[LINK] Fwd: VIP-L: Grocery website 'discriminates'

[Jan Whitaker]

>Grocery website 'discriminates'
>http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24141227-12377,00.html
>
>August 07, 2008
>A DISABLED Brisbane man has lodged an official complaint against the 
>Federal Government's new grocery price watch website, claiming the 
>Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is in breach 
>of the Disability Discrimination Act.
>
>Les Kerr, 53, of the suburb of Wooloowin, is vision and mobility 
>impaired and says the GROCERYchoice website is inaccessible. His 
>complaint is about the difficulty in using the website.
>
>"I have lodged a formal Disability Discrimination complaint against 
>the Federal Government's new GROCERYchoice website, 
>www.grocerychoice.gov.au," he said.
>
>"This website has been poorly designed for disabled accessibility 
>and is in direct breach of the Federal Government's own Disability 
>Discrimination Act.
>
>"That website should be a great benefit to people like me," he told AAP.
>
>"As most disabled people are on pensions and money is always an 
>issue, this website had the potential to be of great assistance to 
>us if it had been designed correctly.
>
>"The Federal Government has no excuse for the site not being accessible.
>
>"It appears that the site was put together in a hurry with little 
>thought of allowing disabled people access and most certainly was 
>not tested by disabled people before it came online as any good 
>website should be."
>
>Mr Kerr said the website failed the most basic level of the 
>acceptable International Standards for Website Accessibility, the 
>W3Cs WCAG 1.0 guidelines.
>
>"Disabled people are once again put in a situation where able-bodied 
>people are deciding what disabled people can or can't access on the 
>internet," he said.
>
>In his complaint against the ACCC lodged with the Human Rights and 
>Equal Opportunity Commission, Mr Kerr lists 18 causes for complaint.
>
>"It's very easy to make an accessible website," he said.
>
>"I'm sick and tired of taking 30 times longer to find my way around 
>a website than an able-bodied person can whip around.
>
>"It's the one place where able-bodied and disabled people should be 
>equal," he told AAP.
>
>"I accept that I can't read newspapers anymore ... but at least if 
>websites are designed properly I can read a newspaper on the internet."
>
>Mr Kerr, who has a degenerative illness, said he was contemplating 
>further complaint's against the Government's websites which he says 
>do not comply with the Act.
>
>http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24141227-12377,00.html


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
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"No Longer Anonymous, of Berwick"

Writing Lesson #54:
Learn to love revision. Think of it as polishing the silver for 
guests. - JW, May, 2007
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