ADA vs AODA: What Canadian Store Owners Need to Know
Most accessibility content is written for Americans — ADA this, Section 508 that. If your store is Canadian, here's the version that actually applies to you.
AODA: Ontario's accessibility law
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) requires Ontario businesses to make their websites accessible. The relevant standard is WCAG 2.0 Level AA — and the deadlines have already passed for most business sizes. Enforcement has been historically light, but it's ramping up: the Ontario government has been increasing audits and penalties.
The federal layer: the Accessible Canada Act
Federally, the Accessible Canada Act covers federal organizations and federally regulated businesses (banks, telecoms, airlines). If that's you, you have accessibility obligations with real reporting requirements.
Why Americans' ADA lawsuits still matter to you
Here's the part Canadian store owners miss: if you sell to Americans, ADA exposure follows your customers, not your incorporation. A Toronto store shipping to New York can land in the same plaintiff firms' sights as a New York store. The 8,667 ADA Title III filings in 2025 weren't all against American companies.
And even purely domestic: AODA complaints are real, the Human Rights Code applies, and "nobody enforces it" is a bet with an expiry date, not a strategy.
What to actually do
The playbook is the same regardless of which law you're worried about, because they all point at the same standard (WCAG):
- Audit. Know your issues — the free EqualFix scan works the same whether you're in Toronto or Texas.
- Fix the mechanical stuff. Missing alt text, unlabeled controls, missing language attributes — identical fixes under every regime.
- Document. Dated remediation reports. Useful under AODA, the Accessible Canada Act, and the ADA alike.
- Monitor. Every new product, plugin, and theme update can introduce new issues.
One more thing
Don't buy a product named after the ADA and assume it covers AODA, or vice versa. The standards overlap heavily, but the legal regimes differ. (It's why we named the product EqualFix, not ADA-something — accessibility law isn't one country's problem.)
EqualFix works on any WordPress site, in any country. Scan yours free.