Accessibility for information and communications

The Essential 5: accessibility for information and communications

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is province-wide legislation to make facets of daily life easier for all residents. The act helps companies identify and remove barriers for people with disabilities by the year 2025. All businesses in the province must adhere to and comply with the minimum standards laid out in the AODA.

The AODA contains five standards: 1. Customer Service 2.Information and Communications 3.Employment 4.Transportation 5.Design of Public Spaces The Customer Service Standard applies to all businesses, while the remaining four standards may or may not apply to your specific business. Understanding the AODA is not only important for your own company’s compliance, but you can also be a valuable resource to assist your customers’ physical and digital communication efforts. Here are five resources to help you wrap your head around the Information and Communications Standard. 1. AccessForward [free AODA training] - Developed in partnership with the Government of Ontario, this website provides free courses to meet training requirements of the AODA. The website is well-designed (providing an excellent example of designing for web accessibility) and they suggest three steps in training: the Customer Service Standard training module, choosing up to four other training modules relevant to your specific business, and the training module on the Ontario Human Rights Code (how it works together with the AODA, how they are different, and ultimately why both are important). Here’s the best place to start: https://www. accessforward.ca

2.Accessible Information and Communication: A Guide for Small Business [PDF] - This comprehensive 85-page PDF was developed by the not-for-profit organization Global Alliance for Accessible Technologies and Environments (GAATES). It includes step-by-step information addressing the who, what, why, where, when, and how of accessibility compliance as it relates to the AODA’s Information and Communications Standard. The most valuable parts of the guide are the checklists throughout. The guide helps businesses assess their current level of compliance and points to information regarding the AODA requirements, ‘possible strategies’, and ‘sample resources’ for each. The guide also provides timelines for compliance and sample Information and Communications Accessibility Plans. If you only look at one resource on this list, I suggest this one. https://tinyurl.com/accesssmallbiz

3. A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences by Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery, 2013 [book] - This book is incredibly comprehensive and includes ‘personas’ to help identify and communicate solutions for all types of inclusive design scenarios. The authors identify eight diverse personas, whom they introduce at the beginning of the book, and then apply different design problems and solutions to these individuals throughout the book. For example, there’s Emily, a college student who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair for transportation and computer for communication. There’s also Vishnu, who is an engineer with low vision due to glaucoma so he uses screen magnifiers and contrast adjustment. The authors have done an outstanding job creating and applying personas. Organizations can learn a lot about training their own employees using similar personas.

4.AccessAbility: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design [PDF] - Produced by The Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario (RGD), this is the gold standard of accessible print design, including an overview of important typographic principles that aid in making documents more accessible. It’s beautifully laid out and enjoyable to read. https://tinyurl.com/accessprint

5.W3C Web Accessibility Initiative [website] - What sets this website on accessible web design apart from similar websites is twofold: 1) the fact that it’s offered by web pioneers, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), led by Tim Berners-Lee (creator of the Internet!) and 2) its interactive, experiential approach. This website identifies and provides examples of important accessible web design principles and allows users to assess their own websites against accessible design standards. The website links to hundreds of tools and additional resources, making it an excellent hub of information for designing for accessibility on the web. https:// www.w3.org/WAI/

There are many high quality, free resources and if you feel like you have some catching up to do or you feel it’s time for an audit, these five are an excellent place to start. From me to you, here’s an essential (and accessible) high five!

Diana Varma is an Instructor at the School of Graphic Communications Management at Ryerson University and the Owner of ON-SITE First Aid & CPR Training Group, a health & safety company that provides training to the Graphic Arts Industry.