Time Is Almost Up To Make Your Canadian Website Accessible

 

If your organization has a Canadian website (.ca), you should know that Ontario has a web accessibility law that may soon require remediation of your website. 

Under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), all private organizations with more than 50 employees (for profit and non-profit) and all public-sector organizations are required to make their websites accessible.

The AODA has been around for a while, and it required all new websites built after 2014 to be WCAG 2.0 Level A compliant.  The law did not immediately require remediation of old content, but by January 1, 2021, all web content posted after January 1, 2012 must meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance standards.  (Content created before 2012 does not have to be remediated.)

There is no right to sue under the AODA, so don't expect a flood of lawsuits like we've seen in the U.S.   There are administrative fines that are small for first offenders but hefty for repeat offenders (up to CA$15,000 per day for repeated, serious noncompliance), so ignore the requirement at your peril.