AODA

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is a law in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its goal is to make Ontario fully accessible to people with disabilities, and it sets enforceable standards across several areas of public life — including the design of public websites and web content.

What it is

The AODA is Ontario's framework law for accessibility. It is built around a set of standards, each covering a different area such as customer service, employment, the built environment, and information and communications. The Information and Communications standard is the part that governs the web: it requires the public-facing websites and web content of covered organisations to be accessible to people with disabilities, measured against an established technical benchmark rather than left to interpretation.

Who must comply

The AODA applies within Ontario, Canada. The Information and Communications standard binds designated public-sector organisations (such as provincial and municipal government bodies, school boards, colleges, universities, and hospitals) and large private and non-profit organisations. Their public websites and the web content posted on them must meet the standard.

The AODA is a provincial law, so it does not by itself reach federally regulated entities. Those are covered separately by Canada's federal Accessible Canada Act (ACA), which applies to organisations under federal jurisdiction such as banks, airlines, and telecommunications companies.

Relationship to WCAG

The AODA does not define its own technical rules for the web. Instead, the Information and Communications standard adopts the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 at Level AA as its conformance target. Covered websites and web content must meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA, with a small number of carve-outs — notably success criterion 1.4.5 (images of text) and the live-captions and audio-description requirements, which sit outside the required set.

Because the benchmark is WCAG, the practical work of meeting the AODA is the same technical work as meeting other WCAG-based laws: provide text alternatives, sufficient contrast, keyboard operability, clear structure, and accessible forms. Conform to WCAG 2.0 AA and you satisfy the AODA's web requirements.

Key points

  • The AODA is a provincial law of Ontario, Canada.
  • Its Information and Communications standard governs public websites and web content.
  • The conformance target is WCAG 2.0 Level AA.
  • Exceptions apply, including success criterion 1.4.5 and the live-captions / audio-description requirements.
  • It binds designated public-sector organisations and large private and non-profit organisations.
  • It is part of Ontario's goal of becoming fully accessible.
  • Federally regulated entities fall under the separate federal Accessible Canada Act (ACA), not the AODA.

Because the AODA is met by conforming to WCAG, the same lessons that teach WCAG techniques are how you meet it in practice:

Part of a bigger picture

The AODA is one of many laws that point at the same technical core. See the Standards overview to compare it with others — WCAG is the shared technical foundation, so the same accessible code satisfies the AODA and its peers at once.