ACA

The Accessible Canada Act (S.C. 2019, c. 10), passed in 2019, is Canada’s federal accessibility law. It applies to entities under federal jurisdiction — banking, telecommunications, broadcasting, federal government, and federally-regulated transport.

Scope

The ACA’s reach is narrower than AODA’s: it does not apply to Ontario businesses-at-large the way AODA does. It applies to:

• Government of Canada departments and agencies.
• Crown corporations (Canada Post, CBC, etc.).
• Federally-regulated private sector — banks, interprovincial transport (airlines, railways, marine), telecommunications carriers and broadcasters.
• Parliament and Parliamentary entities (added in later regulations).

Federally-regulated entities in Canada are estimated at roughly 4,000 organisations — a smaller universe than AODA’s, but with disproportionate national reach (Canada’s largest banks, airlines, and telecoms are all federally regulated).

The three pillars

The ACA’s structure relies on three things:

1. Accessibility plans — every regulated entity must publish a three-year accessibility plan identifying barriers, the actions to remove them, and how progress will be measured. Plans must be developed with input from people with disabilities.

2. Feedback mechanisms — public channels (web form, phone, email) through which anyone can submit feedback about an organisation’s accessibility, including anonymous feedback. Responses are required.

3. Progress reports — every two years, organisations publish a report on what they’ve done against the plan, including feedback received.

The Accessibility Commissioner

The Office of the Accessibility Commissioner, established by the Act, investigates complaints, audits regulated entities, and can impose administrative monetary penalties up to $250,000 per violation. The Commissioner is housed within the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Standards

Unlike AODA, the ACA’s standards are still being developed by Accessibility Standards Canada (ASC). For web content, the operating reference remains WCAG 2.x AA (typically 2.1 AA) — the same de facto floor used across the G7. Standards Canada has published a few sectoral standards (built environment, plain language) but the ICT/web standard is still in development as of 2026.

Why it complements AODA

For organisations operating in both Ontario and federally-regulated sectors (a major Canadian bank headquartered in Toronto, for example), the practical compliance posture is:

• Apply the AODA Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation to the Ontario footprint.
• Apply the ACA’s plan/feedback/report obligations across all federally-regulated operations.

In nearly all cases the technical floor — WCAG 2.x AA for web content — is the same; only the procedural and reporting overlay differs.