Commonwealth departments and agencies are required by the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 to ensure that online information and services are accessible by people with disabilities.

The Department of Finance web site (the "Finance web site") and attendant subsites have undergone significant redesign in order to meet the Government Online standards that relate to access for people with disabilities. The redesign work has drawn on the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). For Complete Accessibility Guidelines & Checklist see: www.w3.org/WAI. The Department of Finance's enhancement of the accessibility of the Finance web site has already passed all priority one requirements.

The Finance web site is the work of many authors and business groups and is a dynamic environment. Therefore, there is always the possibility that accessibility difficulties may be encountered. There may be some data held in non-HTML formats. This data is in the process of being converted and is currently available to most environments supporting assistive technology. If, however, there is data that you require and it is in a format that you cannot access, or if you experience any other accessibility difficulties, please advise the Finance Webmaster by emailing feedback@finance.gov.au or by writing to:

Finance Webmaster
Department of Finance
One Canberra Avenue
Forrest ACT 2603

Metadata

The Australian Government Locater Service (AGLS) metadata standard is a set of 19 descriptive elements which government departments and agencies can use to improve the visibility and accessibility of the services and information they provide over the Internet. The metadata on the Finance web site complies with the AGLS metadata standard.

The AGLS metadata standard is based upon the leading international online resource discovery metadata standard, the Dublin Core standard. The Australian Government Locator Service Manual for Users, prepared by the National Archives of Australia and the National Office for the Information Economy, describes the 19 descriptive elements of the AGLS metadata standard. Specific guidelines for Commonwealth agencies implementing AGLS are available on the AGLS web site at http://www.naa.gov.au/records-management/agency/create-capture-describe/describe/agls-faq.aspx. The AGLS homepage also maintains information on metadata creation tools that are AGLS metadata standard compliant.