The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is a provincial law passed in 2005. Its goal is to make Ontario fully accessible by 2025. It establishes legally enforceable accessibility standards across sectors — including requirements for websites and digital content.
Website accessibility rules come from the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR) — Ontario Regulation 191/11. This regulation includes the Information and Communications Standard, which sets the requirements for website compliance.
AODA applies to public-sector organizations (including universities, colleges, municipalities, school boards, hospitals) and large private-sector organizations with 50+ employees. York University is legally defined as a designated public sector organization, meaning it is fully covered under the most stringent AODA requirements.
1. January 1, 2012 Public-sector organizations (including universities) were required to ensure any new or significantly refreshed websites met WCAG 2.0 Level A. 2. January 1, 2014 Broader requirements for web content published after Jan 1, 2012 also had to meet WCAG 2.0 Level A. 3. January 1, 2021 All public-sector organizations must bring all […]
WCAG = Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, an international standard created by W3C. Some requirements include:
All public-facing digital content, including:
Only content published on or after Jan 1, 2012 must be fully WCAG-compliant — unless a person requests an accessible version. Then the university must provide one.
Ontario can impose: For public institutions: Additionally:
All public websites and content published after Jan 1, 2012 must meet WCAG 2.0 AA requirements. Videos produced by the university must have captions.
One of the main methods of tracking progress for this program is through having students complete reflections. These reflections will be thoroughly analyzed by the advancement and student engagement teams to determine whether the program is effective and creating an impact.