Re: accessible procurement policies

Hi Claire, all

The basics are that there isn't a fixed fine, but people can pay 
damages, and that the Human Rights Commission decide what "reasonable 
progress" means - and have shown they are prepared to make serious 
investigations and determinations on the topic.

There has been one case in Australia in which damages were assessed at 
AUD $20,000 because Bruce Maguire was deprived of his right to equal 
enjoyment of information about the Sydney Olympic Games. There are not 
specific timelines, but the legislation is designed to solve people's 
problems, and if the commission feels that a respondent is not actually 
following out their responsibilities in part or full they can assess 
damages. In the SOCOG case one of the things I thought was interesting 
about the judgement was that despite rejecting the respondent's 
arguments about how difficult the job was, they stated that even had 
they accepted the argument, the orders made would still stand, and 
consequently the damages claim would be awarded if they failed carry 
out the repairs ordered in the relevant time specified for that case.

cheers

Chaals

On 10 Mar 2004, at 00:39, Claire Spencer wrote:

>
> Keiko,
>
> Can you tell me what this fine is for not meeting accessibility
> standards in Australia? As far as I know this is how it goes with the
> Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission of Australia:
>
> "There is not a specific timeline that I am aware of. The Disability
> Discrimination Act has however been in place since 1993 (ie from the
> outset of WWW use by universities in Australia). The legislation does
> not operate by means of imposition of penalties; rather it gives people
> affected by discrimination including lack of accessibility the right to
> make complaints and seek remedies, which could include damages suffered
> and/or the removal of access barriers."
>
> Source: David Mason
> Director Disability Rights policy HREOC- Australia
>
> If HREOC were to enforce the standards as set out by the W3C, how
> exactly would they do that? It's pretty frustrating I totally agree, 
> but
> as long as companies are seen to be making reasonable effort towards
> meeting the standards, then there is nothing anyone can do really.
--
Charles McCathieNevile                          Fundación Sidar
charles@sidar.org                                http://www.sidar.org

Received on Tuesday, 9 March 2004 17:56:10 UTC