web design and create accessible websites that enable people with disabilities, seniors and those who are living in regional communities to enjoy the benefits of online communications and service delivery.
The morning session will provide a general understanding of what the term internet accessibility means … and the steps organisations can take to improve access to their websites. You will hear from prominent speakers who will drive home the importance and principles of accessible web design, both from a policy and practical perspective. The afternoon session will take the form of a workshop. It will go through practical steps organisations need to take to design and develop an accessible website. This is specifically tailored to industry specialists and website designers.
The West Australian Government is committed to the provision of online delivery of services and information. My department of Industry and Technology will play a major role in this. We are only too well aware that for the government’s initiative to be successful, online service delivery needs to reach all members of our community. The single doorway, which is an initiative from the department, is Western Australia’s Internet access point for a wealth of government information and services. It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The OnlineWA single doorway will be enhanced to reflect changing needs. This will include providing the impetus to other government agencies and our private sector partners to make government websites more accessible to the community as a whole.
The importance of accessible websites will be continuously promoted through the provision of information. This seminar is just the beginning. I hope this will be the start of a new phase of website development that will lead to the creation of websites which are accessible to all members of our community.
I hope you have a very successful and informative day.
Thank you.
Transcript of talk delivered by Doctor Ruth Shean "Opening Address" on the 30th of August 2001.
In the year 2000 sports fan Bruce Maguire successfully sued SOCOG the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games under the Commonwealth Discrimination Act, for failing to make it’s website available for people with disabilities. Bruce Maguire who is blind struck gold in way that his legacy will become a bountiful reality for people in Australia. This achievement not only underlined impact of access but also awakened the need of people to design the web sites for people with disabilities. For the last decade focused on physical and attitudinal access in the real world but virtual world offers opportunities and barriers, and are similarities. Highways have been accessible for some people with disabilities while road transport has brought many challengers. The information super highway promised new avenues of access for people with disabilities while brining with it simular obstacles as in real world. Computers are becoming more commonplace and we them use to keep us up to-date and for a great variety of reasons. Our children are introduced to computers in pre-school. My 15-year-old son can establish a new dialup for her in less time than it takes me to get his school lunch ready for him. Kids are running the rings around us parents when it comes to understanding how to impellent new technology and seem to have no fear burdens or hang ups about working with these tools.
I consider myself as computer literate but at times I still have problems logging in to email. I remember our first foray into email was Christmas 1992. My husband got someone to set-up the computer. In those days it was a bit like being in an intensive care unit with cables and wires going everywhere to things to make them operational. I bought a book called “Internet for Dummies” and agonised over this thing called a dialler which required interrogation that made the Spanish inquisition look wimpish which also had a large shoebox sized modem with a hand shake louder than a Timezone (an electronic game store chain) on a Saturday afternoon. At the end of it we wondered why people bothered but then we logged in for one last look and we were hooked for life. Of course things are now easier only have to choose between 4 connections and choose the method by landline or mobile and decide which dial out prefix is needed like, what country and or area codes need to be put in and remember current password.
I live and die by my electronic communications systems. Just recently I had to operate by remote log on from Exmouth and was out of range for about 5 hours and worried about was or was not happing at the office while she was away. The final disaster was getting to a hotel room with old phone sockets that wouldn’t take my modem connection cable. So then I had to wrestle with my modem connection and the system took a long time to respond. Logging in on Monday to get my messages from office once took 40 minutes. I can see hear and type relatively fast and have a mobile phone bill paid by taxpayers of Western Australia. The cost and complexity is eased by people on help desk who dread my every call and there are many.
The cost and complexity is not the only impediment to access the super highway to people with disabilities. Access to a computer with it’s associated software, keyboard and mouse does not mean you can access the internet consider skills needed:
Most of us have these abilities or have acquired these skills and attitudes to be comfortable with them. Many of us still struggle to reach anything like acceptable typing speeds. For people with disabilities using computer technology with range of these added difficulties presents new barriers or challenges.
Who do we mean when say people with disabilities? The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that currently 20% of population has a disability that’s 355,500 in Western Australia alone. Who may not be able to do many of the daily actives we take for granted. Like using a computer without any special adaptations. While many born with disabilities others may acquire them through injury or illness. There is also a strong link between age and disability. As we age the likelihood of having a disability increases. More than half the people over 60 years of age have a disability compared with less than 5% for children under 5 five years of age.
While reduced mobility is an obvious sign of aging, sensory disabilities such as vision impairments and hearing are also common. 80% of vision impairments in Australia are over 55 years of age. Disability and aging are of particular interest to us here today. Recent Bureau of Statistics so the strongest growth of computer and internet growth are in the 55 to 64 year age groups. As we age are more likely to attempt to access the Internet but we are equally more likely to find it presents us with access challenges. Access considerations for people with disabilities are important, we also need to be aware of the issues of people in rural and remotes. The Internet provides unique opportunities overcome these disadvantages occurring because of distance at the same time we need to be careful with design and consideration for factors such as slow or costly Internet connections that are common in rural areas, people in these areas may be denied access. The cost of setting up and maintaining computer at home and maintaining something that does not become obsolete very quickly can be prohibitive and outside the financial income of many people in western Australia. Recognising this the Government of Western Australia has set up access to computers and the internet through public facilities like local libraries..
The State Government has a strong commitment to the provision of equitable access to services for all Western Australians. The Disabilities Service Act 1993 requires State Government agencies and local governments to implement a disabilities service plan and in that context many are here today. I delighted to acknowledge the architect of these plans Graeme Innes. Graeme in 1992 had the foresight to build the requirement for the disability plans into the first state disabilities services act and this single act been responsible for major gains for people with disabilities.
It provides a framework to identify barriers to services and systematically implement solutions to overcome. The five outcomes that need to be addressed in service plans are:
Providing accessible websites and information technology for people with disabilities can enhance everyone of these outcomes. I erg those with responsibilities for these service plans in your agencies to make note of these tow things that will make your life easier use it to adapt your services:
A/ Build an accessible web site into each of your DSP outcome areas to provide access to your facilities. With all the above points included.
B/ Insist on having an accessible web site as a key platform to your disability plan. At the very least get your boss to commit to W3C compliant web site. When the contract specifications are drawn up for your web site are being prepared write this into the document W3C.
Just letting you know informally that the planning act review later this year will be under way and it wants to see strengthening of wording on disability plans. When Graeme Innes originally help prepare this did they was simple wording that public authority must have a DS plan and must report to the commissioner. In 1999 was changed to reporting in annual reports, which was an improvement. This reporting was direct to customers and also to parliament. We will now look at if need to strengthen the format for DS plan reporting and people with disabilities give an resounding yes. We need to work to ensure what goes in is supported by government and local government agencies and supported by people with disabilities.
The electronic world of computers is essentially a visual world with addition of some sounds and speech so how can the World Wide Web be accessible to all people? We are becoming increasingly aware of the need to meet this challenge. In June 2000 Commonwealth State and Territories at the Ministerial meeting of online councils agreed that all Australian government websites would meet the World Wide Web Consortium or W3C standard for web design and hopes this seminar will provide you the opportunity to learn about the W3C guidelines. Accessibility in the virtual world is just as important as in the real world for people with disabilities. The Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) has as an interest in ensuring people with disabilities have same access to the Internet as other people hence their involvement in landmark decision of SOCOG.
Another of Graeme Innes initiatives has been in the business of holding enquires so the microscope is on accessibility on websites. Design consultants on access and accessibility often quote the phrase, “designing for few benefiting many”. You only have to look at ramps used by people with wheelchairs and see others with prams and shopping trolleys use them, to see that the principals of good design and can benefit others other than people with disabilities. Look at the advent of SMS messaging on mobiles that good design has made the mobile phone accessible to those who have hearing impairments. Today you will learn how to do something good for greater population.
Transcript of talk presented by Graeme Innes. On the 30th of August 2001
Picture the scene, you’re the marketing manager for a product or service wants to gain penetration for whole population. Your new website designer is about to present her copy for the product web site. She has been working on this site for months. She says, “ Well here it is you will love it. The front page is just a picture of the product and links come out of the picture, it loads a bit slow on my fast machine. But I have used different colours to get peoples attention. All the pages that don’t require Shockwave to run can be viewed once people have downloaded other pieces of proprietary software. The instruction manuals can be downloaded but I have made them locked PDF files so that no one can alter them. The tech heads will talk about it for months and we are sure to have it written up in all the computer magazines.” She wonders why after the presentation why you stand there and shake your head, until you ask, “Let’s then add up how you have excluded? Anyone with a computer more that fives years old, anyone with a slow connection, anyone with a std line, anyone with wireless connection. Anyone with their graphics turned off. Anyone who can’t run Shockwave or can’t use or download propriety software or can’t read PDF files. Anyone using a screen reader. We have excluded about 75% of the market and all because you didn’t follow the W3C access guidelines.”
Thanks for the opportunity to come here and speak with you today.
Dr Schapper your earlier comments about online voting, brought up for me a very personal topic. I’m a shareholder in NRMA, the New South Wales Road and Motoring Association, they are first company in Australia who as part of they elections this year are running voting online and for first time in my life I will have in an organisation a secret ballot. Most Australians would assume that secret ballots are the norm. For people who are blind, vision impaired or with other disabilities that is just not the case. Dr Ruth Shean thank you for comments about the Disabilities Services Act (DSA) I appreciate them. Coming up with the ideas for the DSA plans was the easy bit, writing was the hardest part to do, to write it in such away into the legislation so people did not know it was there until it came back and bit them.
Today I want to summarise the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and it’s application to the IT environment and briefly outline the Commission’s findings on access to e-commerce for older Australians as well as people with disabilities and to consider ramifications of the Maguire and SOCOG decision.
To whom does the DDA apply? It applies to local and state government organisations, private sector employers, providers of services, educational authorities, owners of lands and buildings, clubs and incorporated associations, it applies in fact to all areas of public life.
There is equivalent state legislation in Western Australia it is the Equal Opportunity Act and probably in every organisation represented here today is breaking law. Including the Commonwealth Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) but no action will be taken until a complaint is lodged.
What is disability? It covers a broad area physical, sensory, intellectual and psychiatric disability, it also includes the presence in the body of organisms causing disease or illness and learning disabilities. It may be past, present, future or imputed. The classic example of imputed disability is when people assume because a person has cerebral palsy they also have an intellectual disability and this is not always right in many of the cases.
There are two types of discrimination the first is direct discrimination which is less favourable treatment on the grounds of the person or their associate in the same or simular circumstances. That is a relatively simple concept to understand. It involves refusal of a job for a person with a disability because disability precluded use of computer without adaptation.
More difficult to understand is indirect discrimination. That is treatment which is neutral on it’s face but has a desperate impact on the person or their associate of the person with the disability and is not “reasonable in the circumstances”. An example would be requirement in job application for person to have drivers licence where job only required travel between sites once or twice a month and where could be done by other methods by taxi or other methods. And that same example may not be indirect if the job was for a taxi driver which of cause would require someone to hold a drivers licence. This is the important part of the last part of the definition not being “reasonable in the circumstances”.
The other example of indirect discrimination is the inaccessible website.
What are the defences to this legislation? Firstly if a person can’t carry out the requirements of the job. Qantas will be able defend the position if they refused me a job as pilot because I’m blind. Secondly if not to discriminate would cause the respondent unjustifiable hardship.
Unjustifiable hardship is a difficult concept to come to terms with, hearing commissioners and the Federal Court still struggle with this. It relates to each individuals circumstances and probably the best example of unjustifiable hardship is the case of Scott and Telstra. Geoff Scott an ordinary sort of bloke comes from Western Australia who also happens to be deaf.
In the days when Telstra used to actually provide a bit of service and provide a telephone handset with the rental. Geoff Scott lodged a complaint because at that same time they didn’t provide TTY’s which allows deaf people to communicate directly to another person using a TTY or through the Australian Communications exchange or to anyone else that they want to make a phone call to, make an appointment with their doctor or ring up and order a pizza.
Geoff Scott alleged that not to provide him with a TTY when Telstra provided others with telephone handsets was discrimination and Sir Ronald Wilson the then president of the Human Rights Commission found that was the case. Telstra argued that to force them to provide a TTY would be an unjustifiable hardship. A lot of the figures that were argued were not disclosed because of the commercial in-confidence nature of them. The basically it was argued that to provide a TTY to every person who needed one would add one cent to each of Telstra’s subscribers quarterly bill and that was not regarded as unjustifiable hardship. Clearly it was hardship but under the DDA that is the hardship that organisations are required to endure. They are only are not required to endure it when it is unjustifiable.
Cyberspace is no safer than the real world and in that respect, the logic of the legislation in the Scott and Telstra case reinforced that understanding as does the Maguire and SOCOG decision. This legislation is the first reason for compliance. The Human Rights Commission carried out an enquiry into access to electronic commerce for older Australians and Australians with a disability and found in that a number of barriers such as the cost of access to computers and the internet, limited public access facilities, limited resources and information for adapted equipment, lack of awareness and training, inaccessibility of web pages for people who are vision impaired, slower connections and older equipment, accessibility of ATM’s and simular to people with limited vision, dexterity, memory as well as people using wheelchairs, safety and security concerns at ATM’s and EFTPOS machines, privacy and security of Internet transactions, insufficient time, complex menus, no human operator on interactive voice telephone systems, lack or delay of insufficient formats for copyright or formatting reasons. None of these things would surprise you they are out there in the community and needed to be challenged.
The report also looked at benefits of access, including particular gains in internet access for people who have difficulty with transport or building access, people who can’t turn pages, people who can’t see or read print, people who can’t read written English can use speech or translation services. Deaf people using email or SMS (Simple Messaging Service), interactive voice response systems, a greater efficiency for organisations and greater convenience for customers. Advances particularly for blind and vision impaired people. The important need for human backup and its availability. ATM’s and EFTPOS and simular devices, being convenient in time and location and at a lower cost. Again there are no surprises in these observations.
The report made a number of findings and recommendations. That government, industry and community organisations should ensure that people developing technologies are aware of access issues, like buildings its better to get it right from the start rather than fix it later on. That’s not just a matter structure but a matter of cost. Information and service providers should comply with W3C disability guidelines this will bring benefits to people with disabilities and also it can in a major way broaden market share.
Websites should be designed by not using graphics only images, image maps pages with long download times, touch screens and extra software that has to be downloaded which can hinder access to many people with an without disabilities. Why build a web site and restrict the people who can visit it?
Continuing with the findings the Commonwealth Government should implement its Electronic Communications Act giving the electronic versions of documents the same legal status of paper documents and that has now happened and one example of that is that complaints to Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission can now be logged by email or electronic form. Western Australian services should be considering using simular facilities. Access for people with print disabilities are assisted with this form of communication and so is the general public.
Some of those who are interested in elections, the ACT is the first jurisdiction in Australia to conduct an online election latter this year. Government and businesses should donate superseded equipment to groups such as TAD Technical Aids for the Disabled for access and education purposes. Government departments are now doing this and the Commonwealth Attorneys Department is the first to implement this.
Commonwealth Government should continue its Access Program that funds community experts to advise on access technologies. The Commonwealth Government should implement changes to copyright laws to provide digitised materials with equal exemptions for people with disabilities as exists for printed material, that has occurred earlier this year (2001).
Online and automated services should compliment and not replace human services and should also follow industry standards. ATM’s and EFTPOS should be accessible. I'm working with the Bankers Association who are working to develop an action plan to develop standards for ATM’s, EFTPOS and online internet banking and telephone banking. Westpac is introducing ATM’s with speech as well as a screen and the machine will use an earphone for security purposes and will be more physically accessible. Industry bodies monitor and introduce international access developments. We should learn from overseas and the HREOC resource page on our website links to a whole lot of e-commerce resources. http://www.humanrights.gov.au/disablities_rights
Bruce Maguire who uses a screen reader sort access to the SOCOG site because he wanted to be able to interact with his kids, who are interested in sport, talk to them about the Olympic results and give them Olympic information and encourage them to attend Olympic events with him. A very reasonable thing for a parent to want to do. Because he had a vision impairment he wasn’t able to access the site and he logged a DDA compliant when the site wasn’t available. The matter went to the Commission after a great deal of argument and opposition by SOCOG. I can never understand why SOCOG argued the case rather than putting their energies into doing something about it. The Commission ordered SOCOG to put alternate text on all images, image map links, to provide access to the index of sports in the schedule page and to provide access for the results tables. Yet again SOCOG didn’t comply with the order prior to the Olympics they argued that it would cost them over a million dollars and would take them a year and a half’s work to comply. Bruce Maguire brought IT experts that argue the cost would be in the thousands and that they could sort things out in three or four weeks. When SOCOG didn’t comply Bruce Maguire went back to HREOC, it was sad that he had to do that because an international event that brought a great deal of international interest to Australia and event that had accessibility in so many ways had a web site that wasn’t accessible by people with disabilities. As a result of that decision the broad knowledge of the fact that the web site was inaccessible became known nationally and internationally Bruce Maguire was awarded damages of $20,000.
The implications of the Maguire decision are clear whilst this damages award was high given the highly visible international nature of this particular site and SOCOG’s absolute recalcitrance in not complying with HREOC directions there is a serious risk to be run. You could build a pretty good website for $20,000 and you could build a great website for $50,000 factoring in the probable legal costs given that one must ask the question,” why wouldn’t you make it accessible?”
What I have discussed to day is all reasons to make websites accessible. This forum is part of that process taking access issues forward. Let me end by asking you all one question, “ What are the two most significant things you have done with your lives, one in your personal and one in your work career? Do they spring to mind or do you have to think hard about it? I have an advantage because I have had some time to think. Let me share my answers with you.
Career wise it has been my involvement along with a number of others to in the enactment of Disabilities Discrimination Legislation because I believe that has had a major impact on lots of Australians. Personally my participation in the development and creation of my four-year-old daughter Rachel. Now ironically the forum to day is relative to both of those. I have already discussed the DDA as one of the drivers for accessibility of the web but as a parent I’m realising more and more that to participate in Rachel’s development and education I will need to access websites for her and with her. So what we are talking about and what forum is all about is supporting Australians with disabilities such as myself to play an equal role in Australian in society as individuals, members of community groups, employees and parents a very profitable return I suggest for the price of compliance. Thank you for the chance to talk to you.
White paper with talk transcript in Adobe PDF file format. If you want to download a copy of Adobe Acrobat reader this link will take you to the Adobe Website for your free reader version.
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