Accessibility

What is accessibility

Accessibility describes the degree to which members of the community are able to effectively use or access products, services, buildings, education and media, regardless of race, gender, locality, disability or age.

It relates to removing as many barriers as possible that may prevent people from successfully using a system or site. Implementing accessibility features in web content ensures that the content of a website may be accessed, comprehended, and interacted with successfully by any user in a way that makes their user experience positive and satisfying.

Why is web accessibility important

Ensuring the online systems is accessible means that it will not hinder users with disabilities or cause anyone unnecessary problems resulting in an injury or impairment, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, occupational overuse syndrome or eye strain.

Temporary or permanent impairments that make using an online system difficult include, but are not limited to:

Visual impairments: low visual acuity, blindness, low vision, colour blindness, cataracts;
Cognitive impairments: attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, memory loss;
Physical impairments: broken hand, tremors, quadriplegia and repetitive strain injury;
Aural impairments: hearing loss, deafness; and
Photosensitive disorders: epilepsy, migraine.

The Australian Government and accessibility

The Australian Government has recognised the importance of web accessibility through its endorsement of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) and the Digital Service Standard.

WANTS requires government organisations to meet a certain standard of accessibility as defined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This transition is overseen by the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO).

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is an internationally recognised benchmark for measuring the accessibility of websites.

All federal, state and territory government websites need to meet WCAG 2.0 Level A conformance by 31 December 2012 and WCAG 2.0 Level AA by 31 December 2014.

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Our commitment

The Clean Energy Regulator is committed to making our online services and information accessible to as many people as possible regardless of ability. The Agency is in the process of implementing the Australian Government's Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy (WANTS).

Over time all internal and external web based systems will be upgraded, to conform to the WCAG 2.0 Level AA standard, or will be replaced with new systems that meet the conformance with WCAG.

We have divided our approach into four categories as follows:

System/platform

The Clean Energy Regulator business and technical owners of current web based applications are required to assess the accessibility compliance of the system and define ways to support those that may have specific accessibility needs that are not met. They will be required to consider accessibility in future development work

Content

All new or revised content published in existing Clean Energy Regulator systems will be accessible within the limitations of the given web based system/platform where possible with a focus on text alternatives, keyboard access, readability and input assistance.

Documents

All new or revised documents will be provided in multiple formats where possible, with enhanced accessibility.

Media

This includes videos, sound recordings, or other multimedia presentations. New or revised multimedia presentations will have transcripts made available where possible.

Within each of these categories we will focus on the four principles of WCAG 2.0 (text alternatives, keyboard access, readability and input assistance).

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Web based systems in the Clean Energy Regulator portfolio

The following is a list of web based systems in the CER portfolio:

Australian National Registry of Emission Units (ANREU)
Clean Energy Regulator website
Greenhouse and Energy Auditors Registration System (GEARS)
National Greenhouse Emissions Reporting (NGER) Disclosure Tool (NDT)
Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) Registry
Renewable Energy Target (RET) website

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Compatible software

The Clean Energy Regulator publishes information in a number of formats, depending on the content type and when it was published. If you do not have an application that will open a file made available on the Clean Energy Regulator site there are links below to free applications you may be able to use.

For PDF - The AGIMO PDF Reader page has links to a number of free PDF reader applications. Please note that you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader XI or greater to use our electronically fillable PDF forms.
For doc - DOCx, XLS, XLSx, CSV, PPT, PPTx - Apache OpenOffice is a free office application suite capable of opening many common office document formats.
Microsoft provide a number of Office Online File Converters and Viewers which allow you to open new Microsoft Office file formats on older versions of office or even if you don't have office installed.

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Accessibility assistance

Whilst the Clean Energy Regulator is working to ensure accessibility across our platforms, please contact us to obtain an alternative version if you are having difficulty, or you have specific accessibility needs.

Please call 1300 553 542 or email the name of the form and your needs to enquiries@cleanenergyregulator.gov.au

Some types of assistance that can be provided include:

General help and assistance
Provision of data or reports via email or fax
Data entry over the phone on behalf of the client (subject to legal and system requirements)
Alternative formats for select documents or website content.

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