The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 67

Thursday November 2 2000 The Guardian 8 1 online mm A blind internet user is going to court after he found the official Paralympics site was closed to him, writes Caroline White the Paralympics closed this week amid widespread acclaim that they, like their sister and throughout the games, Socog refused to comply with the ruling, leading to Maguire's new action. Although the commission is not a court, any damages award will be legally enforceable, and Maguire says he is prepared to take the battle all the way to the Federal Court. There is also a possibility that a class action could eventually be brought on behalf of all blind people in Australia. "I don't think of myself as an activist, but when I encounter this kind of discrimination, I feel I have a responsibility to do something," Maguire says. "I use the web every day it's a vital tool for many visually impaired people.

I tried using the Olympics site several times, without much success, but die worst time Olympics, had been the best in history, not all disabled people were celebrating. Bruce Maguire, a blind internet user from Sydney, is bringing a damages claim next week against the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (Socog) for "humiliation and loss of opportunity to participate" by failing to make its web site (www.olympics.com) accessible to him. Visually impaired internet users and some physically disabled people access information online by converting text into speech or Braille. These methods require accessible web design such as descriptive "tags" for images or the provision of text alternatives to graphics files (see panel). Maguire's case will be heard on Monday by the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (www.hreoc.gov.au).

At a preliminary hearing earlier this year, the commission found that Socog and its technology partner IBM had breached section 24 of the country's disability discrimination act, and should take immediate action to make the Olympics and Paralympics sites accessible. Under advice from IBM, Socog argued that to make the site accessible would cost (800,000) and take ayear. This was refuted by two web design professionals, brought in by Maguire, who estimated that the site could be fixed in just a few weeks at a fraction of the cost. In the intervening weeks Testing times: the Sydney activist Bruce Maguire is taking the issue of web accessibility to court. 'When I encounterthis kind of discrimination, I feel I have a responsibility to do he says them under this country's disability discrimination act.

The institute's campaigns officer Julie Howell says: "For the first time, a country has demonstrated that inaccessible web services are discriminatory. Web designers here should think very carefully before making an inaccessible site, as they could find themselves on the wrong side of the law." The author writes for E-Access Bulletin, a free email newsletter on technology and vision impairment. To subscribe, emailaccesslieadstar.com remedial work carried out belatedly by IBM, Davis confirmed that the Paralympics site was still entirely inaccessible to blind people. "It is missing text tags for images, and the Javascript will probably crash any older text readers or speech browsers. Plus the frames may pose problems." The case could set an important precedent: recent UK research into the accessibility of online shopping sites by the Royal National Institute for the Blind found that high street names from NatWest bank to Safeway supermarkets were guilty of "lazy web design and which excluded a potential 8.5 million disabled customers.

The charity is now warning UK web designers to take heed of the Australian case or risk similar actions against such issues. This week it was unwilling to comment ahead of the new hearing, but it is understood to be disappointed with the way IBM has sought to divest itself of responsibility. IBM sees it differently. A spokesperson said this week: "We designed the sites to tight specifications set out by Socog: there was no leeway. All questions of accessibility are down to them." But Paul Davis, a web accessibility expert who runs the UK disability portal says IBM's assertion is ridiculous.

"Of course they should be advising Socog on accessibility, as they were the technical experts hired to do the job. The11 probably spend more money fighting the case than it would have cost to make the site accessible in the first place." And despite some basic 3 The web is a vital tool for many visually impaired' was when my son and I had planned to see the fencing. I ended up feeling frustrated and humiliated. In particular, I felt angry and hurt that I was not able to interact with my son in the same way as any sighted parent" Both IBM and Socog a committee of grandees including the lord mayor of Sydney blame each other for the inaccessibility of the site. At the August hearing, Socog argued that it was IBM's job, as designer and builder of the site, to tackle all areas? 1 Accessible web sites avoid displaying any text as graphical images only.

2. When using photos and images, include descriptive text tags using the "ALT" attribute of HTML. 3. Make sure forms work with text-only browsers such as Lynx browser.org). 4.

Avoid multi-column text displays, as many types of access software read across columns, resulting in gibberish. 5. Provide alternative formats to non-character based files such as Adobe PDF, or provide links to converters..