Maguire V SOCOG 1999 - Background To The Case

Background To The Case

Bruce Lindsay Maguire (b 1957) a small business owner from Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, was born totally blind and without sight or light perception. On 31 May 1999 Maguire sought to purchase tickets for himself and his family for the Sydney Olympic Games. At the time tickets were only available via an application form in a ticket book issued by the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG).

Maguire initially tried to have the ticket book read aloud to him by his sister, but the level of detail and cross-referencing required in this process was onerous and the attempt was abandoned after several hours. Maguire then enquired about obtaining a braille version of the ticket book. SOCOG indicated a braille version would be published but this did not occur. On 7 June 1999 Maguire was contacted by SOCOG to advise that the book would not be printed in braille as the cost was considered too high given the likely small number of braille-literate users.

Maguire then lodged a complaint with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, alleging direct discrimination against him personally, and indirect discrimination against those with vision impairment. The specific grounds for the complaint were:

• failure to provide braille copies of the information required to place orders for Olympic Games tickets;
• failure to provide braille copies of the Olympic Games souvenir programme; and
• failure to provide a web site accessible to Maguire.

In September 1999 this third ground for complaint was separated from the others and formed the basis for the standalone decision in Maguire v SOCOG 2000

Prior to the matter being heard, SOCOG instituted a telephone helpline for ticketing enquiries by the visually impaired.