Making Tax Digital for Income Tax — Quarterly Update Due
HIPAA Compliance Check for Small Practices
Why this matters.
In Australia, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person with disability when providing goods, services or facilities (section 24), and this includes services delivered through websites, apps and online stores. The Act covers both direct discrimination (section 5) and indirect discrimination (section 6), which is where a requirement such as completing an inaccessible online form disadvantages people with disability. The Australian Human Rights Commission’s advisory notes on web access say that organisations should meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and WCAG 2.2 Level AA is now the widely used benchmark. The landmark case Maguire v SOCOG (2000), about the Sydney Olympics website, showed that an inaccessible website can breach the Act.
There are no fixed fines, but a person with disability can make a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986, and if conciliation fails can take the matter to the Federal Court or Federal Circuit and Family Court, which can order damages, changes to the website and costs. The only defence is unjustifiable hardship (sections 11 and 29A), which is hard to prove for most websites because accessibility fixes are usually affordable. Around one in five Australians has a disability, so an accessible site is also good for business. This check covers your website, online forms, booking and payment flows, and online job applications, which are also covered by the employment provisions in section 15.
