This country/region is part of the Global Law and Policy Page, which contains information about laws that protect disabled people’s rights to participate in the digital world.
- Australia’s general Disability Discrimination ACT (1992) has been held to apply to website accessibility by a Ruling in 2000 by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
- The Australian Human Rights Commission published an Advisory Note in 2014 recommending WCAG and usability testing by people with disability. As of March 2023 this Note is currently being updated. A statement on the Note currently says it is not current. [Note that in Australia the term “people with disability” (singular) is used, and not the plural “people with disabilities.”]
- The recent enquiry Into Human Rights and Technology made a number of recommendations around Artificial Intelligence and also accessible technology for people with disability.
- Accessibility requirements for Australian government websites
- The Digital Service Standard has an accessibility criteria: Make It Accessible
- Read the 2017 blog post about the Australian accessibility standard written by Andrew Arch, currently with Intopia, and at the time Lead, Accessibility, Diversity, Assisted Digital at Australia’s Digital Transformation Office.
- The Australian Government’s Commonwealth Procurement Rules require evidence of conformance with applicable Australian Standards – from an accessibility perspective, AS EN 301 549:2020 is applicable.
- The Digital Sourcing Consider First Policy released by the Digital Transformation Authority in June 2019 also has a requirement for accessibility
- The updated, now digital, Style Manual has lots of information to support the production of accessible content.
- Accessible IT Procurement: A guide to procuring accessible ICT for Higher Education providers
- Most state governments have supporting accessibility documentation, for example
- Australian Standards relating to digital accessibility and published by Standards Australia:
- AS EN 301 549 – Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services (direct adoption)
- AS ISO/IEC 30071.1 – Information technology — Development of user interface accessibility — Part 1: Code of practice for creating accessible ICT products and services (direct adoption)