Accessibility and AODA Compliance

[Jeff Kraemer]

Hi all,

What are you doing to make your site(s) compliant with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act?

In other words, what are you doing to meet the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Level AA? A company with more than 50 employees (like mine) needs all new content published after Jan. 1, 2012 to meet WCAG 2.0 AA by Jan. 1, 2014.

I'm asking because the fines for non-compliance are steep (up to $100,000 A DAY), and I haven't heard anyone talking about it outside my office. Is this a thing? Do you care? Did I just imagine it all?

Jeff

[Neil Lee]

(I work at the CBC as part of the department that manages the main cbc.ca web site and helps to define design / usability standards.)

From what I've heard / seen we have people on both the web dev and UI/UX teams who have been working on identifying gaps in our WCAG compliance. I don't think we're far off, but there are a number of items that have been flagged as needing improvement - one being captions for all video content, for example.

Being accessible is part of our 2015 mandate and it's definitely something the entire UI team is conscious of. Even before this came up we've tried as much as we can with our limited resources to incorporate accessibility in all of our projects. Obviously we still have a way to go, but I can at least confirm it's on our radar.

Neil

[Avi Soudack]

Great question.

Our shop does client work, so we work to the level our clients require.

But we always raise the issue so they can make a clear business decision.

Internally, we have some super front end developers who really know their way around accessibility.  The UX team always loops them in during design to be sure we don't show the client something in a concept. comp or wireframe that is "inaccessible".

I'll have to use the amount of the potential fine in future client contact. That will get people's attention.

/avi

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[Joe Szabo]

Our shop does work with U of T and we deal with a number of different business units. 

Most are aware of AODA compliance but this is the first I've heard of the potential fine $. 

Curious: what is the source on the potential fine? (I'm too lazy to look it up)

[Kaleem]

This was a topic of discussion at Accessibility Camp Toronto last weekend. 

Accessible design is good design. For everyone.

The fine is in Section 37 Subsection 3 of the legislation as a maximum penalty for non-compliance. I imagine that it was included in order to preempt heel-dragging by companies that might consider simply paying a fine to avoid the "cost" of compliance.

Penalties

(3)  Every person who is guilty of an offence under this Act is liable on conviction,

(a) to a fine of not more than $50,000 for each day or part of a day on which the offence occurs or continues to occur; or

(b) if the person is a corporation, to a fine of not more than $100,000 for each day or part of a day on which the offence occurs or continues to occur. 2005, c. 11, s. 37 (3).

Clients that I have worked with in the last few years have been working towards AODA (or similar legislation) compliance for almost three years, now. Everyone is in different stages of implementation (note that I am writing primarily about large companies with thousands of employees, complex sites with thousands upon thousands of customer-facing documents and content). 

Kaleem