Section 508 is a minimum standard required for Websites of US Government contractors, etc. and so has been adopted by many other Websites too. It is not law, as such.
Disability Discrimination legislation in Europe, the US and Oceania are all very similar and require Website owners to take "reasonable" steps to ensure their sites are accessible by disabled users. The WCAG standards are the ones expected to be used in any law suits as a test of accessibility. The legislation doesn´t specify a level of accessibility, just that reasonable steps are taken, which is why there have not been too many prosecutions. The test of reasonableness is vague and what is reasonable for a large corporation to do may not be reasonable for a small business. On Sun, August 17, 2008 3:18 pm, tee wrote: > Thanks for the info, Elizabeth. > > Aussie members in this list must be very proud of this law :-) Let's > just hope no gold-digger lawyer sees an opportunity there! > > Is the requirement for this law higher per WCAG guidelines (A, AA, or > AAA)? For example, Section 508 is really low standard in my opinion. > > tee > > On Aug 15, 2008, at 9:07 PM, Elizabeth Spiegel wrote: > >> Hi Tee >> >> In Australia, websites are covered by Disability Discrimination >> legislation, >> although there has only been one successful suit to date. Bruce >> Maguire was >> awarded damages of $20,000 against SOCOG in 2000: full details here: >> http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/decisions/comdec/2000/DD000120.htm >> >> >> Note that the target was not by any measure a 'small business'. HREOC >> provides advisory notes >> http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/standards/www_3/www_3.html >> > > > > ******************************************************************* > List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm > Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ******************************************************************* > > ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
