Accessibility compliance guides · Australia

Disability Discrimination Act website compliance in Australia

Australia decided early that disability discrimination law covers websites. In 2000, Maguire v SOCOG held the Sydney Olympics website unlawful under the Disability Discrimination Act and awarded damages. That precedent still anchors the regime.

Statute: Disability Discrimination Act 1992, section 24
Leading case: Maguire v SOCOG (2000)
Practical standard: WCAG Level AA, with AS EN 301 549 in government procurement

What it is

Section 24 of the Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person with a disability in the provision of goods, services, and facilities. Websites, apps, and online services are included. The Act applies to organizations of every size, including businesses outside Australia that serve Australian customers.

Complaints go to the Australian Human Rights Commission, which conciliates. Filing is free. Unresolved complaints can proceed to the Federal Court. The main defence — unjustifiable hardship — is difficult when accessible practices are ordinary engineering, not a special project.

The Act does not name a WCAG version. The AHRC’s web access advisory notes point to WCAG conformance as the way to meet the duty. Australian government digital services are required to meet WCAG Level AA, and government ICT procurement uses AS EN 301 549. We treat WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA as the working standard for both public and private sectors.

Banks, telcos, airlines, universities, and retailers have all faced web accessibility complaints. About one in five Australians lives with disability, so the commercial case sits next to the legal one.

Who needs to comply

There is no employee threshold and no “only government” limit.

Any organization providing goods, services, or facilities. Private, public, and non-profit. Size is not the test.
Non-Australian businesses. If you serve customers in Australia, the DDA can apply to that service.
Government agencies and their suppliers. Agencies have a clearer WCAG AA obligation. Suppliers meet it through procurement and AS EN 301 549.

Timeline

There is no future start date. The duty has applied for decades.

1992. Disability Discrimination Act is passed.
2000. Maguire v SOCOG confirms the Act applies to a website and awards AU$20,000.
Ongoing. AHRC conciliation, with Federal Court available if conciliation fails. Government WCAG AA requirements and AS EN 301 549 procurement run in parallel.

What the rule requires

The legal test is discrimination. The technical answer is WCAG AA, documented.

WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA. The practical way to show the service is accessible. We include mobile screen readers because VoiceOver and TalkBack use is high.
Service-gating flows. Registration, checkout, bookings, forms, and PDFs. These are the complaints.
A statement and a record. An accessibility statement with a working feedback channel helps resolve issues at conciliation. Audit records are your answer when the AHRC asks what you did.
Procurement evidence for government suppliers. AS EN 301 549 / WCAG conformance, in a form a buyer can file.

How we help

We help Australian organizations and companies that serve Australia close DDA risk by making the service work, and by keeping the record.

An audit against WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA, with the flows that gate the service tested on desktop and mobile screen readers.
A statement and an evidence pack you can take into AHRC conciliation or a government tender.
Manual testing with NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver, plus keyboard-only use and browser zoom. The failures these rules care about are often invisible to an automated scan.
Remediation in your production code by our developers, so the fix lives in the product and not only in a report.
An accessibility statement and, where a buyer or regulator expects one, a VPAT-based Accessibility Conformance Report grounded in the audit.
Training for the people who publish pages, documents, and campaigns after the audit.
A retest after major releases, so a later deploy does not quietly undo the work.

Web accessibility audit and remediation

Our process

Confirm what applies to you. We confirm you provide a service to people in Australia, whether you are also a government supplier, and which other countries’ laws overlap.
Audit the live experience. We review the pages, flows, documents, and apps people actually use, with assistive technologies as well as automated checks, and map each finding to the standard this rule points to.
Fix the barriers that block access. Our developers remediate structure, keyboard access, forms, contrast, names, and media in your codebase, starting with the journeys that gate a service.
Document what was tested. You receive the findings, what we fixed, and the statement or conformance report your team, counsel, or procurement office needs on file.
Keep it from slipping. We train publishers and retest after significant releases so new content does not reopen the same gaps.

Longer background: Web accessibility in Australia.

Frequently asked questions

Does the DDA specify WCAG 2.2?

No. It prohibits discrimination in goods, services, and facilities. AHRC guidance points to WCAG conformance. Government policy is more specific and sits at WCAG AA, moving through 2.1 toward 2.2. We audit to 2.2 AA so you are not a version behind.

How do complaints actually start?

A person complains to the AHRC at no charge. Conciliation is confidential. If it fails, the matter can go to the Federal Court. Early, documented fixes resolve many complaints at conciliation.

We are not based in Australia. Are we safe?

Not if you provide the service to people in Australia. The Act has been applied to online services, and foreign providers are not carved out by an office address.

Is unjustifiable hardship a reliable defence?

It exists, and it is narrow. Accessible development is mainstream. A hardship argument is weaker every year the site stays broken after you know about it.

Related guides

This page is general information from Peradeo Technologies Inc., not legal advice.

Talk with us about this requirement · hello@peradeo.com · +1 (306) 216-9934