AODA & WCAG Compliance

You must submit an accessibility compliance report if you are:

• a business or non-profit organization with 20 or more employees
• a public-sector organization

The compliance report confirms that you have met your current accessibility requirements under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). If you don’t complete your accessibility compliance report, you could face enforcement which can include financial penalties.

The requirements and deadlines you need to follow depend on the type and size of your organization:

• businesses or non-profits
• public sector organizations
• municipalities
• educational institutions (for example, boards, colleges, universities and schools
• producers of educational material (for example, textbooks)
• library boards

Part of AODA Compliancy revolves around your website.

The AODA is based on WCAG 2.0 is an internationally accepted standard for web accessibility developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) an international team of experts.

The provincial government offers tips for testing websites for accessibility, which includes:

Automatic assessment and assistive technology

Do a final evaluation of your site using an automatic assessment to flag any issues that may not have been resolved. For example, you can review your site using assistive technology such as a screen reader to make sure the design and technical aspects of the site are accessible.

User testing and feedback

If possible, ask people with disabilities to test your new or refreshed site before you launch. Get feedback from customers and other site users to find out if there are any improvements needed.

Review key milestones and changes

Keep a record of the accessibility issues that have been repaired, or ask your web developer to maintain such a record. This will show you the completed work and the new level of accessibility. It will also be helpful if your organization is asked to show that your website is WCAG 2.0 compliant.

Online accessibility checker

You can use an online tool to check if your website is accessible. Using an online accessibility checker does not guarantee that you will find all accessibility issues with your website. It is important to have a person review the site as well.

This is an example of an online accessibility checker that can help you find accessibility issues with your new or refreshed website: www.achecker.ca

We’ll work with you to ensure your site is compliant.