Canada Gazette, Part I, Volume 158, Number 51: Regulations Amending the Accessible Canada Regulations

December 21, 2024

Statutory authority
Accessible Canada Act

Sponsoring department
Department of Employment and Social Development

REGULATORY IMPACT ANALYSIS STATEMENT

(This statement is not part of the Regulations.)

Executive summary

Issues

Persons with disabilities represent a significant and growing part of Canada’s population. The 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability^{footnote 1} found that 8 million people, or 27% of Canada’s population, have one or more disabilities. This is an increase of 1.7 million people from 2017 when the disability rate was 22%. This increase is in part because of Canada’s aging population, as well as of other factors such as increased rates of mental health-related disabilities among youth and working-age adults.

Digital technologies are an integral part of most people’s daily lives. People now regularly use digital technologies for finding jobs and participating in workplaces, accessing programs and services, social networking, education, accessing health information, and banking. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the move to online and digital services has also accelerated, making digital technologies even more critical to the livelihood and well-being of people in Canada, a trend that is expected to continue.

However, persons with disabilities continue to face significant barriers to using digital technologies, and these barriers continue to persist in federally regulated sectors even though digital accessibility standards have existed since 1999. For example, according to the 2021 Survey on Accessibility in Federal Sector Organizations (SAFSO),^{footnote 2}approximately 45% of Canadians with disabilities say they have encountered a digital technology-related barrier with a federal organization or business.

As the reliance on digital technologies for delivering services and programs, and its importance in the workplace, continues to grow, and with an aging population, it is expected that the negative impacts of digital accessibility barriers will increase over time. Within this context, immediate action to improve digital accessibility would be a key step towards achieving the ACA’s objective of building a barrier-free Canada by 2040. To this end, regulations are required to create a culture of sustained accessibility improvements from the start by federally regulated organizations. These efforts must be in alignment with guidelines outlined in digital accessibility standards.

Background

Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2010. The CRPD is an international human rights treaty aimed at protecting the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities without discrimination and on an equal basis with others. As a State Party to the CRPD, Canada agreed to take appropriate measures respecting accessibility and to develop and monitor minimum accessibility standards.

The Accessible Canada Act (ACA) came into force in 2019, and, together with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Human Rights Act, established the legal framework to support Canada in respecting its commitments to accessibility and the rights of persons with disabilities under the CRPD.

The ACA aims to create a barrier-free Canada for all persons in Canada, particularly for persons with disabilities, by 2040 through the identification, and removal, of barriers, and the prevention of new barriers in the following priority areas:

• employment;
• the built environment (e.g. buildings and public spaces);
• digital technologies (e.g. websites, mobile applications, software and hardware);
• communication, other than digital technologies (e.g. signage, plain language, use of interpreters);
• the procurement of goods, services and facilities;
• the design and delivery of programs and services; and
• transportation (e.g. transporting passengers or goods).

The ACA applies to all organizations under federal jurisdiction, such as the federal government, and the banking, telecommunications, and transportation industries. Under the ACA, the Canadian Accessibility Standards Development Organization, known as Accessibility Standards Canada (ASC), was created in 2019 to develop national accessibility standards. Since then, ASC has been working on the development of numerous accessibility standards related to the ACA priority areas, including digital accessibility.

In December 2021, ESDC made its first set of regulations under the ACA: the Accessible Canada Regulations (ACRs). The ACRs provide details about how regulated organizations must prepare and publish accessibility planning and reporting documents and how they must establish a process for receiving and addressing feedback from the public. The ACRs also provide a framework for administrative monetary penalties for violations of the ACA and its regulations. First Nations band councils were exempted from the planning and reporting requirements of the ACRs for five years (until December 2026) to provide the time to engage them on a tailored approach to accessibility on reserve.

In May 2024, ASC adopted the “European Harmonized Standard EN 301 549 (v.3.2.1) (PDF), Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services” (EN Standard hereafter) in its entirety and without modification as a National Standard of Canada. The Canadian standard is known as CAN/ASC – EN 301 549:2024 – Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services (EN 301 549:2021, IDT) (PDF) (CAN/ASC - EN Standard hereafter). It is important to note that while several other standards and guidelines exist for digital accessibility (such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), the most comprehensive standard to date is the EN Standard.

The EN Standard defines requirements that digital technologies should meet to enable their use by everyone, particularly persons with disabilities. In general terms, digital technologies that meet the requirements of the EN Standard are compatible and work seamlessly with assistive technologies used by persons with disabilities. These include, among others, screen readers, text to speech software, and Braille keyboards. It also means that digital content and the presentation of the digital content is not confusing to users. As a result, digital technologies that conform to the EN Standard are typically accessible to persons with disabilities.

Internationally and at provincial levels, there already exist digital accessibility regulations. Within Canada, the provinces of Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba; and Government of Canada agencies, such as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and the Canadian Transport Agency (CTA), have developed regulations or standards specific to digital accessibility. Internationally, Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act is a federal law that requires federal agencies to provide persons with disabilities equal access to electronic information and data.

Objective

The objective of these proposed regulatory amendments is to remove existing barriers, prevent future barriers from emerging, and improve accessibility in the following three areas of digital technologies of federally regulated organizations:

• (1) web pages, including web applications;
• (2) digital documents such as PDF and MS Word files; and
• (3) mobile applications.

The proposed amendments also have the objective of raising awareness and building digital accessibility capacity in Canada, particularly via greater standardization of accessible design practices for digital technology. This would ultimately shift the culture to one where digital technology is designed to be accessible from the start and lay the foundation for future amendments to the ACRs that would address more complex digital technology areas (e.g. legacy or pre-existing digital technology, desktop software, artificial intelligence).

Description

The proposed amendments to the ACRs would establish a new Part under the ACRs called “Information and Communication Technologies” for new requirements relating to digital accessibility, detailed below.

Incorporation by reference of the CAN/ASC - EN Standard

The proposed amendments would incorporate by reference the most recent version of the CAN/ASC - EN 301 549 - Accessibility requirements for Information and Communication Technology Products and Services (hereafter called “the CAN/ASC-EN Standard”) without modification. This incorporation would be on an ambulatory basis to ensure regulatory requirements are up to date with future advancements in digital technologies and digital accessibility design practices.

Application

The proposed amendments would set different requirements for the following types of regulated organizations:

• Organizations in the federal public sector (i.e. federal government departments, agencies, Crown corporations, Parliamentary organizations, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Armed Forces).
• Federally regulated private sector organizations (e.g. banking, parcel services, pipeline companies, trucking companies, feed, flour, seed and grain companies, uranium mining) who have an average of 500 or more employees over the previous three calendar years (large businesses hereafter).
• Federally regulated private sector organizations who have an average of 100 to 499 employees over the previous three calendar years (medium-sized businesses hereafter).

Limited application

In keeping with the sectoral approach of the ACA, the proposed requirements would not apply to the public or consumer-facing digital technologies of Transportation Service Providers (TSPs) and Broadcasting and Telecommunications Organizations (BTOs) as these areas are regulated by the CTA or the CRTC, respectively. TSPs and BTOs are both in the public and private sectors. Further details about which proposed requirements would apply to TSPs and BTOs, and how they would apply, are provided in the section on proposed requirements.

Exemptions

The proposed requirements would not apply to federally regulated private sector organizations having an average of 99 or fewer employees over the previous three calendar years (small businesses hereafter).

First Nations band councils would be exempted from the proposed digital accessibility requirements until December 31, 2033. As well, the current exemption for First Nations band councils in the ACRs, which covers the accessibility planning and reporting requirements of the ACA, and which is set to expire on December 31, 2026, would be extended until December 31, 2033, to align with the proposed exemption from digital accessibility requirements. The proposed exemption would also apply to entities or persons that carry on an undertaking for or on behalf of First Nations band councils or on the bands’ reserve lands. However, the proposed exemption would continue to not apply to businesses operated for or on behalf of First Nations band councils or on a band’s reserve lands.

Proposed regulatory requirements for digital technologies

The CAN/ASC-EN Standard

The proposed amendments would require federally regulated organizations to conform to the requirements of the most recent version of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard for their (1) web pages, including web applications; (2) mobile applications; and (3) digital documents.

The CAN/ASC-EN Standard sets out functional performance and generic requirements that apply to all digital technologies, as well as specific requirements for different digital technologies. The following clauses would apply to the three areas that are covered by the proposed amendments:

• Clause 4 of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard contains functional performance statements which explain what functionality is needed to enable users to use any type of digital technology, regardless of their abilities.
• Clause 5 contains generic technical requirements which can apply to any type of digital technology. These requirements are organized under a number of categories, for example, digital technology with closed functionality (i.e. which restricts the user from being able to install their own assistive technology), activation of accessibility features, and biometrics, among others.
• Clause 6 contains generic technical requirements for any type of digital technology which allows for two-way audio communication, such as a phone call or video call that includes audio.
• Clause 7 contains generic technical requirements for any type of digital technology with video capabilities. It mostly focuses on requirements relating to closed captioning and audio description of video content.
• Clause 9 contains specific technical requirements meant to apply to web pages, including web applications. For example, web content is understandable: makes text easy to read and comprehend; makes content appear and work in predicable ways; and, helps users to avoid and correct mistakes.
• Clause 10 of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard contains specific technical requirements meant to apply to digital documents; as an example, requirements dealing with the timing and positioning of captioning and audio descriptions, so they do not obscure or interfere with other content.
• Clause 11 of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard contains specific technical requirements meant to apply to software, which includes mobile applications.

The main elements of the proposed amendments are detailed below.

Requirements for web pages

Federal public sector organizations would have to ensure that all their public-facing and internal employee-facing web pages (and any content on those pages) published or updated after June 1, 2027, conforms to clauses 4 to 7 and 9 of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard.

Large and medium-sized businesses would have to ensure that all their public-facing and internal employee-facing web pages (and any content on those pages) published or updated after June 1, 2028, conforms to clauses 4 to 7 and 9 of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard.

Limited application: TSPs and BTOs in the public or private sectors would only have to ensure their employee-facing web pages conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. The dates on which requirements to conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard will begin to apply remain the same: June 1, 2027, for public sector TSPs and BTOs, and June 1, 2028, for private sector TSPs and BTOs.

Requirements for mobile applications

Federal public sector organizations and large businesses, excluding those that are TSPs or BTOs, would have to ensure that all their public-facing mobile applications initially launched after June 1, 2028, conform to clauses 4 to 7 and 11 of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard.

In addition, as of June 1, 2028, federal public sector organizations and large businesses, excluding those that are TSPs or BTOs, would have to obtain an accessibility conformance assessment with gaps analysis against clauses 4 to 7 and 11 of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard for all their public-facing mobile applications initially launched before June 1, 2028.

Requirements for digital documents

Federal public sector organizations and large businesses, excluding those that are TSPs or BTOs would have to ensure that any digital document they make available for download from their public-facing web pages after June 1, 2028, conforms to clauses 4 to 7 and 10 of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard.

Alternative means of accessibility

ESDC recognizes that it may not always be feasible for an organization to fully conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. In circumstances where full conformity cannot be achieved, the proposed amendments would allow organizations to instead take other reasonable measures to remove barriers that are related to the web page(s), mobile application(s) or digital document(s). This would include putting into place alternative ways for accessing information or performing tasks associated with digital technologies that do not conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard – additional details will be provided in guidance. This is consistent with the ultimate goal of the proposed amendments, which is to provide equitable access to jobs, programs and services for persons with disabilities enabled by accessible digital technologies.

That said, ESDC’s expectation is that such alternative measures would be temporary in nature and would provide for equitable access while the organization works towards achieving conformance with the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. This is because the scope of what is feasible is anticipated to grow over time due to factors such as the growing availability of new products and services that conform to the CAN/ASC-EN standard, advances in digital accessibility design practices and the regulated organization’s own efforts to resolve any challenges to conforming to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. Factors that would be considered relevant to determining whether it is feasible to conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard would therefore include

• whether technology (e.g. digital products or solutions) that conforms to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard is available;
• whether a regulated organization has encountered significant obstacles to implementing that technology and any efforts the organization has taken to overcome those obstacles; and
• the organization not having control over the nonconforming digital content or technology, for example, if it is owned by another organization who does not allow it to be modified.

Other requirements

Training requirements

Federal public sector organizations, large and medium-sized businesses would be required to provide training on digital accessibility fundamentals by June 1, 2027, as well as refresher training at least every three years, to all their employees involved in the development, maintenance or purchasing of digital technologies. ESDC’s expectation is that such training would, at a minimum, provide these employees with a baseline level of knowledge and awareness about digital accessibility concepts as they relate to their job-specific roles and responsibilities.

Accessibility statement

Federal public sector organizations and large businesses would be required to publish accessibility statements covering the following digital technology areas, which would have to follow the requirements of the proposed amendments:

• their public-facing web pages;
• any digital document they make available for download from their web pages or mobile applications;
• their employee-facing web pages; and
• their public-facing mobile applications.

Accessibility statements would not need to address digital content that is exempt from the proposed requirements. For example, a large business, in its accessibility statement, would not have to address its web pages that were published prior to June 1, 2028.

Limited application: Federal public sector organizations and large businesses that are TSPs or BTOs would only be required to publish an accessibility statement covering their employee-facing web pages.

Content and form of an accessibility statement

An accessibility statement would have to

• be written in simple, clear and concise language;
• include the date when it was published;
• provide the organization’s contact information, including at least two of the following: the organization’s email address; the organization’s phone number; or the organization’s mailing address;
• include an acknowledgement of the organization’s regulatory obligations under the ACA dealing with digital accessibility;
• describe the accessibility features of the digital technologies to which it pertains, including how to use these features;
• describe when obligations to conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard are not being met, and the alternative means of access the organization has put into place to remove any resulting accessibility barriers; and
• describe the organization’s plans and timelines for addressing conformance gaps with the CAN/ASC-EN Standard.

Publication deadlines for accessibility statement

• Federal public sector organizations, including those that are TSPs or BTOs, would be required to publish their first accessibility statement(s) for their web pages by June 1, 2027.
• Federal public sector organizations, excluding those that are TSPs or BTOs would be required to publish their first accessibility statements for their digital documents and mobile applications by June 1, 2028.
• All large businesses, including those that are TSPs or BTOs, would be required to publish their first accessibility statement(s) by June 1, 2028.
• Accessibility statements would also have to be updated at least once every 12 months from the date they were previously required to be published, i.e. one year from their first publication and every year thereafter.

Procurement requirements

As of June 1, 2028, when purchasing products or services related to their web pages, mobile applications and digital documents, federal public sector organizations and large businesses would be required to obtain an accessibility conformance assessment against the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. An accessibility conformance assessment describes which requirements from the CAN/ASC-EN Standard would apply to the digital technology being purchased, and whether the digital technology conforms to those applicable requirements or not and give the reasons why.

Limited application: Federal public sector organizations and large businesses that are TSPs would only be required to obtain a conformance assessment when purchasing products or services related to their employee-facing web pages.

This requirement would not apply to BTOs, whether in the public or private sectors.

Record retention

Federal public sector organizations and large and medium-sized businesses would be required to retain an electronic copy of the following:

• information about their digital accessibility training program for four years from the date the training was given;
• any accessibility conformance assessments and gap analysis against the CAN/ASC-EN Standard they produce or obtain that relates to their regulated digital technologies for four years from when it was completed; and
• any accessibility statement they publish for four years from when it was published.

Alternatives to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard

• If a new version of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard is published by ASC after these amendments come into force, organizations would have three years to ensure their regulated digital technologies conform to this new version of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. During this three-year period, organizations could satisfy the digital accessibility requirements under the proposed amendments by conforming to the most recent previous version of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard.
• If a new version of EN Standard is published after the most recent version of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard, organizations could satisfy the digital accessibility requirements under the proposed amendments by conforming to the new version of the EN Standard.

Administrative monetary penalties framework

Under the ACA, administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) are meant to promote compliance and not to punish. In accordance with the AMPs framework of the ACRs, non-conformance to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard for web pages, mobile applications and digital documents would be classified as “minor” violations. As well, failure to conform to the requirements for training, accessibility statements, procurement and retention of records, as applicable, would also be classified as “minor” violations.

Regulatory development

Consultation

ESDC’s early engagement on the development of future digital accessibility regulations was launched on November 24, 2022. It included the following four components:

• An online regulatory discussion paper on digital accessibility with two modules, published in November 2022. The first module asked respondents to identify barriers to using digital technologies in their daily lives. It also asked respondents about what digital technology areas are most important when it comes to removing barriers. The second module asked respondents about their current state and their future potential for conforming with digital accessibility standards.
• Six virtual group consultation meetings (between November 2022 and February 2023) with representatives from the disability community, Indigenous organizations, and federally regulated organizations, including federal government organizations, Crown corporations, parliamentary organizations, and industry.
• A Request for Information, published in November 2022 to solicit feedback from digital technologies’ vendors and suppliers on their state of readiness to comply with the EN Standard.
• Bilateral meetings and engagement with organizations to understand their circumstances and needs.

Sixty-nine organizations participated in early engagement activities. This included 15 disability organizations, 8 digital technologies vendors and service providers and 46 federally regulated organizations from both the public and private sectors. The participating disability organizations represented persons with diverse disabilities such as vision, auditory, physical, neurological and cognitive disabilities. Five individuals also provided comments on their own behalf.

ESDC received extensive feedback from participating stakeholders, some of which are highlighted here (additional information is available in the What we heard report). Overall, participants from both the disability community and federally regulated organizations highlighted the importance of accessible digital technologies. A brief summary of the views and feedback received and how they were reflected in the proposed amendments is provided here.

Feedback on digital technology areas

Participants from the disability community identified several digital accessibility barriers that negatively impact their economic and social well-being, such as inaccessible web content and digital documents. They highlighted digital barriers faced by persons with disabilities in the employment context that make it more difficult for persons with disabilities to find employment and progress in their careers. For example, job recruitment platforms, especially those developed in-house by employers, can present accessibility barriers for persons with disabilities, which can make it difficult or impossible for persons with disabilities to find and apply for jobs. Employees with disabilities also experience barriers when using internal websites, including web applications, and software in their daily work, which can limit their career progression and lead to frustration and higher rates of turnover.

In addition, participants from the disability community identified the accessibility of websites, digital documents (e.g. PDFs, Word documents) and mobile devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets), as priorities for immediate action. In their view, mobile devices are now ubiquitous, and digital documents are important both in the customer service and employment contexts.

Federally regulated organizations indicated that websites, web applications and digital documents are the most common means by which they interact with customers. These are also areas where organizations generally have more control over development processes, and in the case of web content, areas for which significant capacity and knowledge on accessible design already exist. In other digital technology areas, such as application and enterprise software and digital devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets), organizations said they can only purchase what is offered by major vendors or suppliers, and in certain cases, knowledge and capacity on accessible design is more limited. Considering this feedback from stakeholders, the proposed amendments to the ACRs would require that web pages, including web applications, as well as digital documents, conform to the CAN/ASC-EN standard.

While disability community stakeholders indicated accessibility barriers in using mobile devices, business that design, develop and produce these devices are generally outside the federal jurisdiction and therefore not under the authority of the ACA. Furthermore, the accessibility of mobile devices that are sold to consumers, such as smart phones offered by wireless service providers, falls under the jurisdiction of the CRTC, which already has requirements in this area. That said, further conversations revealed that the accessibility of the mobile environment is just as much about the accessibility of mobile applications as it is about mobile devices. As well, federally regulated organizations typically develop and publish their own customer-facing mobile applications, allowing for a greater degree of control over their design and development. Therefore, mobile applications would instead be included with the other digital technology areas (i.e. web pages, digital documents) that would have to conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. These three digital technology areas (i.e. web pages, mobile applications and digital documents) are the primary ways all Canadians, including persons with disabilities, interact with regulated organizations and over which regulated organizations typically have significant control.

More complex digital technology areas and areas that organizations have less control over (e.g. legacy digital technologies, application software, artificial intelligence) would be included in future ACA regulatory proposals dealing with digital accessibility.

Feedback on regulatory application and timelines

Federally regulated organizations indicated that digital technology builds are complex and require multi-year efforts through various stages: governance, planning and investment decision-making; procurement and purchasing; design, building and implementation; quality assurance and updates. Organizations can also be constrained by pre-existing, multi-year contracts with digital technology vendors which can limit what changes can be made to their digital technologies. The rapid evolution of digital technology was also highlighted as an implementation challenge.

While web accessibility expertise is well established across federal public and private sectors and within organizations of different sizes, ESDC heard there is less capacity and expertise for other digital technology areas, especially within businesses with more limited operational scale. Small businesses indicated they had little to no in-house capacity to implement and/or improve digital accessibility measures as they are generally completely dependent on external contractors to provide these services. Furthermore, a large majority of small businesses that fall under the federal jurisdiction are in industries with little to no interaction with the public and whose clients are typically other businesses.

Based on these factors, the proposed amendments were tailored to the capacity and realities of regulated organizations of different sizes, including whether they are in the public or private sector. More specifically, the proposed requirements would only apply to new digital technologies. Existing and legacy digital technology would be dealt with in future digital technologies regulations. Additionally, organizations would generally be provided with three years to conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. This would provide organizations with sufficient time to plan and adjust their internal operations and contractual relationships, minimizing disruptions to organizations’ ongoing operations. At the same time, the three-year lead time would ensure that the accessibility of organizations’ digital technologies improves over time.

As federal public sector organizations must already ensure their public-facing web pages are accessible, the deadline for their web pages, both public facing and employee facing, to conform with the CAN/ASC-EN Standard would be one year before that for the private sector.

Since mobile applications can have much longer lifespans than, for example, web pages, it is possible that organizations may not launch a new mobile application for many years after these amendments would come into force. To support greater awareness, capacity building and cultural change, public sector organizations and large businesses would also be required to assess the accessibility of their existing mobile applications as of June 1, 2028.

To address capacity concerns of medium-sized and small businesses

• Medium-sized business would face fewer requirements compared to large businesses. They would need to ensure their new web pages conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard; provide training to their staff involved in the development, maintenance or purchasing of digital technologies; and, comply with the proposed retention requirements. However, they would not be subject to requirements for mobile applications, digital documents, procurement and accessibility statements.
• Small businesses would be exempted from the proposed digital accessibility amendments. These businesses generally have the least technical, operational and financial capacity to comply with the digital accessibility requirements. The benefits of including these organizations are also very limited as they only account for a minority of employment in federally regulated sectors and generally do not serve the public.

Feedback on digital accessibility barriers and best practices

Participants from the disability community indicated the burden is often placed on persons with disabilities to demonstrate that a digital product or service is inaccessible. To address this issue, they indicated that the future digital accessibility regulations should aim to improve accountability and transparency.

Regulated organizations also highlighted several key challenges, such as reliance on third-party vendors and service providers who don’t always have incentives for creating accessible solutions.

Participants from the regulated organizations shared some of the best practices they use to remove digital accessibility barriers. These included raising awareness among senior leaders and offering accessibility training for IT staff.

Considering this feedback, the proposed amendments would require regulated organizations to provide training to their employees involved in the purchasing, development, or maintenance of digital technology. This would help to build capacity on digital accessibility within organizations and equip their employees with knowledge and skills to deal with external contractors and to plan future digital accessibility improvements.

As well, the proposed amendments would require public sector organizations and large businesses to obtain accessibility conformance assessments when purchasing products or services related to their regulated web pages, mobile applications and digital documents. This would ensure that organizations understand the accessibility of the digital technologies they purchase, where the gaps are and provide them with the information they need to plan for future accessibility improvements. Digital technology vendors would also be encouraged to understand and improve the accessibility of their products and services.

The proposed amendments would also require public sector organizations and large business to publish accessibility statements covering their regulated digital technologies. Among other requirements, these accessibility statements would have to clearly identify regulated digital technologies that do not conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard; alternative means of access that organizations have put into place to address barriers caused by nonconforming digital technologies; and, their plans for closing these conformance gaps. This would encourage transparency and accountability and would provide persons with disabilities the information they need to use the alternative means of access.

Feedback on choice of accessibility standard

Digital technology vendor representatives indicated that they have been testing products and services against globally recognized accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Revised 508 Standard of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act and the EN Standard.

Most digital technology vendors and suppliers recommended that digital accessibility regulations be based on the requirements of the EN Standard. They indicated that the EN Standard is the most up to date and comprehensive digital accessibility standard. They also noted that the harmonization of digital accessibility standards across jurisdictions would promote innovation and interoperability. In their views, adopting the EN Standard would be beneficial for Canadian technology companies as they could build once and sell globally.

In May 2024, ASC adopted the EN Standard as a National Standard of Canada, namely CAN/ASC-EN Standard. Considering ASC’s decision to adopt the EN Standard and feedback from digital technology vendors and suppliers, the CAN/ASC-EN Standard would be incorporated by reference on an ambulatory basis in the proposed amendments.

Feedback on alternative means of accessibility

Disability stakeholders and regulated organizations flagged that it may not be reasonable or realistic to always expect 100% conformance 100% of the time with any digital accessibility standard. They flagged the importance of providing alternative ways for people to access information or to perform transactions to ensure equitable access for persons with disabilities for instances where conformance with an accessibility standard is not feasible.

The proposed amendments would therefore require organizations to put into place alternative means of access to address barriers caused by digital technologies that do not conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard.

Modern treaty obligations and Indigenous engagement and consultation

The ACA applies to any organization that operates a work or carries on an undertaking or business that is within the legislative authority of Parliament. A First Nations band council, when acting in its core functions, is generally considered to be operating a work or carrying on an undertaking or business that is within the legislative authority of Parliament. An organization created by a band council may also be considered to fall within this category depending on the nature of the organization, operations, and habitual activities. Therefore, the ACA and the regulations under the ACA apply to First Nations band councils, and potentially certain organizations created by them. However, the Government of Canada committed that the ACA would not immediately be applied to First Nations band councils to allow time to engage them on the application of the ACA.

During the Accessible Canada consultations in 2016–2017, funding was provided to three Indigenous organizations to engage their members and communities on accessibility legislation. In addition, modern treaty holders were informed of the intention of the Government to develop legislation. Government officials met in person with 11 Yukon modern treaty holders and reached out to all 28 modern treaty holders by letter.

In 2019, one-time grant funding was provided to the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) and the British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society (BCANDS) to engage their membership on possible approaches to the application of the ACA to band councils. The reports received highlighted that First Nations communities on reserve do not currently have the capacity or expertise to comply with the ACA and that the ACA is not aligned with the First Nations worldview of disability. In 2023, the AFN was funded to engage their membership on accessibility barriers in First Nations communities and preferences for a legislative or regulatory tailored approach. This work uncovered preferences for distinct First Nations accessibility legislation.

Beginning in spring 2024, the Department met with officials from the AFN, and continues to meet Indigenous stakeholders to discuss the current exemption for First Nations band councils and the proposed digital accessibility amendments. During the Canada Gazette, Part I consultations, ESDC will continue to work with National Indigenous Organizations (NIOs) to arrange for targeted communications with NIOs and other Indigenous organizations.

Feedback to date indicates that First Nations face pressures in health and infrastructure on reserve; however, there is a desire to advance accessibility for First Nations persons with disabilities. Additionally, there is a need to build capacity to support the effective identification and prioritization of accessibility needs, and for funding to remove accessibility barriers on reserve. There is also a significant gap in data regarding accessibility barriers and priorities for First Nations.

Given the complexity and scope of these issues, the process to engage and co-develop a tailored approach to the application of ACA on reserve is anticipated to take several years. More specifically, this includes sufficient time to continue engaging First Nations partners and other Indigenous stakeholders on accessibility barriers faced by Indigenous persons with disabilities, as well as related concerns, and to identify an approach for tailoring the ACA. It would also include time to implement this approach, such as enacting new legislation, legislative amendments, developing new regulations and/or standing up new structures.

As such, to provide sufficient time and space for this necessary work, the current exemption from ACA planning and reporting requirements would be extended to December 31, 2033, and First Nations band councils would also be exempted from the proposed digital accessibility requirements of these amendments until that date.

Instrument choice

Digital accessibility standards have existed since as early as 1999 when the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 were first published. Conformance to digital accessibility standards has mostly been voluntary across the globe. Due to this, persons with disabilities continue to have inequitable access to programs and services.

Most countries have enacted, or are enacting, regulations for digital accessibility, as voluntary conformance has failed to provide equitable opportunities for persons with disabilities. During consultations with disability stakeholders, participants indicated that digital accessibility regulations would promote a greater commitment to accessibility.

In other jurisdictions such as the United States, disability stakeholders have emphasized the need to maintain and strengthen digital accessibility regulations to enable equitable access to telecommunications and information services for persons with disabilities.^{footnote 3}

As such, voluntary or self-regulatory mechanisms are unlikely to be an effective option to remove and prevent digital accessibility barriers and realize a barrier-free Canada. Hence, new digital accessibility requirements would be introduced via an amendment to the ACRs, which would incorporate by reference the most recent version of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard.

The CAN/ASC-EN Standard is technology-neutral and largely outcome-based. This means it does not favour one kind of technology over another, nor does it set rigid requirements for how digital technology must be designed. Instead, it focuses on the desired outcome, which is that the digital technology is accessible for persons with disabilities. More specifically, more than 80% of the requirements under the CAN/ASC-EN Standard, applicable to the digital accessibility components being regulated in this proposal, are outcome-based. As a result, the CAN/ASC-EN Standard allows for flexibility and innovation when it comes to designing accessible digital technologies.

Incorporation by reference

The CAN/ASC-EN Standard, which would be incorporated in the proposal, is the most comprehensive digital accessibility standard as it covers multiple digital components such as websites, digital documents, stationary digital technology, software, and biometrics, among others. The CAN/ASC-EN Standard is also publicly available in both English and French and at no cost. Given that digital technology is constantly changing and evolving, it is necessary to incorporate the CAN/ASC-EN Standard on an ambulatory basis to ensure regulatory requirements are up to date. This would ensure that the digital technologies used by regulated organizations remain accessible in the future. When ASC updates the CAN/ASC-EN Standard, organizations would have to ensure all their regulated digital technology area conform with the updated version of the standard.

ESDC regularly communicates with ASC regarding their standards development work. To ensure that regulated organizations are kept well informed of potential future updates to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard, ESDC would also promote opportunities to participate in ASCs technical committees related to this standard in collaboration with industry associations representing federally regulated businesses. As well, ESDC would inform organizations when ASC conducts consultations regarding new potential versions of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard, and when new versions of the standard are ultimately adopted by ASC. ESDC would also monitor future versions of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard to ensure they remain within the scope of the enabling authorities provided by the ACA.

Regulatory analysis

Benefits and costs

The cost benefit analysis has been done over 10 periods of 12 months (2025 to 2034) using a 7% discount rate.

Overall, based on the projected time frame of the analysis (10 periods of 12 months), the present value of costs to regulated organizations is estimated to total $309.95 million in 2022 constant dollars, with an annualized average cost of $44.13 million. The present value of total benefits is estimated to be $1,209.78 million in 2022 constant dollars, with an annualized average benefit of $172.25 million. As a result, the present value net benefit is estimated to be $899.83 million in 2022 constant dollars, with an annualized average benefit of $128.12 million.

A complete cost-benefit analysis report is available upon request by email to the Accessible Canada Directorate at ESDC.

Impacted stakeholders

The proposed amendments are expected to primarily benefit working age (15 to 65 years old) persons with disabilities in Canada. Based on current data, it is projected that by 2025, there will be over 10 million Canadians with disabilities and 21.95 million Canadians without disabilities who are 15 years or older, all of whom would benefit from the proposed amendments.

The proposed amendments are expected to apply to approximately 183 federal public sector organizations, 199 large businesses, and 719 medium-sized businesses beginning in period 1. The proposed amendments would also apply to 112 First Nations band councils beginning in period 10. Federally regulated organizations will incur costs towards making their digital technologies accessible; however, they are also expected to benefit from the proposed amendments. A total of 1.47 million employees of federally regulated organizations are also expected to benefit from the proposed amendments.

Data sources

Data regarding persons with disabilities were sourced from the 2017^{footnote 4} and 2022^{footnote 5} Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD) and other related reports published by Government of Canada. Due to very limited availability of data in Canada, the Revised Section 508 Final Regulatory Impact Analysis^{footnote 6} and the United States Government’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Organizations^{footnote 7} were used to infer costs and benefits related to the different digital technology areas. As well, ESDC sought feedback from federally regulated public and private sector organizations on key costing assumptions via a questionnaire.

Baseline and regulatory scenarios

Baseline scenario

Digital technology accessibility standards have existed since 1999 with the introduction of WCAG 1.0. Therefore, in the baseline scenario, it is assumed that regulated organizations are already conforming to varying degrees with accessibility standards, depending on their size and sector. As well, due to growing awareness and the trend towards accessibility, the digital technologies of regulated organizations are expected to generally improve over time, even in the absence of regulations. The improvement is expected to vary, depending on size and sector. An overview of the assumptions used for the baseline scenario is presented below.

Federal public sector organizations

Due to pre-existing mandatory Treasury Board (TB) accessibility requirements for public-facing web pages, digital documents, mobile applications and procurement processes, it is assumed that federal public sector organizations would be fully compliant with TB requirements by period 10, if they are not already. This would make them fully compliant with the requirements for these areas in the proposed amendments.

Based on ESDC’s internal data, the internal web pages of federal public organizations are assumed to be partially compliant with accessibility requirements, and while improvements are expected over the time frame of the analysis even without regulation, internal web pages would still not be fully compliant by period 10. As well, since federal public sector entities must already comply with mandatory TB accessibility requirements for certain digital technologies, ESDC assumes that half of employees involved in the development, maintenance or purchasing of digital technologies have already received training on digital accessibility.

As a result, the incremental compliance costs for federal public sector organizations would only be for the accessibility of employee-facing web pages, conformance assessment of existing mobile applications, providing accessibility training and document retention.

Federally regulated private sector organizations

Currently, Canada does not have digital technology accessibility regulations for federally regulated private sector organizations that are not TSPs or BTOs. However, large businesses that serve the public have a financial incentive to provide a better and more accessible customer experience, and also have more resources to do so. ESDC is therefore assuming that the public-facing web pages and mobile applications of large businesses currently have some degree of conformance to accessibility standards, and this is assumed to increase modestly by period 10 without regulations; however, they would not be fully compliant. Similarly, it is assumed that large businesses have already provided some accessibility training to a small portion of relevant employees to support their current level of accessibility conformance, and this is assumed to increase modestly by period 10 even without the proposed amendments; however, again, only a portion of implicated employees would receive training.

The current and future conformance rates for the web pages of medium-sized businesses are assumed to be half of that of large businesses without regulation, as their capacity and financial resources are limited, compared to large businesses.

For all other areas that would be regulated (i.e. internal web pages, digital documents, procurement processes), large and medium-sized businesses are assumed to have zero baseline conformance and are not expected to make any progress by period 10 without the proposed amendments.

The CTA and CRTC currently have regulations, policies and instruments that set digital technology accessibility requirements for TSPs and BTOs, respectively. It is therefore expected that federal public and private sectors TSPs and BTOs have some existing internal capacity and knowledge of digital technology accessibility conformance, better positioning them to comply with the proposed amendments compared to other private sector organizations. As a result, large and medium-sized businesses that are TSPs or BTOs are assumed to currently meet some level of conformance with the proposed training requirement, which is expected to increase by period 10, even without the proposed amendments.

First Nations band councils’ businesses

The proposed amendments would apply to First Nations band councils’ businesses with 100 or more employees only in the final period of the analysis (period 10). As a result, ESDC has estimated the costs for First Nations band councils for the final period only.

Regulatory scenario

Under the regulatory scenario, the requirements of the proposed amendments will differ for regulated organizations based on whether they are part of the federal public or private sector and their number of employees. Table 5 details the requirements for different organizations.

Federal public sector organizations are expected to be fully compliant with the proposed regulatory requirements related to public facing web pages, mobile applications, digital documents and procurement. There would be some incremental compliance costs above the baseline compliance rates for these organizations in the areas of employee facing web pages, testing of existing mobile applications and employee training.

For the regulated private sector organizations, ESDC is assuming that regulated entities would fully comply with all proposed regulatory requirements that would apply to them. The regulatory scenario therefore considered the incremental compliance rates to achieve the full compliance from the assumed baseline compliance rates. Large businesses would experience higher costs than medium-sized businesses because of the greater number of requirements that would apply to them.

Private sector TSPs and BTOs would experience lower costs because of their pre-existing internal capacity on digital accessibility and the fact that fewer proposed requirements would apply to them.

First Nations band councils would have to begin complying with the proposed amendments beginning in period 10. ESDC assumed the cost implications for them would be the same as that of medium-sized businesses.

Cost-benefit statement

• Number of years: 10 (10 periods of 12 months, 2025 to 2034)
• Price year: 2022
• Present value base year: period 1 (2025)
• Discount rate: 7%

Table 1: Summary of monetized benefits ($M)

Impacted stakeholder	Description of benefit	Base year	Other relevant years (2028, nominal)	Final year (2034, nominal)	Total present value	Annualized value
Federal public sector organizations	Increased productivity of employees with disabilities, time savings from telephone calls and in-person visits, etc.	0.00	$1.02	$2.06	$5.54	$0.79
	Federal private sector organizations	0.00	$45.63	$98.14	$270.98	$38.58
First Nations band councils	None (applicable for 2034 only, no benefit is expected to realize)	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Canadians with disabilities	Time savings due to accessible information and services	0.00	$91.48	$217.57	$544.33	$77.50
Canadians without disabilities	Time savings due to accessible information and services	0.00	$70.53	$145.97	$388.94	$55.38
All stakeholders	Total benefits	0.00	$208.66	$463.73	1,209.78	$172.25

Table 2: Summary of monetized costs ($M)

Impacted stakeholder	Description of cost	Base year	Other relevant years (2028, nominal)	Final year (2034, nominal)	Total present value	Annualized value
Federal public sector organizations	Costs for developing/testing accessible digital technologies, training of employees, procurement, administration, and compliance	3.87	$5.66	$5.72	$37.37	$5.32
Federal private sector organizations		1.34	$47.50	$52.12	$272.58	$38.81
First Nations band councils		0.00	0.00	$0.05	$0.02	$0.00
Canadians with disabilities		0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Canadians without disabilities		0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
All stakeholders	Total costs	$5.21	$53.15	$57.88	$309.95	$44.13

Table 3: Summary of monetized benefits and costs ($M)

Impact	Base year	Other relevant years (2028, nominal)	Final year (2034, nominal)	Total present value	Annualized value
Total benefits	0.00	$208.66	$473.76	$1,209.78	$172.25
Total costs	($5.21)	$53.15	$57.88	$309.95	$44.13
Net impact	($5.21)	$155.50	$415.88	$899.83	$128.12

Monetized benefits

The proposed amendments would require regulated organizations to ensure that any new regulated digital technology area (i.e. web pages, mobile applications, digital documents) they publish beginning in either period 3 or 4 (24 to 36 months after registration) conforms to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. Organizations would not be required to ensure their pre-existing digital technologies in these three areas conforms to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard.

As a result, the accessibility of regulated organizations’ digital technologies would gradually improve over time as a growing proportion of organizations’ web pages, mobile applications and digital documents would conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard, beginning in periods 3 and 4. Consequentially, the benefits of the proposed amendments would gradually increase over the 10 periods of the analysis, starting in periods 3 and 4.

It is estimated that the PV of total incremental benefits of the proposed amendments over 10 periods of 12 months would be $1,209.78 million in 2022 constant dollars, with an annualized average benefit of $172.25 million.

Benefits estimation

Benefits to persons with disabilities

Research and ESDC’s consultations with persons with disabilities (PDF) suggest that due to inaccessible web pages, mobile applications and digital documents of regulated organizations, persons with disabilities spend more time finding information and accessing programs and services.

As the accessibility of regulated organizations’ digital technology improves because of the proposed amendments, persons with disabilities would experience fewer barriers when using organizations’ web pages, mobile applications and digital documents. Persons with disabilities would consequentially experience fewer barriers when applying for programs, services and jobs and conducting transactions online.

ESDC is therefore estimating the benefits of the proposed amendments to persons with disabilities in three categories:

• time savings from reduced time to find information, access programs and services, and apply for jobs, on organizations’ web pages, mobile applications, and digital documents;
• time savings from fewer in-person visits to regulated organizations; and,
• time savings from fewer telephone calls to regulated organizations.

The value of time saved is taken at the average wage rate. ESDC estimates that this time savings would increase every period (beginning in period 4) as a growing number of web pages, mobile applications and digital documents become subject to the requirements under the proposed amendments.

Overall, the PV of benefits for persons with disabilities is estimated to be $544.33 million over 10 periods of 12 months in 2022 constant dollars, with an annualized average benefit of $77.50 million. An explanation of the assumptions for each of the three benefit areas for persons with disabilities is provided below.

(a) Time savings from easier browsing of accessible web pages, mobile applications and digital documents

ESDC is assuming that, beginning in period 4, persons with disabilities would each save 2.50 minutes per year, on average, which would increase to 5 minutes in period 10, as a growing proportion of regulated organizations’ web pages, mobile applications and digital documents conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. ESDC’s time savings estimates were based on those identified by the United States federal government’s Revised Section 508 RIAS (2017).

(b) Time savings from having to make fewer in-person visits

Due to improved accessibility of new and updated web pages, mobile applications and digital documents, persons with disabilities would be able to conduct a larger proportion of their transactions online and would have a reduced need to physically go to organizations’ service locations. ESDC is assuming that this time savings would be 20 minutes per year, on average, for persons with disabilities, beginning in period 4 and increase to 40 minutes by period 10, as a growing proportion of regulated organizations’ web pages, mobile applications and digital documents conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. ESDC’s time savings estimates were based on those identified by the United States federal government’s 2023 proposed changes to the Section 508 regulations (PDF).

(c) Time savings from having to make fewer telephone calls

Due to improved accessibility of new and updated web pages, mobile applications and digital documents, persons with disabilities would be able to conduct a larger proportion of their transactions online and thus save time from having to make fewer telephone calls to regulated organizations. This includes time spent being on hold and time needed for completing transactions or obtaining information. ESDC is assuming that persons with disabilities would, on average, save 2.5 minutes per year from having to make fewer telephone calls, beginning in period 4 and increase to 5 minutes in period 10. ESDC’s time savings estimates were based on those identified by the United States federal government’s 2023 proposed changes to the Section 508 regulations (PDF).

Benefits to persons without disabilities

Accessible web pages and other digital technologies provide a better user experience to all users, not just persons with disabilities, and therefore, would also benefit persons without disabilities. Persons without disabilities are therefore also expected to save time from easier browsing, fewer phone calls and in-person visits. It is assumed that these time savings would in similar ways but be considerably lower compared to persons with disabilities: 28% of that of persons with disabilities which is based on the analysis from the United States federal government’s 2023 proposed changes to the Section 508 regulations (PDF).

Overall, the PV of benefits for persons without disabilities is expected to be $388.94 million in 2022 constant dollars, with an annualized average benefit of $55.38 million.

Benefits to federally regulated organizations

Regulated organizations are expected to benefit from improvements to their digital technology accessibility in the following ways:

• increased productivity of employees with disabilities;
• reduced demand and workload on organizations’ call centres and physical service delivery locations, allowing these resources to be deployed for other productive uses; and,
• increased job satisfaction among employees with disabilities resulting in reduced employee turnover costs.

The benefits for regulated organizations would begin in period 4 and grow over time as a growing number of web pages, mobile applications and digital documents become subject to the proposed amendments.

Overall, the total PV of benefits for regulated organizations over 10 periods of 12 months is expected to be $276.52 million, and the annualized benefit is expected to be $39.37 million. An explanation of the assumptions for each of the three benefit areas for regulated organizations is provided below.

(a) Increased productivity of employees with disabilities

ESDC estimates that in 2025, there will be 32 627 persons with disabilities employed in the federal public sector and 33 061 employees with disabilities employed in federally regulated private sector organizations with 100 or more employees. When digital work tools are inaccessible, employees with disabilities require more time to complete their daily tasks. Therefore, providing an accessible digital technology-enabled work environment, particularly internal employee-facing web pages, is expected to increase the productivity and efficiency of employees with disabilities, ultimately benefiting their employers.

Based on the Revised Section 508 (2017) RIAS, it is estimated that employees with disabilities spend around 20 hours per week online (both on internal and external websites) and lose about 15% of their work time due to web inaccessibility. It is projected that starting in period 4 when the proposed amendments would apply to internal employee-facing web pages of private sector organizations, 1.25% of this lost time (1.88 hours) would be recovered. The time savings are expected to increase each year to reach 2.5% (3.75 hours) by period 10 as a growing number of internal web pages become subject to the proposed requirements.

The PV of benefits to regulated organizations from increased productivity of their employees with disabilities is expected to be $14.33 million in 2022 constant dollars, with an annualized average benefit of $2.04 million.

(b) Reduced workload for organizations’ call centres and in-person service locations

Due to improved accessibility of web pages, mobile applications and digital documents, persons with disabilities would have a reduced need to call regulated organizations or visit their physical service locations to obtain assistance with tasks that could be completed online. As a result, organizations could expect to see a reduction in call volumes at their call centres and fewer client visits to their physical service locations. Regulated organizations would therefore be able to serve the same customer base with fewer resources, which would free up resources that could be deployed to other productive activities.

The benefits from reduced telephone calls and in-person visits are only considered in cases where the regulations would apply to public-facing web pages, mobile applications and digital documents. As such, this benefit is estimated only for private sector organizations. The time savings for regulated organizations are calculated as a portion of the time savings for persons with disabilities from reduced telephone calls and in-person visits. Based on the United States federal government’s 2023 proposed changes to the Section 508 regulations (PDF), ESDC is assuming that due to the decreased workload for call centres and physical service locations, regulated organizations would save 7.5 minutes per year (5 minutes from in-person services and 2.5 minutes from telephone services) for every client with a disability they serve in period 4 which would increase to 15 minutes by period 10.

The PV of benefits for regulated organizations from reduced telephone calls and in-person visits are estimated to be $259.73 million over 10 periods of 12 months in 2022 constant dollars, with an annualized average benefit of $36.98 million.

(c) Reduced employee turnover

Providing an accessible digital technology-enabled work environment, particularly internal employee-facing web pages, would give employees with disabilities a greater sense of control over their work environment, reducing their levels of stress and ultimately lead to reduced rates of employee turnover.

When an employee leaves their job, the cost of turnover would be that of replacing the employee. Replacing an employee results in numerous direct and indirect costs, including recruitment, training, increased supervision and lower productivity during the new employee’s early years on the job. Overall, this is estimated at 50% of annual salary for entry-level positions, 125% for mid-level positions and over 200% for senior executives.

Based on research commissioned by ESDC, it is assumed that the turnover rate among persons with disabilities in federally regulated public and private organizations is 6%. As a result of the proposed amendments, it is assumed that the overall turnover costs to regulated organizations would be reduced by 0.25% starting in period 4 and the turnover cost reduction would grow to 0.50% in period 10. The turnover cost is estimated to be 1.25 times of the average annual salary or equivalent to that of a mid-level employee.

The PV of benefits for regulated organizations from reduced turnover of employees with disabilities over 10 periods of 12 months is expected to be $2.46 million in 2022 constant dollars, with an annualized average benefit of $350,411.43.

Table 4: Summary of monetized benefits of digital technologies accessibility ($M)

Benefit area	PV of benefits over 10 periods of 12 months (in 2022 constant dollars)	Annualized benefits (in 2022 constant dollars)
Benefits to persons with disabilities	$544.33	$77.50
Benefits to persons without disabilities	$388.94	$55.38
Benefits to federally regulated organizations	$276.52	$39.37
Total	$1,209.78	$172.25

Monetized costs: Cost estimation

The proposed amendments would have different requirements for regulated organizations based on their sector and size, and therefore different cost impacts on regulated organizations based on these same factors. The costs are estimated based on the compliance timelines and incremental compliance rates above those in the baseline scenario for the different requirements under the proposed amendments.

Overall, the total PV of incremental costs of the proposed amendments over 10 periods of 12 months is estimated to be $309.95 million in 2022 constant dollars, with an average annualized cost of $44.13 million. A breakdown of this cost is presented in Table 6 and a description of each cost component is provided in the sections below.

Cost areas and impacted organizations

Federally regulated organizations would incur costs pertaining to the development of new and updated web pages, new mobile applications and new and updated digital documents that conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. As well, regulated organizations would incur costs related to training on digital accessibility for relevant employees, conformance assessments when buying products and services related to their web pages, mobile applications and digital documents, publishing accessibility statements for applicable digital technology areas, and administrative costs for retention of certain records.

First Nations Band Councils would receive a time-limited exemption from the proposed regulatory requirements that would expire on December 31, 2033. This implies that out of the time frame of 10 periods of 12 months for this cost-benefit analysis, the proposed requirements would only apply to First Nations Band Councils during period 10.

Table 5 presents an overview of regulatory requirements and their application to regulated organizations, considering their sector and size.

Table 5: Digital accessibility requirements, by regulated organizations

Cost area	Organizations that would be affected	Number of affected organizations (2025) table b5 note *
Development of accessible public-facing web pages	Federal public sector organizations that are not TSPs or BTOs Large businesses that are not TSPs or BTOs Medium-sized businesses that are not TSPs or BTOs	762
Development of accessible internal employee-facing web pages	All federal public sector organizations All large businesses All medium-sized businesses	1 102
Development of accessible public-facing mobile applications	Federal public sector organizations that are not TSPs or BTOs Large businesses that are not TSPs or BTOs	298
Development of accessible public-facing digital documents	Federal public sector organizations that are not TSPs or BTOs Large businesses that are not TSPs or BTOs	298
Obtaining and interpreting conformance assessment when purchasing digital technology products and services	Federal public sector organizations that are not BTOs Large businesses that are BTOs	341
Digital accessibility training for relevant employees	All federal public sector organizations All large businesses All medium-sized businesses	1 102
Publishing accessibility statements	All federal public sector organizations All large businesses	383
Administrative costs — Retention of records	All federal public sector organizations All large businesses All medium-sized businesses	1 102
Table b5 note(s) Table b5 note * ESDC’s projection based on internally sourced Labor Program Administrative Data. Return to table b5 note * referrer

A total of 1 102 federally regulated organizations as of 2025 are expected to be impacted by the proposed amendments. As well, 122 First Nations band councils having 100 or more employees are expected to be impacted by the proposed amendments in period 10 (2034).

Key costing assumptions relating to digital technology areas

Cost data regarding conformance with the EN Standard is very limited in Canadian context. However, since the EN Standard (which ASC adopted in whole and without modification as the CAN/ASC-EN Standard) was designed to closely align with the Section 508 regulations in the U.S., the cost parameters of web development, audiovisual production and digital documents from the 2017 U.S. Revised Section 508 RIAS were considered equivalent to those for the proposed amendments.

Compliance cost per employee was used as a proxy to estimate compliance costs for regulated entities as there is a relationship between the number of employees and the size of an organization’s operating budget, which includes spending on digital technology, and direct data on digital technology budgets is very limited. The U.S. cost figures from the 2017 RIAS were calculated on a per employee basis and then transposed to annual average cost per employee for Canadian federally regulated organizations by adjusting for currency exchange rates and inflation.

Based on findings from a 2019 U.S. study^{footnote 8} also cited by the U.S. 2023 NPRM, the average development cost of a new mobile application is assumed to be Can$145,000.00. While the 2019 study also argued that the cost to build an accessible mobile application from the ground up is the same as that of an inaccessible application, ESDC took a more conservative approach and assumed it would cost 10% more to build an accessible mobile application. Based on internal research conducted by ESDC, the average cost of accessibility conformance testing of existing mobile applications is assumed to be approximately 15% of the application’s development cost, slightly higher than that of a new application.

For digital documents, the cost estimation was based on the compliance cost for electronic documents and other electronic content from the 2017 U.S. Revised Section 508 RIAS. The figures were transposed to annual average cost per employee for Canadian federally regulated organizations using the same methodology used for web content. Since the U.S. revised Section 508 regulations apply to both external and internal documents, whereas the proposed amendments would only regulate external documents, ESDC assumed that external documents make up 5% of all documents produced by regulated organizations and adjusted the cost estimate for digital documents accordingly.

Compliance costs for training

Based on the questionnaire responses received from federally regulated organizations, ESDC is assuming that, on an average, 10% of regulated organizations’ workforce would require training. As well, these employees would require 5 hours of training in each of periods 2 and 3, totalling 10 hours. ESDC is assuming that an additional 1 hour of recurring and refresher training would be needed for relevant employees every year after period 3. ESDC is including the value of the wages paid to an employee during the time they would be receiving training as part of training compliance costs and is considering the cost of accessibility training to be $80 per hour, based on internal research.

Compliance costs for accessibility statements and administrative costs for record retention

Regulated organizations would have compliance costs for the preparation and publication of accessibility statements related to the digital technology areas that would be regulated by the proposed amendments. Organizations would also have administrative costs to retain records pertaining to training and conformance assessments.

ESDC used the same methodology as its previous planning and reporting regulations,^{footnote 9} to estimate these two cost areas. The estimate assumes that on average, it would take an average time of 37.50 hours for a manager to prepare and publish an organization’s accessibility plan. This is assumed to be the same for preparing and publishing an organization’s accessibility statement.

Regarding the retention of records, it was assumed that an entity, regardless of their size and business sector, would have to spend 20 minutes per year on average on record retention. Since records would have to be retained electronically, the cost of storage is assumed to be negligible. These retention costs are assumed to be similar for the proposed amendments.

Enforcement costs for the CHRC

The Office of the Accessibility Commissioner at the CHRC would incur costs to enforce the proposed amendments. The estimated enforcement costs provided by CHRC factors salaries for new employees (PV of $5.75 million over 10 periods in 2022 constant dollars). There would be additional costs for licensing of software to assess conformance of digital technologies to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard (PV of $2.15 million over 10 periods in 2022 constant dollars) and a one-time enabling architecture cost (PV of $380,000 over 10 periods in 2022 constant dollars). The PV of enforcement costs is estimated to be $8.27 million over 10 period of 12 months in 2022 constant dollars, with an annualized average cost of $1.18 million.

Table 6: Summary of incremental costs imposed by the proposed amendments ($M)

Cost area	PV of costs over 10 period of 12 months (in 2022 constant dollars)	Annualized cost (in 2022 constant dollars)
Development of accessible public-facing and internal employee-facing web pages	$74.34	$10.58
Development and testing of public-facing mobile applications	$10.52	$1.50
Development of accessible public-facing digital documents	$29.77	$4.24
Obtaining and interpreting conformance assessment when purchasing digital technology products and services	$55.56	$7.91
Digital accessibility training for relevant employees	$128.18	$18.25
Publishing accessibility statements	$3.24	$0.46
Retention of records	$0.07	$0.01
Enforcement by CHRC	$8.27	$1.18
Total	$309.95	$44.13

Non-monetary and qualitative impacts

The proposed amendments are expected to have the following non-monetary positive impacts for persons with disabilities:

• increased independence, autonomy and privacy;
• increased social participation;
• improved employment outcomes; and
• improved quality of life through reduced anxiety.

In addition, since persons with disabilities would require less assistance when interacting with federally regulated organizations, persons without disabilities who provide unpaid caregiving services or assistance to persons with disabilities, such as family members and friends, would also be expected to benefit from reduced caregiving responsibilities.

Regulated organizations would also experience a number of benefits that cannot be monetized:

• increased customer base due to greater inclusion of persons with disabilities; and
• increased labour force availability as more persons with disabilities would apply for jobs and work effectively due to accessible work tools.

Digital technology vendors and suppliers would also benefit from greater standardization of accessible design practices for digital technologies as they would be able to develop accessible solutions for both domestic and international markets and be able to take advantage of accessible digital technology products and services developed internationally.

Small business lens

Small businesses, defined as federally regulated private sector organizations with 99 employees and less, would not be subject to any of the requirements being put forward in the proposed amendments. As a result, this proposal would not result in cost impacts on small businesses and therefore the small business lens does not apply.

One-for-one rule

The one-for-one rule applies since there would be an incremental increase in the administrative burden on businesses, and the proposed amendments are considered an “in” under the rule. No regulatory titles are repealed or introduced.

Under the proposed amendments, regulated organizations would be required to retain for four years:

• documents pertaining to accessibility conformance assessment and gaps analysis against the CAN/ASC-EN Standard relating to regulated digital technology;
• information regarding their training on digital accessibility; and
• their accessibility statements (which cover their regulated ICT).

The estimated costs of the administrative burden were based on the methodology used by ESDC for the previous planning and reporting regulations under the ACA. The methodology examined estimates of similar regulatory requirements (notification, retention) from different federal departments and subject matter experts. Incremental administrative costs relate to the time spent by employees on activities related to the retention of records. ESDC assumes that every private sector organization would have to spend 20 minutes of one employee’s time per year to comply with the retention of records requirements. This time requirement is monetized using the average wage rate in federally regulated sectors, including overhead costs and non-wage benefits.

The proposed amendments would apply to all federally regulated public sector organizations, as well as federally regulated private sector organizations with 100 and more employees. However, the one-for-one rule would only apply to private sector organizations with 100 and more employees starting from period 1 (ESDC estimates 1 102 such organizations in period 1) for the administrative costs related to retention of records.

• Current initiative is an IN
• Unit of measure: constant 2012 Canadian dollars
• Present value, base year: 2012

Table 7: Administrative cost to the regulated organizations

Organization type	Annualized administrative cost per organization over 10 period of 12 months (in 2012 constant dollars)
Cost per organization	$5
Total administrative costs for all concerned regulated organizations	$4,904

Regulatory cooperation and alignment

The proposed amendments are not related to any commitment under a formal regulatory cooperation forum. That said, the proposed amendments would align with similar regulations in the other jurisdictions across the globe and within Canada.

Currently, three digital accessibility standards are mostly prevalent as part of digital accessibility regulations in other jurisdictions — the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Revised 508 Standards of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act and the Harmonised European Standard Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services (EN 301 549) (PDF). The EN Standard integrates WCAG 2.1 Level AA and is closely aligned with the Revised 508 Standards in the U.S.

Within Canada, Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba have developed digital technologies specific regulations or standards based on WCAG. Other provinces and territories refer to WCAG in their current/forthcoming standards or guidelines.

By incorporating by reference the most recent version of the CAN/ASC-EN Standard, the proposed amendments, once finalized and published, would minimize regulatory differences with other jurisdictions and Canada’s major trading partners.

Effects on the environment

In accordance with the Cabinet Directive on Strategic Environmental and Economic Assessment, a preliminary scan concluded that a strategic environmental assessment is not required because these proposed amendments have no environmental impact.

Gender-based analysis plus

The proposed amendments would benefit Canadians, particularly persons with disabilities, by improving the accessibility of web pages, digital documents, and mobile applications. By removing digital accessibility barriers, it is expected that many daily tasks and services requiring access to web pages, digital documents, and mobile applications of federally regulated entities (such as online banking, applying for government programs or navigating a federal government website) would be easier for people to perform.

There are many complex and intersecting factors which affect the extent to which certain populations would benefit from the proposed amendments. The following GBA+ considerations related to Canadians with disabilities were identified:

Age: According to the 2023 Canadian Internet Use Survey, 95% of Canadians aged 15 years and older used the Internet in 2022, an increase of 3% from 2020. The largest increases were among older Canadians, with over 8 in 10 (82.6%) seniors (those aged 65 years and older) using the Internet in 2022, up 6.3% from 2020. For those aged 75 years and older, the increase was even larger: up by 10 percentage points to 72%.^{footnote 10} It is anticipated that seniors in Canada who use digital technologies would benefit more from the proposed amendments compared to most other age groups. This is because the rate of disability (as well as the complexity and interaction between disabilities) increases with age. For example, nearly half (42%) of seniors with a disability had four or more co-occurring disabilities, while similar or small proportions of youth (43%) and working-age adults (36%) were most likely to have two or three disabilities.^{footnote 11}

That said, younger Canadians are also expected to benefit as they commonly obtain information and conduct transactions online. For example, 95% of Canadians aged 25 to 44 conducted their shopping online in 2020,^{footnote 12} and 90.3% of Internet users who do their banking online are young Canadians aged 25 to 34.^{footnote 13}

Gender: Young men (aged 16 to 24) with disabilities could benefit more from improvements to the accessibility of workplace digital tools as their employment rate in 2022 (47.8%) was significantly lower than that of young women with disabilities (59.9%).^{footnote 14} Similarly, it is possible that older women (aged 55 to 64) with disabilities could benefit more than older men with disabilities as their employment rate (46.9%) was also lower than that of older men with disabilities (56.0%); however, this effect is less certain as the employment rate gap between older men and women without disabilities was of similar magnitude.^{footnote 14}

Multiple disabilities: Canadians with multiple disabilities would be more likely to benefit from the proposed amendments as they are more likely to encounter digital technologies barriers compared to persons with a single disability. More specifically, Canadians with one disability (27.0%) face almost half as many digital technologies accessibility barriers as those identified to have multiple disabilities (48.4%).^{footnote 15} Canadians with multiple disability types are also less likely to access the Internet from home compared to persons without disabilities and persons with a single disability type.^{footnote 16}

Income: Research shows that people with low income are more likely to face digital accessibility barriers. For example, Canadians living in households which earned less than $40,000 (51.7%) were more likely to report experiencing digital technologies barriers compared to those in households with an income of $40,000 to $80,000 (44.2%) and those with an income over $80,000 (38.6%).^{footnote 17} This suggests that lower income households may benefit more from the proposed amendments compared to higher income households.

However, people with lower incomes are also less likely to be able to afford assistive technologies, which can be expensive to purchase and require newer and more expensive devices to operate.^{footnote 18} Therefore, lower-income persons with disabilities who do not have access to expensive assistive technology may benefit less from the proposed amendments.

Rural and urban distribution: Canadians living in rural areas and the Territories may benefit less from the proposed amendments than those in urban areas as they are less likely to have access to broadband or high-speed Internet. As of December 2023, the number of Canadians that had access to high-speed Internet service that met the CRTC benchmark of 50 Mbps (megabits per second) download,10 Mbps upload speeds and unlimited data was 99.4% in urban areas and 67.4% in rural areas. There is also limited availability of high-speed Internet access in the Territories, with 70.4% of the population having access in the Yukon, 82.0% in the Northwest Territories, and no service providers being available in Nunavut.^{footnote 19}

Implementation, compliance and enforcement, and service standards

Implementation

Coming into force

The requirements applying to the web pages of federally regulated organizations, and accessibility statements pertaining to these web pages, would come into force on June 1, 2027. All other requirements would come into force on June 1, 2028. The intention of these dates is to provide between 24 and 36 months of lead time for organizations to comply with the proposed requirements.

The Department would proactively communicate with regulated organizations, including industry associations representing federally regulated organizations, to ensure a maximum number of stakeholders are aware of the publication of the amendments and have adequate lead time to comply with the regulatory provisions. Technical briefings would also be provided both at the Canada Gazette Part I and Part II stages.

In recognition of the continued engagement between the Government of Canada and Indigenous governments and organizations on the application of the Act, First Nations band councils would be exempted from the proposed amendments until December 31, 2033. As well, the existing exemption from the planning and reporting requirements of the ACA would be extended until December 31, 2033. The proposed exemption would also apply to entities or persons that carry on an undertaking for or on behalf of First Nations band councils or on the band’s reserve lands. However, the proposed exemption would not apply to businesses operated for or on behalf of First Nations band councils or on the band’s reserve lands.

Implementation of the proposed amendments would be supported by guidance materials to inform regulated organizations and Canadians. The guidance materials may include templates, examples, guidelines and best practices that would support organizations’ ability to implement the proposed amendments relating to digital accessibility. ESDC has begun consultations with stakeholders on proposed guidance materials and further consultations are anticipated. While ESDC intends to create supplementary guidance, extensive guidance already exists for how to design and develop accessible web content, mobile applications and digital documents. For example, the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C’s) Web Accessibility Initiative has already published comprehensive guidance on how to understand and implement digital accessibility.

The CAN/ASC-EN Standard that is incorporated by reference in the proposed amendments would be monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure it continues to meet all requirements, as well as remain clear and consistent in its intent and application. Any update to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard would be communicated to stakeholders on a regular basis.

Compliance and enforcement

The Accessibility Commissioner within the CHRC would be responsible for compliance and enforcement activities for regulated organizations.

There are several previously mentioned factors which are relevant to determining the feasibility of conforming to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. In such circumstances, organizations could be required by the Accessibility Commissioner to provide evidence to substantiate non-feasibility and demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the Accessibility Commissioner, that they took reasonable measures to remove barriers, including establishing alternative methods of access that addresses barriers associated with non-conformance with the CAN/ASC-EN Standard. Entities could also be asked by the Accessibility Commissioner to provide evidence of efforts to overcome challenges to conform to the CAN/ASC-EN Standard even though they have established alternative means of access.

The ACA provides the Accessibility Commissioner with a range of enforcement tools to verify, promote, and enforce compliance with the ACA and its regulations, including the power to conduct inspections and issue orders and notices of violation, including with penalties, and enter into compliance agreements.^{footnote 20} That said, compliance and enforcement are typically conducted on a continuum that starts with outreach and education to prevent or address non-compliance before notices of violation are issued.

Failure to conform to any of the requirements of the proposed amendments would be classified as “minor” violations. The ACRs establish, for minor violations, a penalty range of $1,000 to $10,000 for the first violation within a five-year period for a regulated organization that is not a small business. Organizations with four or more previous violations in a five-year period would face penalties in the range of $50,000 to $75,000. The Accessibility Commissioner can also publish the names of organizations who commit violations, as well as the nature of the violation and any penalties imposed.

Contact

Marzieh Tafaghod
Executive Director
Programs and Regulations Division
Accessible Canada Directorate
Employment and Social Development Canada
105 De l’Hôtel-de-Ville Street
Gatineau, Quebec
J8X 4H7
Email: Accessible Canada Directorate

PROPOSED REGULATORY TEXT

Notice is given that the Governor in Council proposes to make the annexed Regulations Amending the Accessible Canada Regulations under paragraph 91(1)(a) and subsection 117(1) of the Accessible Canada Act ^{footnote a}.

Interested persons may make representations concerning the proposed Regulations within 60 days after the date of publication of this notice. They are strongly encouraged to use the online commenting feature that is available on the Canada Gazette website but if they use email, mail or any other means, the representations should cite the Canada Gazette, Part I, and the date of publication of this notice, and be sent to Marzieh Tafaghod, Executive Director, Programs and Regulations Division, Accessible Canada Directorate, Employment and Social Development Canada, 105 De l’Hôtel-de-Ville Street, Gatineau, Quebec J8X 4H7 (email: marzieh.tafaghod@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca).

Ottawa, December 5, 2024

Wendy Nixon
Assistant Clerk of the Privy Council

Regulations Amending the Accessible Canada Regulations

Amendments

1 (1) The definition employee in subsection 1(1) of the Accessible Canada Regulations ^{footnote 21} is replaced by the following:

employee

includes a dependent contractor as defined in subsection 3(1) of the Canada Labour Code. (employé)

(2) Subsection 1(1) of the Regulations is amended by adding the following in alphabetical order:

broadcasting or telecommunications entity

means an entity that carries on a broadcasting undertaking or that is a Canadian carrier or a telecommunications service provider. (entité de radiodiffusion ou de télécommunication)

federal public sector entity

means a regulated entity described in any of paragraphs 7(1)(a) to (d) of the Act. (entité du secteur public fédéral)

transportation service provider

means an entity that is required to comply with any provision of regulations made under subsection 170(1) of the Canada Transportation Act. (fournisseur de services de transport)

(3) Subsection 1(3) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Average number of employees — period of years

(3) For the purposes of these Regulations, the average number of employees during a given period of years is the sum of the average number of employees during each year in that period, divided by the number of years in the period and rounded to the nearest whole number or, if the value is equidistant between two whole numbers, rounded up to the nearest whole number.

Number of employees — exclusion

(4) For the purposes of subsections (2) and (3), the number of employees excludes

• (a) any person employed under a program designated by the employer as a student employment program; and
• (b) any student employed solely during the student’s vacation periods.

2 The portion of section 2 of the Regulations before paragraph (a) is replaced by the following:

Band

2 With respect to a band, the following entities and persons are exempt from the application of sections 47 to 49, 56 to 58, 65 to 67 and 69 to 71 of the Act and sections 3 to 19.9 of these Regulations until December 31, 2033:

3 Subparagraph 8(3)(b)(i) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

• (i) 15 days after the day on which the request is received, in the case of a federal public sector entity,

4 Subparagraph 9(6)(b)(i) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

• (i) 15 days after the day on which the request is received, in the case of a federal public sector entity,

5 Subparagraph 17(3)(b)(i) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

• (i) 15 days after the day on which the request is received, in the case of a federal public sector entity,

6 The Regulations are amended by adding the following after section 19:

PART 1.1
Information and Communication Technologies

Definition of ICT Standard

19.1 In this Part, ICT Standard means the Accessibility Standards Canada standard CAN/ASC - EN 301 549, Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services, as amended from time to time.

Day on which section first applies

19.2 In this Part, a reference to the day on which a section first applies to an entity means the later of

• (a) the day on which the section comes into force, and
• (b) the first day on which the entity is an entity referred to in the section, regardless of whether there is subsequently any period in which it ceases to be such an entity.

Feasibility of conformity

19.3 For the purposes of this Part, the following factors are relevant to determining the extent to which it is feasible for a web page to conform to the requirements of the ICT Standard:

• (a) the availability of technology that would permit conformity;
• (b) the existence of significant obstacles to the implementation of the technology and any efforts by the regulated entity to overcome those obstacles; and
• (c) the regulated entity’s degree of control over the web page, including under any agreement with a third party.

Web pages — employee-facing

19.4 (1) A federal public sector entity must ensure that each of its internal employee-facing web pages that is created or updated on or after the day on which this section first applies to the entity, including all content belonging to each of those web pages, conforms, to the extent feasible, to the applicable requirements set out in clauses 4 to 7 and 9 of the ICT Standard for as long as the web page remains available to employees.

Alternative measures

(2) To the extent that conformity with the applicable requirements of the ICT Standard is not feasible, the entity must ensure that other reasonable measures to remove barriers in relation to the web page are taken, including the establishment of alternative means for accessing the information or performing the tasks associated with the web page.

Web pages — public-facing

19.5 (1) A federal public sector entity that is not a broadcasting or telecommunications entity or a transportation service provider must ensure that each of its public-facing web pages that is created or updated on or after the day on which this section first applies to the entity, including all content belonging to each of those web pages, conforms, to the extent feasible, to the applicable requirements set out in clauses 4 to 7 and 9 of the ICT Standard for as long as the web page remains available to the public.

Alternative measures

(2) To the extent that conformity with the applicable requirements of the ICT Standard is not feasible, the entity must ensure that other reasonable measures to remove barriers in relation to the web page are taken, including the establishment of alternative means for accessing the information or performing the tasks associated with the web page.

Accessibility statement

19.6 (1) A federal public sector entity must publish an accessibility statement no later than the day on which any obligation under this Part first applies to it and then once every 12 months.

Requirements

(2) The accessibility statement must meet the following requirements:

• (a) it must be written in simple, clear and concise language;
• (b) it must indicate the date on which it is published;
• (c) it must provide the entity’s contact information, including at least two of the following:
  • (i) an email address,
  • (ii) a telephone number,
  • (iii) a mailing address;
• (d) it must include an acknowledgement of the entity’s obligations under this Part;
• (e) it must list the accessibility features of each web page to which it relates and explain how to use those features;
• (f) it must describe any instance in which an obligation to conform to the ICT Standard is not being met;
• (g) if an instance referred to in paragraph (f) is the result of it not being feasible to conform to the ICT Standard, it must describe the other measures that have been taken to remove barriers to accessibility, including the alternative means that have been established for accessing information or performing tasks;
• (h) it must describe the entity’s plans and timelines for addressing gaps in its conformity with the ICT Standard; and
• (i) it must be accessible from each web page to which it relates.

Retention

(3) The entity must retain an electronic copy of the accessibility statement until the fourth anniversary of the day on which it is published.

Conformity assessment — retention

19.7 A regulated entity that carries out or obtains a conformity assessment against the ICT Standard in respect of any web page in relation to which the entity has obligations under this Part must retain an electronic record of the assessment, including any gap analysis, until the fourth anniversary of the day on which the assessment is completed.

Training

19.8 (1) Each of the following regulated entities must ensure that each of its employees who are involved in the development, maintenance or procurement of information and communication technologies has received training on accessibility fundamentals in relation to those technologies, including refresher training at least once every three years:

• (a) a federal public sector entity; and
• (b) a regulated entity described in paragraph 7(1)(e) of the Act that had an average of 100 or more employees during the preceding three-year period.

Record

(2) The regulated entity must retain an electronic record of all training provided under this section until the fourth anniversary of the day on which the training is provided.

Alternatives to ICT Standard

19.9 Any requirement under this Part to conform to the ICT Standard may be satisfied by instead conforming to

• (a) any version of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standard EN 301 549, Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services, that was published more recently than the current version of the ICT Standard; or
• (b) the version of the ICT Standard that immediately precedes its current version, if the current version was published within the last three years.

7 Section 19.1 of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Definitions

19.1 The following definitions apply in this Part.

ICT Standard

means the Accessibility Standards Canada standard CAN/ASC - EN 301 549, Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services, as amended from time to time. (norme TIC)

non-web document

has the same meaning as in the ICT Standard. (document non Web)

8 (1) The portion of section 19.3 of the Regulations before paragraph (a) is replaced by the following:

Feasibility of conformity

19.3 For the purposes of this Part, the following factors are relevant to determining the extent to which it is feasible for a web page, mobile application or non-web document to conform to the requirements of the ICT Standard:

(2) Paragraph 19.3(c) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

• (c) the regulated entity’s degree of control over the web page, mobile application or non-web document, including under any agreement with a third party.

9 The Regulations are amended by adding the following after section 19.3:

Acting for another

19.31 A regulated entity described in paragraph 7(1)(f) of the Act that acts in the name of or for the benefit of an entity that has obligations under this Part has those same obligations in relation to that other entity, and any failure by the regulated entity described in paragraph 7(1)(f) of the Act to meet any of those obligations is, for the purposes of Part 3, to be considered a violation of the provision that imposes the obligation on the other entity.

10 Subsection 19.4(1) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Web pages — employee-facing

19.4 (1) Each of the following regulated entities must ensure that each of its internal employee-facing web pages that is created or updated on or after the day on which this section first applies to the entity, including all content belonging to each of those web pages, conforms, to the extent feasible, to the applicable requirements set out in clauses 4 to 7 and 9 of the ICT Standard for as long as the web page remains available to employees:

• (a) a federal public sector entity; and
• (b) a regulated entity described in paragraph 7(1)(e) of the Act that had an average of 100 or more employees during the preceding three-year period.

11 Subsection 19.5(1) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Web pages — public-facing

19.5 (1) Each of the following regulated entities must ensure that each of its public-facing web pages that is created or updated on or after the day on which this section first applies to the entity, including all content belonging to each of those web pages, conforms, to the extent feasible, to the applicable requirements set out in clauses 4 to 7 and 9 of the ICT Standard for as long as the web page remains available to the public:

• (a) a federal public sector entity other than a broadcasting or telecommunications entity or a transportation service provider; and
• (b) a regulated entity described in paragraph 7(1)(e) of the Act, other than a broadcasting or telecommunications entity or a transportation service provider, that had an average of 100 or more employees during the preceding three-year period.

12 The Regulations are amended by adding the following after section 19.5:

Mobile applications

19.51 (1) Each of the following regulated entities must ensure that any public-facing mobile application that it launches on or after the day on which this section first applies to the entity, including all content belonging to that application, conforms, to the extent feasible, to the applicable requirements set out in clauses 4 to 7 and 11 of the ICT Standard for as long as the application remains available for download:

• (a) a federal public sector entity, other than a broadcasting or telecommunications entity or a transportation service provider; and
• (b) a regulated entity described in paragraph 7(1)(e) of the Act, other than a broadcasting or telecommunications entity or a transportation service provider, that had an average of 500 or more employees during the preceding three-year period.

Alternative measures

(2) To the extent that conformity with the applicable requirements of the ICT Standard is not feasible, the regulated entity must ensure that other reasonable measures to remove barriers in relation to the mobile application are taken, including the establishment of alternative means for accessing the information or performing the tasks associated with the application.

Conformity assessment — other mobile applications

(3) If a regulated entity referred to in paragraph (1)(a) or (b) continues to make available for download a public-facing mobile application that it launched before the day on which this section first applied to the entity, it must obtain a conformity assessment, including a gap analysis, against the applicable requirements set out in clauses 4 to 7 and 11 of the ICT Standard with respect to that mobile application

Non-web documents

19.52 (1) Each of the following regulated entities must ensure that any non-web document that, on or after the day on which this section first applies to the entity, is made available for download from any of its public-facing web pages or public-facing mobile applications conforms, to the extent feasible, to the applicable requirements set out in clauses 4 to 7 and 10 of the ICT Standard for as long as the document remains available for download:

• (a) a federal public sector entity other than a broadcasting or telecommunications entity or a transportation service provider; and
• (b) a regulated entity described in paragraph 7(1)(e) of the Act, other than a broadcasting or telecommunications entity or a transportation service provider, that had an average of 500 or more employees during the preceding three-year period.

Alternative measures

(2) To the extent that conformity with the applicable requirements of the ICT Standard is not feasible, the regulated entity must ensure that other reasonable measures to remove barriers in relation to the non-web document are taken, including the establishment of alternative means for accessing the information or performing the tasks associated with the document.

13 (1) Subsection 19.6(1) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Accessibility statement

19.6 (1) Each of the following regulated entities that has an obligation under this Part must publish an accessibility statement no later than the day on which the obligation first applies to it and then once every 12 months:

• (a) a federal public sector entity; and
• (b) a regulated entity described in paragraph 7(1)(e) of the Act that had an average of 500 or more employees during the preceding three-year period.

(2) Paragraph 19.6(2)(e) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

• (e) it must list and explain how to use the accessibility features of each web page, mobile application and non-web document to which it relates;

(3) Paragraph 19.6(2)(i) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

• (i) it must be accessible
  • (i) in the case of a statement that relates to a web page, from the web page,
  • (ii) in the case of a statement that relates to a mobile application, from the application’s home screen, and
  • (iii) in the case of a statement that relates to a non-web document, from each web page from which the document is available for download and from the home screen of each mobile application from which the document is available for download.

14 Section 19.7 of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Procurement

19.61 Each of the following regulated entities that initiates a process to procure products or services in connection with the development or provision of any web page, mobile application or non-web document in relation to which the entity has obligations under this Part must obtain, as part of the procurement process, a conformity assessment, including a gap analysis, against the applicable requirements of the ICT Standard with respect to the web page, mobile application or non-web document:

• (a) a federal public sector entity, other than a broadcasting or telecommunications entity; and
• (b) a regulated entity described in paragraph 7(1)(e) of the Act, other than a broadcasting or telecommunications entity, that had an average of 500 or more employees during the preceding three-year period.

Conformity assessment — retention

19.7 A regulated entity that carries out or obtains a conformity assessment against the ICT Standard in respect of any web page, mobile application or non-web document in relation to which the entity has obligations under this Part must retain an electronic record of the assessment, including any gap analysis, until the fourth anniversary of the day on which the assessment is completed.

15 Part 3 of Schedule 1 to the Regulations is amended by adding the following after item 10:

Item	Column 1 Provision	Column 2 Classification
11	19.4(1)	Minor
12	19.4(2)	Minor
13	19.5(1)	Minor
14	19.5(2)	Minor
15	19.6(1)	Minor
16	19.6(2)	Minor
17	19.6(3)	Minor
18	19.7	Minor
19	19.8(1)	Minor
20	19.8(2)	Minor

16 Part 3 of Schedule 1 to the Regulations is amended by adding the following after item 14:

Item	Column 1 Provision	Column 2 Classification
14.1	19.51(1)	Minor
14.2	19.51(2)	Minor
14.3	19.51(3)	Minor
14.4	19.52(1)	Minor
14.5	19.52(2)	Minor

17 Part 3 of Schedule 1 to the Regulations is amended by adding the following after item 17:

Item	Column 1 Provision	Column 2 Classification
17.1	19.61	Minor

Coming into Force

18 (1) Subject to subsection (2), these Regulations come into force on June 1, 2027.

(2) Sections 7 to 14, 16 and 17 come into force on June 1, 2028.

Terms of use and Privacy notice

Terms of use

It is your responsibility to ensure that the comments you provide do not:

• contain personal information
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