Content accessibility guidelines
Find approved guidelines to make online content accessible and ensure it complies with provincial legislation.
On this page
Find compliance requirements
Content on the City of Waterloo's websites must comply with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities (AODA) Act.
The current level of compliance is WCAG 2.0 AA, an international standard for accessibility developed by the World Wide Web Consortium.
What qualifies as content
'Content' means any information on a webpage or web application, including text, images, buttons, forms, documents (such as PDFs) and video.
What websites must comply
Website content includes everything published on Waterloo.ca and all public websites that:
- the city controls directly
- the city controls through a contractual relationship
This means that content posted on social media websites and other public-facing websites must also be compliant. Internal-facing websites are exempt.
Make a webpage compliant
Content on Waterloo.ca is AODA compliant so long it is formatted per the Waterloo.ca Style and Design Guide. This includes items such as structured headings, descriptive alt text and using our standard set of design buttons/icons.
We encourage the use of plain language across all webpages. There is no technical standard to measure compliance for this, though we aim for a grade 6 reading level.
Contact website@waterloo.ca for questions about other websites controlled by the City of Waterloo. We have automated tools that can diagnose potential compliance issues.
Make a PDF compliant
PDF files must be AODA compliant to be posted on Waterloo.ca or other websites controlled by the City of Waterloo. This means that they are up to the required WCAG 2.0 AA standard.
There are different ways to meet this standard depending on what software was used to create the document.
Internally we use Equidox to remediate PDFs and verify compliance. External parties may use different tools and techniques.
PDFs created by city staff
PDF documents are created by city staff in a variety of ways, such as exporting a Microsoft Word document.
For PDFs that need to be included in a council package or on the city website, internal staff must:
- Run the final PDF file through the Equidox PDF tool.
- Fix any errors in the file.
- Export the file and take a screenshot showing no errors.
- Submit PDF file and provide the screenshot if requested.
Contact website@waterloo.ca if you need assistance using Equidox.
PDFs created by city designers
If you're working with a designer from Corporate Communications, finished PDFs will be AODA compliant.
Note that designers from Corporate Communications do not remediate documents that originate with city staff or external parties.
PDFs created by consultants or external parties
If you're working with a consultant or external party on a public-facing document, it is usually their responsibility to ensure that finished PDF files are AODA compliant.
Consultants can provide proof of compliance by using the PAC Checker, a free tool that verifies the accessibility of a document.
When consultants complete a document that will be posted on a City of Waterloo website, they must include verification that the file complies with the AODA standard of WCAG 2.0 AA.
This can be the accessibility report generated by the PAC Checker or other tool that verifies WCAG compliance. This will be required for the file to be posted online.
If consultants are not able to produce compliant documents, contact website@waterloo.ca for a list of vendors that provide this service for a fee.
A typical price for PDF remediation is $20/page depending on the complexity of the document.
Make a video compliant
Videos that are posted to the city's Vimeo page or other public-facing websites must have subtitles/captions or a transcription that captures any dialogue or music.
Audio descriptions and live captions are not yet required by AODA.