Can you imagine offering your employees an online training to help them develop their skills, stay updated, or comply with health and safety regulations? It’s a fantastic learning opportunity! But before you dive in, do you know the importance of the Canadian Accessibility Law?

Since its enactment on July 11, 2019, this law aims to transform Canada into a country free of barriers for all. This means eliminating anything that could hinder the participation of people living with physical or intellectual disabilities.

To ensure inclusion within your company, it is essential to promote a fair and accessible work environment for all. This involves inclusive communication, awareness, and training on accessibility, as well as the use of adapted technologies to enable everyone to fully participate.

Let’s talk WCAG rules!

The WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0) rules provide a framework for making web content more accessible, focusing on 4 fundamental principles: perceivability, operability, understandability, and robustness.

Perceivability involves making information accessible to people with sensory limitations. This can include text descriptions for images, high contrasts, subtitles for videos, and much more.

Operability ensures that features are accessible to all users, including those using assistive technologies. This includes keyboard navigability, predictability of behavior, and the removal of distracting elements.

Understandability concerns the clarity and simplicity of content and operation for everyone. This means using plain language, providing explicit instructions, and organizing content logically.

Finally, robustness ensures that web content is correctly interpretable by a variety of people and assistive technologies.

By applying the 4 principles of the WCAG rules in your online training programs, you offer everyone the opportunity to access information fairly. It is essential to consider these elements when creating online courses to ensure equitable access for all staff members. It is also strongly recommended to work with an experienced team specialized in educational technology to design your accessible online training courses!

A final piece of advice: converting inaccessible content into accessible content poses certain challenges. For some existing content, this is an inevitable operation. However, to avoid these challenges, we recommend designing all new content in accessible terms from the start!

And let’s not forget to celebrate! Since March 2023, the National Accessibility Week has been celebrated every year starting from the last Sunday of May. It’s a fantastic opportunity to recognize the progress made and continue to work towards a more inclusive world for all.