Canada has created a national initiative to ensure web accessibility for all citizens.
On June 20, 2018, the Minister of Science and Sport and Persons with Disabilities, Kirsty Duncan, proposed Bill C-81, the Accessible Canada Act: An Act to Ensure a Barrier-free Canada to parliament. The bill aims to benefit all Canadians, especially those with disabilities, by helping to create a barrier-free Canada.
Canada has more complex accessibility laws and legislation than the United States or the European Union, as laws and regulations are occurring at both the federal and provincial levels.
Federally, website accessibility falls under the ‘information and communication technologies, including digital content and technologies used to access it’ purpose of the bill. At the moment, Federal law follows the internationally accepted Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
The Canadian Federal compliance bill applies to:
The Accessible Canada Act became law on June 21, 2019. In addition to federal laws and requirements, many provinces have created or are creating legislation to ensure their provincial acts are in alignment with the federal act, extending the requirements to all businesses.
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act states that private or non-profit organizations with more than 50 employees and all public sector organizations must make their website and web content compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA by January 1, 2021. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to $100,000 for each day of violation.
The Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA) is made up of five accessibility standards that focus on key areas of daily life. Among these is the Information and Communications accessibility standard, which addresses barriers to accessing information, including information provided on websites. This standard is currently under development; however, it is expected that requirements will follow internationally accepted WCAG.
Nova Scotia's Accessibility Act became law in April 2017 making Nova Scotia the third province to enact accessibility legislation. The act contains six accessibility standards, including Information and Communications (websites), which are currently in development.
The Government of Nova Scotia’s accessibility plan includes the development of a more inclusive website that meets WCAG 2.0 Level AA requirements. Although an effective date has not been declared, organizations should also prepare to meet similar web accessibility requirements.
Although compliance timelines and requirements differ for each accessibility standard. Failure to comply could result in a fine of up to $250,000.
In 2004, the Quebec government amended this law to become the Act to Secure Handicapped Persons in the Exercise of their Rights with a View to Achieving Social, School and Workplace Integration. Among its requirements, ministries and government agencies must adhere to the government web accessibility standards. (WCAG 2.0).
Unlike other provinces, Quebec's law only applies to the public sector (ministries, government agencies, and municipalities). The law also lacks clear timelines, goals, or penalties for non-compliance. As a result, many in Quebec are advocating for a stronger accessibility law to help remove barriers across the province.
In 2018, British Columbia proposed the British Columbia Accessibility Act, also known as Bill M 219. The act facilitates the implementation of accessibility standards in the province, aiming for a fully accessible British Columbia by 2024, which includes an accessible internet and WCAG 2.0 AA web standards.
The British Columbia Accessibility Act had its first reading in May 2018. In the fall of 2019, The Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction of British Columbia, the Honourable Shane Simpson, held a public engagement allowing citizens to provide feedback and ideas to help inform the legislation. Simpson stated that British Columbia's legislation will complement the recently passed Accessible Canada Act, and he expects the law will be in place in 2020.
To support business required to comply under federal or provincial legislation, the Federal and Provincial Governments have adopted the World Wide Web Consortiums (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and all future releases of the guidelines.
So what are the requirements and what do you need to do to meet them?
The first step is to understand the requirements and how they will change your website and how you approach design. You can read a full breakdown of the requirements below, but let's start with the short definition of the compliance requirements.
The guidelines are written for a more technical audience, but the majority of websites are designed by expert marketers and designers who have migrated into the technology space.
The requirements are based on technology best practices. Unfortunately, technology best practices are often in direct conflict with marketing best practices.
For example, from a technology and accessibility standpoint, it is best to keep all actions within a website in a single browser window. Directing links to open in a new window relies on technical variables that may interrupt the function of the site. Opening linked content (to your own site or another website) in a new window has been found to be disorientating to the user as they are not expecting a new window to appear.
But from a marketing standpoint, the number one rule is never take the user away from your website. A website is the only piece of internet real estate a business owns and once you have a visitor there you never want them to leave.
Therein lies the conflict. Marketing vs accessibility.
There are ways you can make links opening in a new window compliant, but it will require coding and design changes.
This is just one example of the 78 rules or success criteria set out by the WCAG. But this one alone has the power to upend a websites compliance standing.
DON'T WAIT!
Although your business may not be required to be complaint with Federal or Provicinal legislation, compliance needs to be on your radar. The best advice anyone will ever give you about compliance is don't wait to get a demand letter or a violation notification to act.
Every website has a path to accessibility, and an expert can help you find the best one for your business.
The guidelines are intended to be testable criteria to help determine if a website is easily accessible for people with disabilities.
Each guideline also has a set of requirements, known as Success Criteria.
In order to conform to WCAG’s standards, you need to test your website to ensure all elements meet the Success Criteria.
While most standards have only one level of conformance, to meet the needs of advancing technology and help websites become complaint WCAG 2.1 designated three levels of conformance:
Level A includes the simplest website changes, such as color contrast and font resizing. While these changes will certainly enhance the experience of a disabled user, it would not make the site completely accessible.
Level AA includes all requirements from Level A plus additional accessibility elements that will further enhance the users experience and allow the site to function nearly equally for a person identifying as disabled.
Level AAA is the highest level of accessibility, including all requirements from Levels A and AA plus additional elements that will ensure the site functions identically for every visitor, regardless of ability level.
W3C used common factors when setting the level of conformance including:
Boiled down, it means that the Success Criteria on which your site will be judged must be reasonably attainable, able to move forward as technology advances, and not unreasonably prevent the design from achieving the objective of the website.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines exist to create accessibility for all, to ensure that your website equally serves every person who views it.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1
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