The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) requires private and public sector organizations in Ontario to ensure their goods, services and facilities meet certain standards of inclusion and access.
Although the act does not put into place standards for workplace learning, many employers in Ontario have nevertheless taken cues from the AODA in order to ensure their learning is inclusive and barrier-free. However, with so many different types of learners, learning formats and tools, creating accessible learning can be challenging.
At Benchmark we are committed to guiding our clients on how best to implement the AODA in their workplace learning initiatives.
Our goal is to support the performance of all employees, regardless of ability, by creating learning program that are inclusive. To meet this goal, we’ve kicked off a year-long AODA expert-level professional development program for the Benchmark team. We recently completed a session where we learned expert tips and tricks for creating accessible PDFs which are engaging and easy to navigate via keyboard and assistive technologies.
As we empower our own collective, we recognize it’s important to empower our clients as well. That’s why, as part of this initiative, we’re creating supportive resources that help you better understand the AODA, and its implications for workplace learning.
In this quick reference guide, you can find a brief summary of the AODA and details on WCAG – the international standards for accessible web-based content. We’ve also clearly outlined where each of these WCAG standards fall, as far as levels of compliance with the AODA – with level A being the first level of compliance, to level AAA, the highest level.
If you would like more information on the AODA, WCAG or want to chat about how we can help your workplace learning meet accessibility standards, please reach out to Sara McKnight.