Fed: Discrimination complaint over grocery price watch website

AAP General News (Australia)
08-07-2008
Fed: Discrimination complaint over grocery price watch website

BRISBANE, Aug 7 AAP - A disabled Brisbane man has lodged an official complaint against
the federal government's new grocery price watch website, claiming the Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act.

Les Kerr, 53, of the suburb of Wooloowin, is vision and mobility impaired and says
the GROCERYchoice website is inaccessible.

His complaint is about the difficulty in using the website.

"I have lodged a formal Disability Discrimination complaint against the federal government's
new GROCERYchoice website, www.grocerychoice.gov.au," he said.

"This website has been poorly designed for disabled accessibility and is in direct
breach of the federal government's own Disability Discrimination Act.

"That website should be a great benefit to people like me," he told AAP.

"As most disabled people are on pensions and money is always an issue, this website
had the potential to be of great assistance to us if it had been designed correctly.

"The federal government has no excuse for the site not being accessible.

"It appears that the site was put together in a hurry with little thought of allowing
disabled people access and most certainly was not tested by disabled people before it
came online as any good website should be."

Mr Kerr said the website failed the most basic level of the acceptable International
Standards for Website Accessibility, the W3Cs WCAG 1.0 guidelines.

"Disabled people are once again put in a situation where able-bodied people are deciding
what disabled people can or can't access on the internet," he said.

In his complaint against the ACCC lodged with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
Commission, Mr Kerr lists 18 causes for complaint.

"It's very easy to make an accessible website," he said.

"I'm sick and tired of taking 30 times longer to find my way around a website than
an able-bodied person can whip around.

"It's the one place where able-bodied and disabled people should be equal," he told AAP.

"I accept that I can't read newspapers anymore ... but at least if websites are designed
properly I can read a newspaper on the internet."

Mr Kerr, who has a degenerative illness, said he was contemplating further complaint's
against the government's websites which he says do not comply with the Act.

AAP stg/cjh/cdh

KEYWORD: GROCERY COMPLAINT

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