How medicalcentre-au.org/ Works for People With Disability
This page sets out our commitment to accessibility on this site, the standards we work to (WCAG 2.1 Level AA), the assistive technologies we test against, the Australian legal framework (Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth)), the specific features we have built, the limitations we know about, and how to tell us about a barrier you have encountered.
What is on this page
1. Our Commitment
medicalcentre-au.org/ is built so that anyone — using any device, any browser, any assistive technology — can find an Australian medical centre, follow a step-by-step practice walkthrough, see bulk-billing status and opening hours, and reach the right desk without barriers. Accessibility is not an afterthought. We test against assistive technologies on every major page template before publication and on a quarterly cycle thereafter.
2. Standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA
We work to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. This is the standard generally taken as the international benchmark for meeting reasonable-adjustment / accessibility obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) and state and territory anti-discrimination law for digital content. Australia adopted WCAG 2.0 Level AA as the standard for Australian Government websites under the legacy Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy; the international community has since moved to WCAG 2.1 and 2.2, and we target 2.1 AA with awareness of 2.2 success criteria.
3. Australian Legal Framework
| Law | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) | Commonwealth law prohibiting disability discrimination in services, employment, education, accommodation, and goods. Section 24 covers discrimination in the provision of services. The DDA applies across Australia. |
| Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) | The Commonwealth body that handles DDA complaints, conciliates, and (where unresolved) refers to the Federal Court. humanrights.gov.au |
| State and territory anti-discrimination laws | Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW), Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic), Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld), Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (SA), Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (WA), Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 (Tas), Discrimination Act 1991 (ACT), Anti-Discrimination Act 1992 (NT). Each prohibits disability discrimination and operates alongside the DDA. |
| National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth) | Framework for the NDIS. Not directly an accessibility statute, but informs the disability landscape we operate within. |
| Disability (Access to Premises — Buildings) Standards 2010 | Premises standards made under the DDA — applies to physical premises, including some buildings used by medical centres we link to. |
| Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 | Includes some accessibility obligations on telecommunications carriers; relevant context for digital accessibility. |
4. Specific Accessibility Features We Have Built
Semantic HTML
Proper heading hierarchy (Yoast manages H1; H2/H3 in our templates), nav, main, article, section, footer landmarks.
17px+ body text
Body copy is at least 17px on all pages — comfortable reading for most users without zoom.
4.5:1+ text contrast
All body text meets WCAG AA contrast (4.5:1) against its background; large text and UI components meet 3:1 minimum.
Keyboard-only navigation
Every link, button, form control, and interactive element is reachable and operable using Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, and Space.
Visible focus indicators
Focus outlines are not removed; the default browser focus ring is preserved on every interactive element.
Descriptive link text
Links describe their destination — e.g., “AHPRA register search for [practitioner]” rather than “click here.” Each external link has rel=noopener and target=_blank.
Logical reading order
Source-order matches visual order; CSS layout never reverses, scrambles, or hides content from screen readers.
Responsive without zoom traps
Pages reflow at 320px width; pinch-zoom is not disabled; user-scalable=yes.
Form labels
Every form control has a programmatic label or aria-label; error messages are announced.
Reduced motion
The site respects prefers-reduced-motion and avoids gratuitous animation.
Plain Australian English
Directory entries, walkthroughs, and framework summaries are written in plain Australian English. We avoid clinical jargon where plain language serves equally well.
HTML walkthroughs as alternative
Where a third-party portal has accessibility barriers, our HTML walkthrough provides an alternative path to the same information.
5. Assistive Technology Compatibility
We test against the following combinations on every major page template before publication:
- NVDA + Firefox / Chrome on Windows
- JAWS + Chrome on Windows
- VoiceOver + Safari on macOS
- VoiceOver + Safari on iOS
- TalkBack + Chrome on Android
- Narrator + Edge on Windows (smoke test)
- Dragon NaturallySpeaking — voice-only navigation smoke test
- Browser zoom at 200% and 400%
- High-contrast mode in Windows and macOS
6. Known Limitations
- Some third-party advertising units may not always meet our internal standards. We work with our advertising partners and reject ad units that fail material accessibility checks.
- Embedded videos from third-party platforms (where used) inherit those platforms’ accessibility features — captions, transcripts, audio description where the source provides them.
- Some legacy practice entries built before our current accessibility framework may have minor remaining issues — we are working through them on a rolling quarterly review and welcome reports.
7. Third-Party Practice Portals Are Not Always Accessible
Many GP-clinic online portals (HotDoc, HealthEngine, Whitecoat, MyMedicare patient registration tools, online appointment booking, online script requests, online consultation forms) have residual accessibility gaps on certain assistive-technology combinations — uncaptioned tutorial videos, modal dialogs that trap focus, dynamic appointment-slot tables that do not announce updates to screen readers, GIS maps of practice locations with poor keyboard accessibility, form fields with colour-only error indication, and legacy portals that pre-date current accessibility standards. This is not within our control — those are third-party systems. We provide HTML walkthroughs of common procedures as an alternative path to the same information, so that you can plan and prepare from our fully accessible HTML before you encounter the third-party portal itself.
If you cannot use a practice portal because of an accessibility barrier, you have rights under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) (the reasonable-adjustment duty applies to provision of services) and state anti-discrimination law. The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is the relevant Commonwealth enforcement body for the DDA. State anti-discrimination commissioners operate parallel state frameworks.
8. Reporting a Barrier
If you encounter a barrier — a page or feature that does not work with your assistive technology, contrast that is hard to read, a control that cannot be reached by keyboard, or anything else that gets in your way — please tell us. Reports drive our priority queue.
Email info@medicalcentre-au.org with subject line Accessibility issue.
If you can, include:
- The page URL where you hit the barrier
- Your operating system and browser
- The assistive technology you were using (e.g., NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, TalkBack, Dragon)
- What you were trying to do
- What happened (or did not happen)
Acknowledge in 1-3 business days. Substantive response or fix within 14 business days for most issues. For severe barriers (e.g., unable to access important content or complete a critical task), within 5 business days.
9. Escalation
If you are not satisfied with our response, you have additional options:
- Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) — the Commonwealth body that handles complaints under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) — humanrights.gov.au
- NSW Anti-Discrimination Board
- Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC)
- Queensland Human Rights Commission
- Equal Opportunity Commission South Australia
- Equal Opportunity Commission Western Australia
- Equal Opportunity Tasmania (Anti-Discrimination Commissioner)
- ACT Human Rights Commission
- NT Anti-Discrimination Commission
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) — where the accessibility issue intersects with a privacy right (for example, inability to exercise an APP 12 access request because of a portal accessibility barrier)
- Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) — for telecommunications-related accessibility
- W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines — the standard we work to — w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag
10. Review Cycle
This statement is reviewed quarterly. Page templates are re-tested against the AT combinations above on each review cycle. The “Last reviewed” date at the top reflects the most recent review.
Hit a Barrier? Tell Us.
Email us with subject line “Accessibility issue.” Acknowledge in 1-3 business days; fix within 14 business days for most issues, 5 for severe.
📧 info@medicalcentre-au.org