A clear, practical guide for Ontario organisations: who must comply with the AODA, the web accessibility standard it requires, and a checklist to get your website compliant.
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is Ontario legislation with the goal of an accessible province. Its rules are set out in the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR, O. Reg. 191/11), which spans five standards: Information and Communications, Employment, Transportation, Design of Public Spaces, and Customer Service. Website accessibility falls under the Information and Communications standard.
The web accessibility requirement applies to public sector organisations and to private and non-profit organisations with 50 or more employees. The standard is WCAG 2.0 Level AA, and the deadline for conforming websites and web content was January 1, 2021.
Two important notes:
Meeting WCAG 2.0 Level AA is the core of AODA web compliance. Work through these areas:
Every meaningful image, icon, and chart has descriptive alt text; decorative images are marked so assistive technology skips them.
All functionality works with a keyboard alone — no mouse required — with a visible focus indicator and a logical tab order. Nothing traps keyboard focus.
Text meets WCAG 2.0 AA contrast ratios (4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text), and colour is never the only way information is conveyed.
Pages use proper heading levels and landmarks so screen-reader users can navigate; reading and focus order make sense.
Every form field has a programmatic label, errors are clearly identified and described, and instructions don't rely on colour or placement alone.
Interactive elements have clear, descriptive names; link text makes sense out of context.
Pre-recorded video has captions and pre-recorded audio has a transcript or audio description, as required at Level AA.
Content remains usable when text is enlarged and on small screens, without loss of content or function.
Navigation is consistent, components behave predictably, and changes of context don't happen unexpectedly.
Combine automated scans with manual testing using screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver) and keyboard-only navigation. Automated tools alone catch only part of the issues.
The Information and Communications standard covers web content, which includes documents you publish online — PDFs, Word files, and presentations. These must also be accessible. See our PDF accessibility checklist for the document side.