IRC

Internet Reality Check

5:30 pm Friday, 20 October 2000

The Royal Oak (Pub), 42-44 Woodstock Road, Oxford, UK

Topic: Access All Areas: Making the Web Accessible

Special Guest: Tom Worthington FACS, Visiting Fellow, Department of Computer Science, Australian National University, Canberra

In August 2000 the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games was found to have engaged in unlawful conduct by providing a web site which was to a significant extent inaccessible to the blind. The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission ordered the web site be made accessible by the start of the Sydney Olympics. Tom Worthington was one of the expert witnesses who gave evidence to the Commission's hearing and will be presenting a seminar at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory.

Join Tom and members of the Internet community after the seminar to discuss the details of the case and its global implications for government policy and commercial practice on the Internet. How can the public interest in Internet, web and IT development be maintained in a global and commercial world? What has all this to do with the Lake at Blenheim Palace?

IRCs are free (but you have to buy your own drinks and one for the special guest) and open to anyone interested: just turn up. Internet Reality Check (not to be confused with Internet Relay Chat) is designed so that members of the 'net community can meet and exchange the small amount of very important information which is not suitable for digital transmission. ;-)

By Tom Worthington

Note: This information is no longer being updated but has been retained for reference.