Re: question re WCAG 1.0

The European parliament, and the member states of the EU, have adopted WCAG
as the legal standard under the eEurope program.

It is not strictly true to say that the Australian government has adopted
WCAG in the way that the US government has adopted section 508 as law, but I
suspect that for your purposes it might be a workable simplification.

That is, as I understand it, in the US it is possible to sue the gobernment
if they purchase something which does not meet section 508 requirements. In
australia it is possible to sue the government or a private organisation if
they provide a service via the web that does not provide equal access for
people with a disability. The HREOC - the body that hears such cases,
recommends implementing WCAG as the way of avoiding doing that, as do all
levels of Australian government, whose internal policy is to implement
according to WCAG.

So the effect is more or less that that is the initial legal bar against
which you are measured (although Australian law basically says your
accesssibility as to meet best practise standards to demonstrate a priori
that you are making an effort, and if there is still an accessibilty problem
after that then you need to resolve it.)

(I am not a lawyer, ...)

CHarles

On Tue, 26 Mar 2002, Mark Stimson wrote:

  During Sunday's Face-to-Face meeting, sometime between 4:00 and 5:00
  p.m., we were discussing how the WCAG 1.0 has been implemented
  unmodified by certain countries into law.  I believe it was Wendy who
  listed some counties like Canada, France, and New Zealand.

  Does the minute taker or anyone else taking notes, have the whole list
  of countries mentioned? Or Wendy, do you remember which counties you
  mentioned?

  Furthermore, does anyone know of additional governments that have
  adopted parts modified or un-modified of the WCAG 1.0 into law?

  godspeed,
  mark



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