Accessibility Guidelines, Laws and Standards

Guidelines

Introduction: Accessibility guidelines

Accessibility standards help make digital documents usable for everyone, including people with disabilities. The primary standards for document accessibility are based on CAN/ASC EN 301 549:2024 - Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services .

ICT Accessibility Guidelines for non-web documents

ICT Accessibility Guidelines for non-web document explain how to make digital documents easier to use for people with different disabilities. Digital documents can include text, pictures, and sounds, as well as how the document looks and is organized.

These rules help remove obstacles for people with different types of disabilities, like vision, hearing, movement, speech, and thinking.

These guidelines address accessibility of document content across different formats and platforms, including PDFs, Excel files, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and other digital document formats. Following these guidelines will make document content more usable to all users in general.

Document accessibility layers of guidance

Principles – There are 4 principles that provide the foundation for accessibility: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

Guidelines - Under each principle are a number guidelines applicable to "non-web documents". These guidelines ensure that content is directly accessible to as many people as possible, and capable of being represented in different forms

Success requirements - Under each guideline, there are Success requirements that describe what must be achieved to conform to document accessibility standards. Success requirements are written as testable (true or false) statements that are not technology-specific. All Success requirements are important access issues for people with disabilities. Each success requirement is assigned a conformance level A, level AA (better), level AAA (best).

There are comprehensive accessibility requirements at Level A and AA in CAN/ASC EN 301 549:2024.

ESDC document accessibility conformance level target

ESDC aims to achieve level AA accessibility conformance based on CAN/ASC EN 301 549:2024.

Document accessibility at a glance

This section provides a paraphrased summary of Section 10. Non-web documents from CAN/ASC-EN 301 549:2024

Perceivable

  • Provide text alternatives for non-text content.
  • Provide captions and other alternatives for multimedia.
  • Create content that can be presented in different ways, including by assistive technologies, without losing meaning.
  • Make it easier for users to see and hear content.

Operable

  • Make all functionality available from a keyboard.
  • Give users enough time to read and use content.
  • Do not use content that causes seizures or physical reactions.
  • Help users navigate and find content.
  • Make it easier to use inputs other than keyboard.

Understandable

  • Make text readable and understandable.
  • Make content appear and operate in predictable ways.
  • Help users avoid and correct mistakes.

Robust

  • Maximize compatibility with current and future user tools.

Information in this section is based on CAN/ASC EN 301 549:2024 - Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services , which provides comprehensive guidance for document accessibility.

Laws

Accessible Canada Act (ACA)

The Accessible Canada Act came into effect on July 11, 2019. The purpose includes identifying, removing and preventing barriers in 7 key areas:

  • Service Design and Delivery
  • Built Environment
  • Employment
  • Information and Communication Technologies
  • Communications
  • Transportation
  • Procurement

The goals of ACA include the realization of a barrier-free Canada, culture change, standards development, proactive compliance and enforcement measures, monitoring and oversight.

ACA applies to federally regulated entities including, Government of Canada's departments and agencies, Crown corporations, Parliament and Federally-regulated private sector.

Requirements include publishing accessibility plans, feedback processes and progress reports.

The Accessibility Standards Canada (ASC) / Canadian Accessibility Standards Development Organization (CASDO) will form technical committees to develop Accessibility Standards in the 7 key areas. These committees will include experts, persons with disability and industry representatives.

Accessibility Standards will be posted online for public comment. The Final Standards will be submitted to the Minister to be adopted into regulations.

Canadian law establishes clear obligations for document accessibility across different sectors and jurisdictions:

Federal Government Legal Obligations

Under the Accessible Canada Act and related regulations, federal government departments and agencies must ensure their electronic documents are accessible. This includes:

  • Internal documents used by employees with disabilities
  • Public-facing documents and forms
  • Communications materials and publications
  • Training and educational materials

Provincial and Territorial Legislation

Several provinces have enacted accessibility legislation that affects document accessibility:

International Legal Framework

Canada is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities , which establishes the right to access information on an equal basis with others. Article 9 specifically addresses accessibility of information and communications technologies.

Government Standards

Government of Canada

The Government of Canada Standard created the ICT Accessibility Standard to guide the creation of accessible public-facing and internal-facing content, including electronic documents, and guide federal government department and agencies meet the requirements of EN 301 549 (European Standard for Digital Accessibility).

EN 301 549 is updated to adopt the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (level AA) for web content, electronic documents, and non-web software. This is particularly important for document accessibility as WCAG 2.1 provides specific guidance for making electronic documents accessible to people with disabilities.

The Guideline on Making Information Technology Usable by All requires that digital content, including documents and web content, conform to EN 301 549 and WCAG 2.1 level AA, establishing these as legal requirements for federal institutions.

The ESDC IT Accessibility Office is leading the Accessibility Compliance Project (ACP) to ensure compliance of internally used websites, applications, and electronic documents. The target conformance level is also WCAG 2.1 AA, which applies to both web content and document accessibility.

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