Our Compliance Standards
Due to the increased use of the Internet, many countries have incorporated web accessibility into existing civil rights legislation that protects people with disabilities or created new ones.
This includes the ADA, AODA, EEA, and many more. Most countries have adopted the WCAG 2.1 AA, or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, as standard for accessible websites and refer to them in settlements.
WCAG 2.1 COMPLIANCE
ADA Title III COMPLIANCE
Section 508 COMPLIANCE
EAA/EN301549 COMPLIANCE
ACA/AODA COMPLIANCE
WCAG stands for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 guidelines) are arguably the most influential protocols shaping web accessibility policy.
The 4 principles of WCAG
The full WCAG 2.1 is incredibly long and complex, with many different points and requirements, but they’re all based on 4 essential principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Some believe that there’s a WCAG 2.1 checklist but in reality, it is more complex than that. The first step for achieving WCAG Compliance, It’s to understand Its principles:
- Perceivable – this refers to the ways that users perceive content online through their senses of sight, sound, and touch. This includes issues like captions for videos, text that can be adjusted for contrast, color, text size and spacing, font, and similar factors that make it easier to read.
- Operable – operability means the ways that someone can use the site. It’s particularly relevant to people with motor disabilities, weak muscles, injured limbs, etc. An operable site needs to be navigable entirely by keyboard, sight-assisted navigation, and other alternatives to a classic mouse.
- Understandable – understandable sites are easy for everyone to understand. They don’t use a lot of technical terms or complex jargon, don’t have complicated instructions that are difficult to follow, and have consistent directions that won’t confuse readers.
- Robust – there are two factors for a robust site:
- Using clean HTML and CSS code that meets recognized standards
- Being compatible with assistive tools that people with disabilities use to browse online
ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act.New Window It was signed into law by President George Bush in 1990, and it’s America’s most important law regarding accessibility and civil rights for people with disabilities, including web accessibility.
Essentially, ADA prohibits discrimination against anyone based on ability or disability. It came about after a 2-year campaign to advance civil rights to marginalized groups, including Americans with disabilities. Disability activists and advocates lobbied intenselyNew Window for laws that would prohibit discrimination, and from 1988 they began to garner cross-partisan support for federal legislation.
ADA draws on the precedent that was set by Section 504New Window of the much older Rehabilitation Act, which guarantees certain rights to people with disabilities. However, the Rehabilitation Act was very limited and only applied to the government sector.
Section 508
Strictly speaking, Section 508 is a set of rules for government entities, although it includes any organizationsNew Window that receive federal funding.
That means that government-supported institutions like museums or universities, medical centers that accept Medicaid or Medicare, and programs run by organizations that are partially federally funded all have to abide by Section 508, a requirement that was put to the test by lawsuits against Harvard University and MIT in 2015. New Window
Section 508’s accessibility rules also affect contractors or third-party workers that provide services for government bodies or organizations that receive federal funds. That means that any digital platform or website that’s in any way connected with a body that receives federal funds and is used by the public, has to comply with Section 508.
Small businesses should keep this in mind if they want to go after government grants or contract work with federal agencies.
The European Accessibility ActNew Window (EAA) is legislation that was passed by the E.U. in April 2019 to require accessibility for digital products and services.
EN 301549New Window is a policy document produced by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which is the E.U. agency that regulates the digital sphere. EN 301549 defines official standards for web accessibility.
It is important to note that European policy on web accessibility took shape over a long, often complicated process. For companies to fully understand European accessibility compliance, a bit of background is necessary.
The Accessibility Canada ActNew Window (ACA) is a federal law in Canada that requires various industries to comply with accessibility rules. The ACA came into forceNew Window on 11 July 2019.
It took years of effortNew Window from disability activists and other advocacy groups to get the ACA passed. Authorities in Canada conducted months of surveysNew Window to determine what legislation would have the best impact on Canadian society. Many people see the ACA as a major milestone in the government’s “Accessible by 2040New Window” program, a country-wide effort to make all facilities in Canada open to disabled people over the next 2 decades.
“With this legislation now in place, we can begin a journey that will lead us to a society that treats all people with the dignity they deserve.” Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility Minister Carla Qualtrough saidNew Window in a statement after the bill was passed.
Important 2021 update: companies are now mandated to comply with New Ontario Web Accessibility Standards by June 30th, 2021.
AODA stands for the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.New Window It was ratified in 2005 by provincial authorities to fix standards for accessibility to services in Ontario.
In 2001, after years of lobbying by advocacy groups, the provincial government passedNew Window the Ontarians with Disabilities Act, which required workplaces and websites to remove barriers to participation by individuals with disabilities. It was a big step forward, but it was still very limited because it only applied to government ministries. It also didn’t have any enforcement guidelines, penalties, or compliance requirements, so it was clear that the law needed to be updated almost as soon as it was ratified.
AODA is the follow-up to the Ontarians with Disabilities Act. It improved the existing accessibility policy, laying out clear rules, deadlines, enforcement systems, and penalties, and an infrastructure that could keep accessibility policy up to date. Among other things, AODA codified standards for web accessibility.
