AODA

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) was passed in 2005. Its core operating principle was ambitious: a fully accessible Ontario by 2025.

Five standards, one umbrella

The AODA delegates the technical detail to standards developed by an independent committee. Five sectoral standards were created:

• Customer Service (2008, revised 2016)
• Information and Communications — which contains the web-accessibility obligations.
• Employment
• Transportation
• Design of Public Spaces

All five are now consolidated into the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR, O. Reg. 191/11).

Web requirements

The IASR’s web requirements rolled out on a tiered schedule between 2014 and 2021. The endpoint, in force since 1 January 2021:

• Any organisation with 50 or more employees, plus all designated public-sector organisations, must ensure their websites and web content conform to WCAG 2.0 Level AA, with explicit exclusions for live captions (1.2.4) and audio descriptions for pre-recorded video (1.2.5).
• “Web content” includes new content posted from 2014 onward, but most legacy content too if it remains in active use.

Note the standard cited is WCAG 2.0, not 2.1 or 2.2. AODA’s regulatory text has not been updated since the original IASR, and the WCAG 2.0 reference remains the literal legal obligation. In practice, organisations targeting WCAG 2.1 AA or 2.2 AA satisfy 2.0 by definition.

Compliance reports

The IASR also requires periodic accessibility reports filed with the Ontario government. Designated public-sector bodies file every two years; large private-sector organisations (50+ employees) file every three years. Non-filing is itself a compliance failure.

Enforcement

Enforcement is administrative, handled by the Accessibility Compliance Directorate. The framework allows administrative monetary penalties up to $15,000 per day for corporations (lower for individuals), and director-level liability is explicitly possible.

In practice, enforcement has historically been complaint-driven and relatively light; the AODA’s “2025 fully accessible” aspiration has not been met, and the David Onley review (2019) was scathing about the gap between the law’s promises and the on-the-ground reality.

Relationship with ACA

AODA covers anyone operating in Ontario. The Accessible Canada Act covers federally-regulated entities (banks, telecoms, airlines, federal government) anywhere in Canada. Many organisations are subject to both simultaneously and must satisfy whichever obligation is more demanding for the specific element in question.