CanadaAccessible Canada Act, accessibility plans, feedback processes, progress reports and administrative monetary penalties
Accessible Canada Act, S.C. 2019, c. 10
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- The Accessibility Commissioner
- Instrument type
- an act of a legislature
- Obligation class
- Reporting, Disclosure
As of .
What it requires
- Prepare and publish an accessibility plan on your policies, programs, practices and services for identifying and removing barriers, and preventing new barriers, in the areas the Act lists, which include information and communication technologies, before the expiry of one year after the day the regulations fix for you (s. 69(1); ss. 47(1), 56(1) and 65(1) apply the same duty to broadcasting, telecommunications and transportation entities for the areas those sections list).
- Publish an updated plan no later than the third anniversary of the day the plan was last published, or within the period the regulations prescribe (s. 69(2)).
- Consult persons with disabilities in preparing the plan and each progress report, and set out in each how you consulted them (ss. 69(4) and (5), 71(3) and (4)).
- Establish a process for receiving feedback on how you are implementing the plan and on the barriers your employees and other people dealing with you encounter, and publish a description of the process (s. 70(1) and (2)).
- Prepare and publish a progress report on implementing the plan, including how the feedback you received was taken into consideration (s. 71(1) and (5)).
- Notify the Accessibility Commissioner of each publication of a plan, feedback process description or progress report, within the time and in the manner the regulations prescribe (ss. 69(3), 70(3) and 71(2)).
- Make the plan and the progress report available on request in the format the regulations prescribe (ss. 69(7) and 71(6)).
- Do not obstruct the Accessibility Commissioner, do not knowingly make a false or misleading statement to the Commissioner, and do not knowingly make or take part in a false or misleading statement in a record, report or document the Act requires you to prepare, retain or provide (ss. 124 to 126).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
Section 91 (2) caps at $250,000 the maximum penalty that the regulations may fix for a violation, and section 88 treats each day on which a violation is committed or continued as a separate violation.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- CAD
- Per violation unit
- Violation
- Per violation amount
- 250,000
What this law does
Section 7 of the Act applies it to any person, partnership or unincorporated organization that operates a work or carries on an undertaking or business within the legislative authority of Parliament. Section 5 lists information and communication technologies among the areas in which barriers are to be identified and removed.
Section 69 requires a regulated entity that is not a broadcasting, telecommunications or transportation entity to prepare and publish an accessibility plan on its policies, programs, practices and services in relation to the identification and removal of barriers in the areas listed in section 5. Section 42 imposes the plan duty on a regulated entity that carries on a broadcasting undertaking.
Section 51 imposes the plan duty on a regulated entity that is a Canadian carrier or a telecommunications service provider. Section 60 imposes the plan duty on a regulated entity that is required to comply with the regulations made under subsection 170(1) of the Canada Transportation Act. Section 69 also requires an updated version of the plan no later than the third anniversary of the day on which the plan was last published.
The regulated entity must consult persons with disabilities in the preparation of its accessibility plan and every updated version of it. Section 70 requires a regulated entity to establish a process for receiving feedback about the implementation of its plan and about the barriers encountered by its employees and by other persons that deal with it. Section 71 requires a regulated entity to prepare and publish a progress report on its implementation of its accessibility plan.
Section 72 lets the Minister exempt a regulated entity or class of regulated entities from all or any part of sections 69 to 71. A regulated entity that contravenes those duties commits a violation and is liable to a warning or to a penalty fixed in accordance with the regulations. A violation that is committed or continued on more than one day is a separate violation in respect of each day on which it is committed or continued.
The maximum penalty that may be fixed in respect of a violation is $250,000. Section 127 provides that section 126 of the Criminal Code does not apply to a contravention of the Act or of the regulations made under subsection 117(1). The Accessibility Commissioner is the member of the Canadian Human Rights Commission that is appointed under subsection 26(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Section 94 lets an individual who has been adversely affected by a regulated entity's contravention of the regulations made under subsection 117(1) file a complaint with the Accessibility Commissioner.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app ships a consumer interface.