Legal and ethical requirements

The current Australian legislation affecting Swinburne University is The Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

Australia has the dubious 'distinction' of being the first country in the world in which a disabled person has successfully taken legal action, under that Act, over lack of accessibility to a web site. The case gained considerable exposure because it involved Australia's premier international event, the Sydney 2000 Olympics, which is followed shortly after by the Paralympics.

Most people would consider it unthinkable for a disabled person to be denied entry to a cinema or service at a supermarket because of their disability; we should not think the pursuit and attainment of academic excellence should be any different.

We should be driven by the desire for excellence and equity in education for all students, regardless of any disability or impairment, not by the possibility of legal action or the likelihood of further laws in this area.

Accessibility will not be a static issue and will be driven from many sides. Australia's aging population and increasing enrolments from mature age students will require various age-related accessibility issues to be addressed.

This web site aims to comply with W3C standards, including XHTML 1.0 , CSS 2 , and conforms to W3C 's "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0", available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505 , level Double-A.