WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: seeking Canadian information

for

From: julian.rickards@ndm.gov.on.ca
Date: Aug 20, 2004 7:05AM

I must admit that I don't know the law or Act very well. I deal with the
accessibility of the pages that I create or help create. Within our
government is a ministry called the Management Board Secretariat and they
are the ones who take the Acts and shape them into criteria. For example,
the Act may say "Web sites should be accessible to everyone" and MBS will
then tell the ministries "Adhere to Priority 2 of the WCAG". ODA is broader
that just web sites: it includes physical attributes of buildings and work
places, etc.

Could a person file a complaint? We all know about the Sydney example. I
don't know for certain but I suspect that if the Act says make government
web sites accessible and MBS tells us how, I can imagine that that gives an
Ontarian opportunity to file a complaint should they feel that they are
wronged or don't have equal access.

I visited the Manitoba Geological Survey once and noticed both an
accessibility statement and an inaccessible page (I used the
JavaScript-accessible only contact form to inform the web master and
received a mouse pad, I am satisfied :-). If some provinces have
accessibility initiatives, I suspect that all will at some point but I don't
know the details.

Jules

-----------------------------------------------
Julian Rickards
A/Digitial Publications Distribution Coordinator
Publication Services Section,
Ministry of Northern Development and Mines,
Vox: 705-670-5608 / Fax: 705-670-5960


-----Original Message-----
From: glenda [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]

Curious, does the ODA have much in the way of teeth? Could an Ontarian file
a complaint under the ODA?

Any idea where other provincial governments are on this issue? When I wrote
the report for the BC Government, I tried researching what other provinces
were doing, but had no luck. I would love to find funding to study this and
then put together a Canadian web accessibility portal.