Entering a new digital age for accessibility and inclusion

Birds-eye view of two hands on a laptop computer keyboard, with a series of icons representing concepts of compliance, regulations, legal, and checklist considerations.

Despite a pandemic that has kept most of us on major lockdowns, and United States politics that have monopolized much of the Canadian airwaves in the first few weeks of the new year, January turned out to be a pretty interesting month from a digital inclusion standpoint, with two major milestones for Canadians with Disabilities all over the country. Sadly, these events flew under most people’s radars.

So, to honor their expected influence on the digital accessibility landscape moving forward, my next appearance on the Now with Dave Brown morning show on AMI-Audio (live at around 9:25 am Eastern this coming Monday) will be dedicated to recognizing what was achieved since we kicked off 2021. Two events that pave the way to what we can hope to be a more inclusive future, for anyone who lives with one or more disabilities as they dive into the online world. Therefore, for this next segment on the show, Dave and I will focus on some of the underlying tenets that hold the practice of digital inclusion together: laws and standards.

AODA cranks it up a notch in 2021!

Let’s start with accessibility laws, or updates to impactful accessibility laws if you will.

As some of you may have heard, back in 2005, Ontario adopted the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), as an anti-discrimination law meant to ensure the province would become fully inclusive of people with disabilities by 2025. While there is still a very long way to go before such a bold claim can actually be backed up with tangible results, the government set out on a rather aggressive timeline that required more inclusion in many aspects of life for people with disabilities. In the information and communications space, this included obligations for government and organizations to remove all barriers in the digital space by 2021.

So, as expected, on January 1st of this year, Ontario finally entered its final phase, that I affectionately like to call “the big leagues of web accessibility”.

So, as expected, on January 1st of this year, Ontario finally entered its final phase, that I affectionately like to…