Is your website accessible to everyone? Really everyone?
If you’re unsure, you’re not alone. Web accessibility remains a blind spot for many Quebec businesses. However, with the new WCAG standards and increasing legal requirements, it’s no longer an option, it’s a necessity.
And most importantly, it may be an opportunity that your competitors haven’t yet seen.
Web accessibility in practice
Web accessibility simply means ensuring that your website can be used by as many people as possible.
This includes, for example, people who have:
- a visual impairment (color blindness, low vision, blindness)
- a motor limitation (difficulty using a mouse)
- a hearing impairment
- cognitive or learning disabilities
The WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards define best practices for achieving this. They are structured in three levels:
- A: the minimum
- AA: the generally expected standard
- AAA: advanced level
Most organizations aim for level AA.
The legal aspect: things are moving faster than we think
In Canada, the Accessibility for Canadians Act (2019) is gradually imposing obligations on federally regulated organizations.
In Quebec, several public bodies are already required to comply with WCAG standards. And even though the obligations for private companies are still evolving, the trend is clear: digital accessibility is becoming a legal issue.
In the United States, thousands of companies have already been sued for inaccessible websites.
What happens there often ends up happening here.
In other words, waiting until it becomes mandatory everywhere is not necessarily the most comfortable strategy.
A market that is often overlooked
Approximately 22% of Canadians live with at least one disability. That means more than one in five people.
And accessibility isn’t just for these users.
A more accessible site also helps:
- senior citizens
- mobile users
- people in noisy or brightly lit environments
- in short… just about everyone
In practice, an accessible site is often clearer, simpler, and more efficient to use.
And as a bonus, many WCAG best practices also improve SEO (content structure, alternative text, clear navigation).
Accessibility = better experience
When you apply best practices for accessibility, you often improve several things at once:
- readability
- content structure
- navigation
- clarity of the user journey
And several WCAG criteria also overlap with SEO best practices.
For example:
- a clear heading structure
- alternative text for images
- logical navigation
In short, we’re not just talking about compliance.
We’re also talking about the quality of the experience.
Where to start?
Good news: improving accessibility does not mean redoing everything.
Several simple actions can already make a difference:
- add alternative text to images
- check color contrasts
- ensure that the site works without a mouse (keyboard navigation)
- structure titles correctly (H1, H2, H3)
The challenge is mainly knowing where the problems lie and what to fix first.
The first step: understanding where you stand
Before launching improvements everywhere, the best thing to do is often to start with an accessibility audit.
This allows you to:
- see where your site stands in relation to WCAG standards
- identify barriers for certain users
- prioritize the corrections that will have the most impact
Because the goal is not to achieve perfection immediately.
It’s mainly about knowing where you stand and where it’s worth taking action.
