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This was originally created to help our teams and partners create more accessible and inclusive services. It is not a complete overview of accessibility, but rather documentation that was used to help us find alignment and spark conversations about our practices and standards within the Canadian Digital Service (CDS). Some guidelines have been drawn from the work of the Government Digital Service in the United Kingdom, 18F in the United States, Digital Transformation Agency in Australia, and the Ontario Digital Service. They have been adapted to meet our needs and priorities.

Research, design and development decisions are not neutral. Every decision either raises or lowers barriers to participation. We are committed to making decisions that lower barriers to create inclusive products, services, environments and experiences.

Inclusive design is more than meeting accessibility compliance. It is much more than checking a few boxes to make sure colour and contrast ratios meet standards. Inclusive design starts at the very beginning of any project, before pixels get pushed, before pens even hit sketchbooks.

“Disability is not just a health problem. It is a complex phenomenon, reflecting the interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives.”

–World Health Organization

At a minimum, our services strive to meet level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1). We’ve tried to meet and, in some cases, exceed that standard. Applying a service-design lens also helps ensure our services are accessible across all channels involved — from the most common browsers, platforms and devices people will use to access services to common assistive technologies.

From the start, we work with the people who will use a product, including people with disabilities. We work across all disciplines — blurring the lines between research, development, design and accessibility. Our goal, for whatever we’re working on, is to make it better than it was yesterday.

• Put people first; follow inclusive design principles to provide equal access by providing a comparable experience to humans with diverse abilities.
• Include accessibility from the start of service design.
• Strive to have a clear purpose and well-defined goals.
• Ensure that content is clear, use plain language.
• Provide helpful wayfinding — help people navigate to relevant content.
• Accommodate a range of people’s needs by providing choice and flexibility.
• Include people with disabilities in user research, design and testing of services.
• Use solid structure by building to standards: work to exceed WCAG 2.1 AA.
• Test the online parts of a service for compatibility with assistive technologies.
• Have champions for accessibility on product teams and internal support teams.
• Resources should be compatible with current and future tools, including redundant modalities by offering choice.
• Providing a community feedback layer to partners, users or other stakeholders, such as an accessibility statement, to continually improve services.