AODA & Website Accessibility

What is AODA?

AODA Is the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

The purpose of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) is to ensure that all Ontarians have fair and equitable access to programs and services and to improve opportunities for persons with disabilities.

Website Accessibility is about making web content available for as many users as possible, which includes those users who are limited by disabilities.

 A Disability Can Include:

  • A lack of mobility – difficulty using a mouse or keyboard
  • Being visually impaired – suffering from blindness or colour blindness – requiring screen readers and visual cues

How to Incorporate Accessibility into your Pages:

Use Proper Headings
Heading structures are used by screen readers to navigate your website content in the correct order. In using headings correctly, your content will be well organized and easily translated by screen readers.

Do not choose a header simply because it looks good visually (this will confuse assistive technology, such as a screen reader). Do not skip heading levels (example: begin with an <h2> and end with an <h4>).

Use Alt Tags
Alternative text (alt tag) provides a detailed description of images present on your webpage.  Alt tag text should contain the message you wish to convey through the specific image. If the image includes imbedded text, the text should also be included in the tag. Alt tags aid assistive technology such as a screen reader, to convey messages to the end user.

Colour Matters
Web Development Services has disabled the ability to edit and change the colour of text within the Content Management System. The reasoning: Lack of accessibility. 8% of the population suffers from a form of colour deficiency, or colour blindness. This creates an inability to distinguish between colours, they can only see a limited range of hues which impedes their ability to properly navigate websites.

Lakeheadu.ca utilizes the use of an underline to clearly identify links. This is an inclusive method of establishing a call to action for anyone who suffers from colour blindness. Many websites utilize colourized links, however this method is proven inaccessible to anyone suffering from colour deficiency.

Descriptive Links
When including links in your content, use text that properly describes where the link will bring the user. Simply using "Click here" will not suffice.  Instead try: “To learn more about Lakehead University click here