Canada has federal accessibility legislation covering federally regulated organisations, and several provinces have their own regimes with different scopes and timelines. WCAG is the technical standard most of them point to, and whether a specific requirement applies to your business depends on your sector, size, and province.

Why this is confusing

There is no single Canadian rule for website accessibility. There are several regimes operating in parallel, each with a different scope.

Federal legislation covers organisations under federal jurisdiction. Provincial legislation covers organisations in that province, with different definitions of who is captured and different timelines. And human rights legislation operates alongside all of it.

The practical result is that two similar businesses in different provinces can face different obligations, which is why general advice about accessibility law is frequently wrong for the reader.

The federal layer

The Accessible Canada Act applies to organisations under federal jurisdiction: federal government bodies, and federally regulated sectors such as banking, telecommunications, broadcasting, and interprovincial transportation.

Most small businesses are not federally regulated and are therefore not directly captured by it. A local trades business, a restaurant, or a professional practice is provincially regulated in nearly every case.

Knowing which side of that line you sit on is the first question, and for most readers the answer is provincial.

The provincial layer

Several provinces have accessibility legislation, and the details differ materially.

Ontario has the longest-established regime, with information and communications requirements that have applied to larger private sector organisations for some years, generally tied to organisation size measured by employee count.

British Columbia has more recent legislation, which initially focused on public sector organisations with accessibility committees and plans, and provides for standards to be developed over time.

Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan, and Quebec each have their own arrangements, at different stages and with different scopes.

Because these regimes develop and their requirements phase in on schedules, the accurate answer for any specific business is what currently applies in its province at its size. That is a question for the relevant provincial body or a lawyer rather than something to assume from a general article.

Human rights legislation, which applies regardless

The part frequently overlooked, and arguably the most relevant to a small business.

Federal and provincial human rights legislation prohibits discrimination in the provision of goods and services, including on the basis of disability. A website that a person with a disability cannot use to access a service can engage that framework independently of whether any accessibility statute names websites.

This has been the basis of complaints in various jurisdictions, and it does not depend on an organisation's size in the way accessibility standards frequently do.

Which means a small business outside the scope of a specific standard is not therefore free of any obligation, and it is a reason to treat accessibility as ordinary practice rather than as a compliance threshold to be measured against.

WCAG, the standard everything points to

Where legislation specifies a technical standard, it generally references the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, an international standard maintained by the W3C.

WCAG defines three levels: A as the minimum, AA as the level most legislation adopts, and AAA which is rarely required in full. Level AA is the practical target in almost every case.

Which version is referenced differs between regimes, which is a detail worth knowing. Ontario's requirements have referenced WCAG 2.0 Level AA. The federal standard is CAN/ASC-EN 301 549, which incorporates a later version of WCAG at Level AA and adds requirements beyond web content. Building to the most recent version at Level AA satisfies the older ones, which is why targeting the current release rather than the minimum referenced by any single statute is the simpler position.

The guidelines are organised around four principles: content should be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. That framing is more useful than the checklist, because it explains why each requirement exists.

What compliance actually looks like

Most of the requirements are things a well-built site does anyway.

None of those are exotic. The reason sites fail is that they were never checked rather than that the requirements are difficult.

Overlay widgets

Worth a specific note because they are marketed aggressively as a compliance solution.

These are scripts added to a site that claim to make it accessible automatically. Accessibility practitioners and disability organisations have been broadly critical of them, and their presence has not prevented complaints elsewhere.

They are not a substitute for the underlying work, and a business considering one should look at what disability advocacy organisations say about them before buying.

The practical position for a small business

Find out what currently applies in your province at your size, from the provincial body rather than from an article. That is a specific answerable question and it takes one enquiry.

Independently of the answer, build to WCAG AA as a matter of ordinary quality, because the human rights framework applies regardless of statutory thresholds, because the requirements overlap almost entirely with good practice, and because a share of your customers need it whether or not anyone is enforcing anything.

This is not legal advice and the details change, which is exactly why the sensible approach is to build accessibly rather than to track thresholds, as argued in why accessibility is a business issue.

Frequently asked questions

Is there one Canadian law for website accessibility?

No. Federal legislation covers federally regulated organisations, several provinces have their own regimes with different scopes and timelines, and human rights legislation operates alongside all of it.

Does the Accessible Canada Act apply to my business?

Only if you are federally regulated, such as banking, telecommunications, broadcasting, or interprovincial transportation. Most small businesses are provincially regulated instead.

What if my province has no specific website standard?

Human rights legislation still prohibits discrimination in providing goods and services on the basis of disability, and that does not depend on organisation size in the way accessibility standards often do.

What standard should I build to?

WCAG level AA. Which version is referenced differs between regimes, so building to the most recent release at Level AA satisfies the older ones and avoids tracking each statute separately.

What does compliance actually involve?

Text alternatives for meaningful images, sufficient contrast, keyboard operability, proper heading structure, labelled form fields, captions for video, and content that reflows when enlarged.

Do accessibility overlay widgets make a site compliant?

Accessibility practitioners and disability organisations have been broadly critical of them, and they are not a substitute for the underlying work. Look at what advocacy organisations say before buying one.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Not sure which accessibility rules apply to you?

We build to WCAG AA as standard, which covers the requirement wherever the threshold happens to sit for your province and size.

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