Accessibility standards in Australia

What are accessibility standards?

Accessibility standards are rules that make sure everyone can access services and products, including people with disability.

For example, accessibility standards aim to remove barriers for people who:

• are blind, colour blind or have low vision
• are deaf or hard of hearing
• need support to move their body
• need support to remember and learn things.

Why are accessibility standards important?

Accessibility standards in Australia help make sure people with disability are free from discrimination. But accessibility standards don’t just benefit people with disability.

They make it easier for everyone to:

• understand information
• use technology or websites
• move through physical spaces
• use a service or product on their own.

Accessibility standards guide organisations on what they need to do to make both their physical and online spaces accessible.

What accessibility standards do you need to follow in Australia?

Australia’s Disability Discrimination Act 1992 makes it illegal to discriminate against people with disability in many areas of life, including access to places and services. This means there are certain accessibility standards in Australia that everyone must follow.

For example, web content in Australia must comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

What is WCAG?

WCAG are the international standards that explain how to make web content accessible for people with disability. WCAG are published and maintained by the Web Accessibility Initiative inside the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C is an international organisation that develops standards for open web technologies such as HTML and CSS.

Web content that complies with WCAG is more accessible to a wider range of people, including people with disability. WCAG compliance will also help make sure your web content is overall easier for people to use.

How do we comply with WCAG in Australia?

The Australian Government requires organisations to follow the WCAG 2.2 AA standards. W3C published the WCAG 2.2 AA standards on 5 October 2023.

This new version of the standards adds extra protections for people:

• with cognitive of learning disabilities
• with limited control of their physical movement
• who use mobile or touch devices.

WCAG 2.2 AA requires that organisations follow 4 main ideas when developing web content.

1. People must be able to see and hear the content

For example, this means:

• text has enough contrast with the background
• informative images and icons have alternative text
• videos have captions
• audio content doesn’t just rely only on sound to communicate information.

2. People must be able to use a website without a mouse

For example, this means:

• everything works using only a keyboard
• nothing flashes in a way that could cause seizures
• people can clearly find content and where they are on the website.

3. Content must be clear and predictable

For example, this means:

• instructions are easy to understand
• websites don’t behave in surprising ways
• language is identified so screen readers interpret it correctly.

4. Websites must work with assistive technology

For example, this means:

• screen readers can understand and navigate the page structure
• websites work on different browsers and devices
• links and form fields have the right coding.

You can learn more about WCAG 2.2 AA on W3C’s website.

How can we help you?

It’s important to make sure your website and communications are accessible and follow Australia’s accessibility standards.

Find out how we can help you meet accessibility standards on our Services page.