Accessibility

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) became law on June 13, 2005.  Under this landmark legislation, the Government of Ontario developed mandatory accessibility standards that identified, removed and prevented barriers for people with disabilities in key areas of daily living.

Integrated Accessibility Standard Policy and Multi-year plan

Diabetes Canada and the National Diabetes Trust (NDT) are committed to treating all people in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and independence.  We are committed to ensuring that our services and programs are accessible to all members, staff, volunteers, and students, including those with disabilities. We are committed to meeting the needs of people with disabilities in a timely manner, and will do so by preventing and removing barriers to accessibility and meeting accessibility requirements under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). Diabetes Canada and NDT will continue to phase in the AODA requirements between 2015 and 2025.

This policy defines the requirements and process for Diabetes Canada’s and NDT’s compliance with applicable AODA guidelines. A copy of the revised Diabetes Canada and NDT Integrated Accessibility Standard Policy, Multi-year plan and associated appendices can be found below.

• Diabetes Canada & NDT Integrated Accessibility Standards Policy
• Appendix 1: Multi-year Accessibility plan
• Appendix 2: Diabetes Canada Customer Service Policy
• Appendix 3A: Diabetes Canada HR Workplace Accommodation
• Appendix 3B: NDT HR Workplace Accommodation

Requirements for Employees

Diabetes Canada and the National Diabetes Trust requires that all employees (including full-time, part-time and contractual) be compliant with AODA.

1. Read the above Diabetes Canada and NDT Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulations and Appendices and familiarize yourself with the policy. 
2. Complete the e-learning modules for the following Standards (approximately 15-20 minutes each):
   •    General requirements
   •    Design of Public Spaces
   •    Customer Service Policy
   •    Information and Communications Standards
   •    Employments Standards
3. After going through all the modules, they are required to fill out the certificate of completion, sign, and upload.

Requirements for Ontario volunteers who engage with the public

Prior to a Diabetes Canada Ontario Volunteer engaging with the public, he/she is required to complete the reading of the AODA Quick Information Sheet.

Note:  At the end of this reference sheet, volunteers will be asked to sign the last page acknowledging their understanding of the information and return the document to their supervisor/ volunteer coordinator. This is an important requirement since the Association is required to track the completion of this reading.

Website design

The Diabetes Canada website was intentionally designed to be accessible to the widest possible audience. It is fully compatible with popular screen reading software and was designed for those who for a variety of reasons may not be able to use a mouse.

You can adjust the size of nearly all the text on this website by using the font size setting in your browser. For more information, see our guide to changing text size in your browser.

Software you might need

Some documents on this website are available in a PDF format. Adobe Acrobat is needed to open these files. Acrobat is available to download at no charge.

Adobe provides an excellent guide to using PDF documents.

Resizing text

The text size on the website may be increased or decreased for comfortable viewing and reading. Text resizing is a function of the web browser.

Visual guide on how to change text size on different web browsers.

Easy to follow video demonstration for resizing text within web browsers.

Alternative text

Images on diabetes.ca have alternative text attributes, often known as alt text. This means that when an image is used on a web page to convey information its content is also described in the alt text. This means that the image can be understood by text browsers and assistive technologies such as screen readers. If an image is used for simply decorative purposes, the text attribute for the image is left empty in line with accepted best practice.

Colour reliance and image alternatives

The Diabetes Canada website was created with colour impaired visitors in mind. The site was designed and was tested to conform to minimum contrast requirements for visitors with colour-blindness or other ocular impairments that could prevent them from reading text that does not have sufficient colour contrast with background colours. Colour reliance and contrast requirements on the Diabetes Canada web site have been designed to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Priority 2 standard.

When images are disabled for any reason, the entire site was built to be fully navigable and usable.

The website never relies exclusively on colour or image to convey information.