WQI.web​qualityindex

Accessibility

Accessible Canada Act

The federal counterpart to AODA. If you're a federally regulated entity — banks, telecoms, airlines, broadcasters — you publish accessibility plans and progress reports, and your digital surfaces are in scope.

Authority
Accessibility Standards Canada
Version
S.C. 2019, c. 10
Jurisdiction
Canada
Source
laws-lois.justice.gc.ca
Last reviewed
2026-04-28
Last verified
pending

What it is

A 2019 federal act creating Accessibility Standards Canada and requiring federally regulated public and private entities to publish accessibility plans, feedback processes, and triennial progress reports. Standards are still being published; in the meantime WCAG AA is the operative web benchmark.

Why it matters

ACA isn't just a policy goal — entities that don't publish plans and reports face fines up to CAD $250,000. Web accessibility is one of the seven priority areas the Act explicitly enumerates.

Who it applies to

Federally regulated entities in Canada — federal departments, banks, telecoms, broadcasters, interprovincial transport.

  • Site types: Government, Corporate / B2B, SaaS / Product, E-commerce, Media / Streaming
  • Jurisdictions: Canada

How WQI scores it

Web Quality Index considers this standard satisfied when all of the 6 supporting factors pass.

# Factor Status
52 Accessibility statement page planned
54 Image alt text coverage planned
55 Heading hierarchy validity planned
56 Color contrast (WCAG AA) planned
57 ARIA labels presence and validity planned
58 Skip-to-content link planned

0 of 6 supporting factors are currently collected. Sites where the remaining 6 haven't been measured will show as partial or unknown on this standard until the data lands.

Related standards

Implements
WCAG AA
See also
AODA , WCAG AA

Standards that share factors with this one

Auto-computed from overlapping factor tickets in satisfiedBy, excluding standards already listed under "See also" above. Strong overlap suggests these standards rise and fall together when sites are scored.

Other references