Today, one of our clients informed me that their HR department did an audit of their WordPress website and mentioned that it was not Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA compliant.
I can imagine how a client can react hearing this, especially with lawsuits South of the border! It can be scary, but for 100% of our clients, it should not be and here is why.
We are well aware of the WCAG 2.0 compliance law, specifically for the province of Ontario, Canada.
The law is very clear, and it states that:
“By law, you must make new and significantly refreshed public websites accessible if you are:
– a private or non-profit organization with 50+ employees; or
– a public sector organization
The organization that controls the website must meet the accessibility requirements.”
There are two key points here: new or significantly refreshed website, and 50+ employees.
That is why we don’t offer a compliance service to our clients, but we are doing our best to make sites accessible for people with disabilities. We can push it further and implement a solution that makes our clients’ sites even more accessible with the help of the UserWay WordPress plugin. Ask us how!
If you are concerned or directly impacted by this law, you need to know the compliance deadline:
“Beginning January 1, 2014: new public websites, significantly refreshed websites and any web content posted after January 1, 2012 must meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level A”
“Beginning January 1, 2021: all public websites and web content posted after January 1, 2012 must meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA other than criteria 1.2.4 (live captions) and 1.2.5 (pre-recorded audio descriptions)”
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns about your WordPress website and the WCAG 2.0 Level AA.
Thanks, Fred
Source: https://www.ontario.ca/page/how-make-websites-accessible
