It's Simply Good Business

Ontario has committed to creating a barrier-free workplace through the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Web content needs to conform to WCAG 2.0 — meaning disabled users need to be able to navigate your website, forms and PDFs without human help.Organizations that employ more than 50 people in Ontario, or are publically funded, must post accessible content to their website. If documents are issued electronically, they too must be accessible.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination and ensures equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in employment, State and local government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities, and transportation. It also mandates the establishment of TDD/telephone relay services.Under the ADA, all US-based organizations are required to provide access to information and data to people with disabilities upon request

 The AustalianDisability Discrimination Act 1992 protects individuals across Australia from unfair treatment in many parts of public life. The Act makes disability discrimination unlawful and promotes equal rights, equal opportunity and equal access for people with disabilities. The Commission also has responsibilities to promote the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Australia ratified in 2008. People who experience direct or indirect discrimination can complain to the Commission.

Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, open new opportunities for people with disabilities, and encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals.The law applies to federal agencies – they’re required to provide access to information and data to disabled federal employees. Additionally, federal information needs to be accessible for disabled citizens.

It is the global criteria for accessible web content – the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. We work with companies to ensure their content complies by being perceivable, operable and understood by people with disabilities. This means Web content needs to be capable of interacting with a variety of assistive technologies.

UA stands for Universal Accessibility, and in these regulations, the concept applies solely to PDFs. Due to the complexities of PDF, the international community determined that PDF needed its own standard to meet the unique needs of the format. PDF/UA requirements have been built to ensure that users with print disabilities can access PDFs easily.While these criteria are newer than WCAG 2.1, they are steadily gaining traction, and PDF/UA requirements are already active in many governmental organizations.