AODA Compliance Checker

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) requires businesses and organizations in Ontario to make their websites accessible to people with disabilities. To comply, websites must meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA. These guidelines cover areas like keyboard navigation, color contrast, and screen reader compatibility to ensure equal access to digital content.

BrowserStack’s free AODA Compliance Checker scans your web page against WCAG 2.0 Level AA standards and identifies accessibility issues in minutes. It highlights barriers and provides clear, actionable steps to fix them. Just enter your URL and review the results. No setup or coding needed. 

What is the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)?

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is a law passed in Ontario in 2005 to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It outlines standards that help identify and remove barriers in areas like customer service, employment, transportation, and digital communication.

AODA requires organizations to follow WCAG 2.0 Level AA for websites. This ensures that people with visual, hearing, physical, or cognitive disabilities can access and use online content. 

Who Needs to Comply with AODA?

AODA is a provincial law that applies to organizations operating in Ontario. This includes public sector bodies and private or non-profit organizations with 50 or more employees. If your organization is located in Ontario or has a physical presence in the province, you must make your public website accessible under WCAG 2.0 Level AA.

If your organization is based outside Ontario and has no employees, offices, or operations in the province, AODA does not legally apply, even if Ontarians use your website. However, if you have even one employee in Ontario, you must comply with AODA, regardless of where your headquarters are located.

Why is AODA Compliance Important?

Failing to meet AODA accessibility requirements can have serious legal and financial consequences.

Fines under AODA include:

• Up to CAD 100,000 per day for corporations
• Up to CAD 50,000 per day for individuals, including directors and officers
• Additional penalties for failing to submit accessibility reports or respond to compliance orders

In addition to these fines and penalties, non-compliance can damage your brand reputation, limit your audience reach, and expose your organization to legal action.

What Is an AODA Compliance Checker?

An AODA compliance checker is a tool that scans your website for accessibility issues based on WCAG 2.0 Level AA, which is required under AODA. It helps identify barriers that may prevent people with disabilities from accessing your site.

Key Features of BrowserStack AODA Website Checker

BrowserStack’s free AODA Compliance Checker analyzes your web pages and highlights issues like low contrast, missing alt text, or keyboard navigation problems. It provides clear, actionable insights to help you address issues and meet compliance standards.

Here are the key features of BrowserStack AODA website checker: 

• WCAG Testing: Checks your website against the official accessibility standard required by AODA. This includes success criteria for perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust content. 
• Keyboard Navigation Support: Verifies that all interactive elements on the page (such as buttons, links, menus, and form fields) can be accessed and used with a keyboard alone.
• Focus Order Verification: Ensures that focus moves in a predictable and usable order, avoiding confusion or accessibility traps for keyboard and screen reader users.
• Color Contrast Analysis: Measures the contrast between text and its background and validates it against the minimum thresholds required under WCAG 2.0 AA.
• Screen Reader Compatibility Checks: Evaluates how well your site communicates with screen readers by checking ARIA roles, labels, and landmark regions.
• Form Accessibility Validation: Checks whether form inputs are correctly associated with visible labels and that error messages are announced to assistive technologies.
• Accessibility Tree Inspection: Displays the underlying accessibility tree that assistive technologies like screen readers use to interpret your content.

How to Use BrowserStack AODA Compliance Checker?

Ensure AODA compliance using BrowserStack AODA website checker in a few simple steps:

Step 1: Enter the URL of the page you want to test for accessibility under AODA requirements.

Step 2: Click Generate Report to begin the scan.

Step 3: Review the report, which highlights accessibility issues based on WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA, as required under AODA.

Step 4: View each issue along with the severity level, element details, and suggestions to improve accessibility.

Try BrowserStack Website Scanner

Interpreting the AODA Compliance Report

After each scan, BrowserStack generates a detailed report in the Accessibility Testing Dashboard. The report helps teams meet accessibility requirements under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). It includes:

• Scan Overview: Summarizes accessibility issues from recent scans. You can compare up to eight reports to track trends and monitor whether recurring problems are being resolved.
• Issue Summary: Displays the total number of issues and the number of unique components affected. Clicking on these numbers opens a detailed breakdown for review and assignment.
• Scan Run History: Maintains a log of all scans by date and user. This helps teams track issues across versions, features, or deployments.
• Component-Level Issue Grouping: Clusters issues by element type, such as form fields, links, or navigation items. Each issue is mapped to the corresponding WCAG 2.0 success criteria required for AODA compliance.
• Search and Filtering: Lets you search scans by test name, tester, or page owner. You can also switch between individual and team views to manage accountability and progress.
• Report Sharing: Share reports directly with developers, designers, compliance leads, or external reviewers to collaborate on fixes and meet accessibility requirements during audits or client reviews.

Frequently Asked Questions