Websites
Legislation/regulations
The Access to Information Act of 1985 requires that access to government information be provided in an alternative format where needed by individuals.
The Common Look and Feel Standards 2.0 were approved by Treasury Board Ministers in December, 2006 and apply to all federal government websites. They adopt W3C WCAG 1.0 and also provide additional web accessibility regulations. They are mandatory for all covered institutions, though there are no formal methods of enforcement or sanctioning in place. Deputy Ministers of the Government are responsible for implementation within their departments. The standards are intended to describe how to implement policy that respects Canadian law including the Access to Information Act and therefore non-compliance may be viewed as a failure to meet obligations under that Act.
In Quebec province, disability legislation provides that all ministries and public agencies must adopt measures related to the accessibility of all public information and services, whatever their form and in the spirit of reasonable accommodation. While this legislation does not specify websites, the Quebec Government is currently developing website accessibility standards which will be mandatory. These are expected to be completed in 2008 or early 2009.
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We are interested in receiving any corrections and/or additional information that may help us to update or improve our understanding of the current state of affairs in this country concerning the accessibility of web sites. This may concern information on relevant legislation, other policies and/or the level of accessibility actually achieved. Please enter your contribution in the “Leave a Reply” box below or send an e-mail to meac at empirica dot com.
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