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Court Orders Canadian Government to Make Sites Accessible

The Canadian federal government has been ordered to make its websites accessible to visually impaired users.

On November 29 2010, Federal Court Justice, Michael Kelen, gave the government 15 months to update its websites after a blind Toronto woman said she was unable to apply for a public service job online.

Donna Jodhan, a special-needs business consultant, launched a constitutional challenge aiming to grant visually impaired people equal access to the services and information on several federal government websites. Ms. Jodhan, who has been blind since birth, filed the challenge in 2007 after struggling through several attempts to apply for government positions through the government’s job bank website. She also had problems accessing data on the Statistics Canada website, filling out an online census form, and viewing information on the Canada Pension Plan within the Service Canada website.

Despite her extensive technological training, Ms. Jodhan claimed that she had to rely on sighted individuals to help her navigate the sites, or on government employees to provide accurate information in a timely manner.

In 2001, the Candian government adopted a web protocol known as the “Common Look and Feel Standard”, which required government department websites to be designed in a manner that ensured accessibility for visually impaired users. A spot audit of 47 of the 146 federal departments in 2007 found that none had complied with the standard.

The court declared that the government had not implemented existing accessibility standards and that it will now monitor the government’s progress in making the necessary changes.

Government lawyers had argued there was no discrimination because those same services are provided in other formats, such as on the phone, in person or by mail. The court found that visually impaired people were being disadvantaged by having to obtain online information through other means.