AODA web and document accessibility for Ontario non-profits and charities: what the law requires at your size, audits, remediation and accessible documents priced for organizations that answer to donors and funders, from a firm that has delivered for UNICEF Canada and Halton Children's Aid Society.
The obligation at your size
Ontario’s accessibility regulation scales with the organization. At fifty or more employees, a non-profit’s public website and web content must meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA; from twenty employees, it must file an accessibility compliance report every three years, the next by 31 December 2026; and at any size, the Human Rights Code requires it to accommodate the people it serves. Layered on top are the expectations of funders, partners and the province’s transfer-payment agreements, which often reach further than the Act.
We have delivered for UNICEF Canada, Halton Children’s Aid Society and Achēv, and we scope accessibility work for the sector: an audit of the templates and journeys the site actually has, remediation that follows the findings, and document work from your design files so the annual report stays beautiful. The report tells a small team, honestly, what is urgent for its users and what can wait.
What a non-profit has to get right
The requirements turn on your size — and on what your funders ask
Fifty or more employees
Your public website and web content must meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA, and you file a compliance report every three years — the next one by 31 December 2026.
Twenty to forty-nine employees
The website standard does not bind you, but the compliance report does, and funders, partners and the Human Rights Code often ask for more than the regulation. Most organizations this size choose to meet the standard anyway.
Donation, sign-up and application journeys
The forms your mission runs on. A donation page that a screen-reader user cannot complete is lost revenue as well as a barrier.
Annual reports and program material
The documents funders read and clients rely on, remediated from your design files so they stay beautiful and become accessible.
Transfer-payment and service agencies
Children’s aid societies, community agencies and other organizations funded by the province often carry obligations through their agreements as well as the Act. We have delivered for Halton Children’s Aid Society.
Sized for the sector
Fixed fees, scoped to what your obligation actually is, with the audit written so a small team can act on it.
Questions we're asked
We have fewer than fifty employees. Does the website rule apply to us?
The regulation’s website requirement applies to designated public sector organizations and to businesses and non-profits with fifty or more employees. Below fifty it does not bind you directly, though the compliance report does from twenty employees, and the duty to accommodate under the Human Rights Code applies at any size. Many smaller organizations meet WCAG anyway because their funders, their partners and their clients expect it.
What does the compliance report ask about our website?
Whether your website and web content meet the standard that applies to you. It is a declaration, not an audit, but it is a legal filing, and the Act provides for fines for false or missing reports. An audit is how you answer truthfully, and the register you keep is what supports the answer.
Can a small organization afford this?
The audit is scoped to the templates and journeys your site actually has, which for a non-profit site is usually few; remediation follows the findings; and documents are quoted from the files. We will tell you, honestly, which parts of the standard are urgent for your users and which can wait for the next redesign.