The Information and Communications Standards under the AODA and the Information and Communication Standard under the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA) both require organizations to make information and communication accessible to citizens with disabilities. Moreover, both standards require many of the same processes and practices to ensure accessibility. However, there are many important differences between the standards. The third review of the AODA recommends that the Ontario government should coordinate with other provinces and the federal government to ensure that accessibility laws are consistent across Canada. Therefore, requirements in the AODA may one day change to align with mandates under the Accessibility for Manitobans Act. In this article, we will explore requirements for web accessibility in Ontario and Manitoba.
Web Accessibility in Ontario and Manitoba
The AODA’s Information and Communications Standards and the Accessible Information and Communication Standard of the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA) both mandate web accessibility. Both laws require organizations to make their websites comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). In Ontario, only public-sector organizations and large private-sector organizations need to make their websites compliant. On the other hand, all organizations in Manitoba will need to make their websites compliant.
Similarly, Ontario organizations only need to comply with version 2.0 of WCAG. Moreover, there are two (2) WCAG standards in Version 2.0 that organizations do not need to follow. These two exceptions are:
- Live captions
- Pre-recorded audio descriptions
Conversely, Manitoba organizations need to comply with a more advanced version of WCAG, Version 2.1. This version includes all guidelines from Version 2.0, as well as new guidelines for:
- Displaying content in portrait and landscape orientations
- Online forms
- Designing text users can reformat
- Non-text colour contrast
- Content that appears and disappears
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Pointer gestures
- Status messages
In addition, the Manitoba mandate for web accessibility does not exempt organizations from any of the guidelines.
Ontario may one day align with Manitoba and mandate more rigorous web accessibility.