Meeting Accessibility Standards at CPABC

Why Follow Web Accessibility Standards?

CPABC’s websites must adhere to the accessibility guidelines so that we can:

  • Comply to the WCAG 2.1 AA standards (web best practices)
  • Avoid any regulatory penalties (when applicable to private, public, and non-profit organizations)
  • Be accessible to a wider audience, such as seniors and people with disabilities
  • Increase CPABC's online reputation
  • Increase company-wide awareness of web accessibility
  • Develop a greater sense of trust and credibility with our audiences.
CPABC Website Goal

Accessible Websites

CPABC will meet web accessibility standards by complying with version WCAG 2.1 AA by December 31, 2022.

  • W3C encourages us to use the most recent version of WCAG when developing or updating content or accessibility policies.

How Will We Achieve Web Accessibility?

Over the next year (2022), CPABC websites will undergo a series of code audits, code changes, updates, and revisions in order to meet both accessibility guidelines and future legislation.

WCAG 2.0 and 2.1

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are part of a series of web accessibility guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for web best practices.

BC Government

Making B.C. the most progressive province in Canada for people with disabilities by 2024 while meeting the Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (AA).

Implementation Timeline

Determine Resource Requirements and Begin Baseline Testing:

  • Run a preliminary accessibility audit report.
  • Ensure that we have the full support of the EMC;
  • Ensure that we have a sufficient budget over the next two years;
  • Learn what other CPA provinces are doing in regards to accessibility;
  • Reach out to CPA Canada
  • Get legal advice to ensure that we are following all accessibility protocols
  • Educate all staff on the importance of web accessibility;
  • Cultivate the idea of accessibility throughout the organization;
  • Create an accessibility task force that can learn and share accessibility knowledge;
  • Establish responsibilities for task force members and key staff;
  • Require key staff to take the necessary accessibility courses;
  • Commission a comprehensive accessibility audit report by E-Cubed (siteimprove)
  • Begin testing third-party applications (Wave and aXe)
  • Become familiar with keyboard testing
  • Become familiar with screen reader testing (Chrome or JAWS)
  • Inventory all items that need updating
  • Learn Aria

Policies, Procedures, Plans

  • Begin drafting policies related to:
    • Web accessibility
    • Statements of accessibility
    • Accessible content (content, images, PDFs, videos, and widgets)
    • Create a distribution of work document (distribute accessibility criteria items between web team and E-Cubed)
    • Collaborate with E-Cubed on all success criteria task items
    • Create a SharePoint Project Site for reporting accessibility success and to house reports and resources
    • Create progress of work document
    • Establish team leads for WORD and PDF's (PDF liaisons)
    • Reach out and explore costs - 3rd party companies that produce accessible PDFs (MPS Interactive and AccessibiliT)

Achieving Accessibility

  • Continue to educate staff
  • Work on refining processes
  • Ensure IT is aware of accessibility 2022 plans
  • Form a group of PDF liaisons (responsible for their dept's WORD and PDF documents)
  • Ensure PDF liaisons have appropriate software (Adobe Professional and Word 2016)
  • Staff begin to be trained: Accessible WORD, PDFs, Design, HTML, Images and Video
  • Ensure a true count of current, active PDFS (764 - corporate = 742, pd = 22, fillable= 70)
  • Begin looking at fillable PDFs - Can we transform any PDFsto e-forms or html pages?
  • Work with Privacy and IT to determine what PDFs can successfully be transformed into e-forms
  • Web team to begin using Deque - AXE
  • Web team to begin using Screen Readers
  • Use manual and automated testing to find all errors
  • Plan for a 3rd party accessibility company to fix all current PDFs - schedule for late September/October 2022
  • Web team and E-Cubed to begin fixing all accessibility issues (goals is 4.5 success criteria per month in 2022)

We are aiming for a December 31, 2022 target date to achieve accessibility on both bccpa.ca - Corporate and PD sites.

Accessibility Plans and Policies Within the CPA Profession