By Melissa Singer
A Brisbane man is taking budget airline Virgin Blue to court over claims its website unfairly discriminates against people with visual impairments.
Les Kerr, 53, has been visually impaired since contracting an "aggressive glaucoma" about three years ago. He also has suffered a loss of mobility in his fingers through an unrelated illness.
Mr Kerr, of Wooloowin, said he had logged on to more than 30,000 websites to test their accessibility for people with vision impairments.
He said Virgin Blue's website, with its use of light grey on a white background and difficulty in enlarging the text without distorting the page, was especially difficult for him to use.
"Most websites, if they are not coded properly, you can't enlarge them," he said.
Mr Kerr said "99 per cent" of other websites he checked also posed problems for visually-impaired people.
"Even the Prime Minister's website doesn't comply (with international accessibility guidelines). Very few government websites comply."
Mr Kerr said he approached Virgin Blue directly about improving its website, but when that went nowhere, he took his claim to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) before deciding to pursue court action.
Michael Simpson, general manager of policy for Vision Australia, said the association had worked with Virgin Blue to produce its in-flight safety magazine in braille and large print.
Mr Simpson said he had no doubt Virgin Blue's website could be improved in terms of accessibility, but so could many sites.
He said improving a website for visually-impaired users was usually straightforward.
"It doesn't mean that a website needs to be boring visually ... it can be pleasing as well as accessible," he said.
Colin Lippiatt, public affairs manager for Virgin Blue, rejected Mr Kerr's claim, saying Virgin Blue's website is "fully compliant with all relevant legislation".
Mr Lippiatt said the airline had previously "engaged Vision Australia to review our websites".
"Any recommendations are however over and above legislative requirements but even so we will adopt as many as we can because Virgin Blue values our commitment to ensuring that the services we provide to our guests with special needs are appropriate."
There are no laws in Australia covering website accessibility, but section 24 of the Federal Disability Discrimination Act requires companies to make all parts of their business accessible to people with disabilities.
In a 2000 landmark decision the HREOC ruled that the Sydney Olympic Committe for the Olympic Games had to modify its website to improve accessibility for visually-impaired internet users.
"Unfortunately, since then many businesses, governments and people involved in website design and development have lost sight of this very important requirement under the Federal Disability Discrimination Act," Mr Kerr said.
Mr Kerr also plans to pursue court action against the Seven Network, Yahoo and the ACCC, over its GroceryChoice website.
Mr Kerr's case against Virgin Blue case will be heard in the Federal Magistrates Court in Brisbane on January 28.
brisbanetimes.com.au
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