Considerations for Web Accessibility (Building Websites for Those with Disabilities) in the Design of a New Website in Canada

In 2012, 13.7% of Canadians reported having a disability, which accounts for about 3.8 million Canadians. Among them, a subset consists of users whose web browsing capabilities are affected by disabilities, which web accessibility addresses. These disabilities include vision impairment, motor impairment, cognitive impairment, and others.

Here is the data on this:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/131203/dq131203a-eng.htm

The following study also provides data on the breakdown of disabilities by type:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-654-x/89-654-x2013002-eng.htm

As we can see from this table:

Disability Percentage
Pain 9.7
Flexibility 7.6
Mental/Psychological 3.9
Dexterity 3.5
Hearing 3.2
Seeing 2.7
Memory 2.3
Learning 2.3
Unknown 0.3
Developmental 0.6
Total 35.8

From the data, we can infer that at least 35.8% of people with limiting disabilities could be impacted by the non-implementation of web accessibility standards. In 2012, an estimated 3.8 million adult Canadians reported being limited in their daily activities due to a disability, indicating that we have at least 1.444 Million individuals in Canada who are affected by web accessibility issues. Regarding the legality of implementing web standards, the requirements vary based on the type of business or organization. As of 2014, only the government of Canada and larger organizations (50+ employees) are required to follow WCAG 2.0, a standard for accessibility. However, small organizations should also consider accessibility as important since they might face lawsuits under human rights legislation.

Here is more information on the requirement guidelines for implementing web accessibility on sites:

https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/

Web accessibility is not a legal requirement for small businesses at present. Wouldn’t it be great if someone came up with a WordPress theme that implements accessibility out of the box? Well, actually, such themes exist, and WordPress is designed with accessibility in mind. Here are some different themes that prioritize accessibility: https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/accessibility-ready. Additionally, there are a variety of tools available to assess the accessibility of your website, listed here: http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/. Ideally, all websites should be coded with accessibility in mind, although many are not due to the additional cost involved in implementing it. Strongly consider accessibility in your next website development or redevelopment to stay ahead of the competition.