The whole point of communicating is to deliver a message that people understand and appreciate. Achieving that can take a lot of effort. However, if your message never gets delivered, all that effort goes to waste. Accessibility is a process to ensure it doesn’t.
Translation is a form of accessibility. When you have your communications translated, you make them more accessible—people who speak other languages can read them and act on them. They have access to them.
But accessibility is about more than language. It’s about making your communications available to everyone, no matter what challenges stand in their way—people with visual or hearing impairments, those with motor or cognitive limitations, those with physical disabilities, in fact anyone who may encounter difficulties with a keyboard and a screen.
It’s the law in some jurisdictions
In Ontario, Canada, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, adopted in 2005, has come into effect gradually over the years, first for public sector organizations and now for private organizations with 50 or more employees. There are three compliance levels (A, AA, and AAA) under the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, whose first version (WCAG 2.0) was updated with more comprehensive guidelines in 2018 (WCAG 2.1) and 2023 (WCAG 2.2). Ontario organizations are currently required to meet WCAG 2.0, level AA. The province of Manitoba also requires compliance, but with the higher WCAG 2.1 standard.
What this means
Although there are finer details to take into account, organizations seeking to meet the AA compliance level must:
- provide text alternatives for non-text content such as images or video,
- enable keyboard navigation,
- support screen readers, and
- ensure colour contrast is sufficient for readability.
The WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 updates add requirements with regard to certain display and navigation features.
In the United States
Accessibility requirements exist in the United States, too, where the Department of Justice updated its regulations for state and local governments in 2024 under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Public officials now must ensure their documents meet the updated WCAG 2.1 level AA standard by April 2027 (sooner in jurisdictions with populations over 50,000). Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 also imposes requirements on federal agencies.
The difference between compliance levels
The difference between levels A, AA, and AAA is a matter of user experience. For instance, level A says that you must be able to navigate the site using a keyboard, level AA adds that navigation must remain consistent throughout the site, and level AAA further adds that no activities may time out. There are numerous other points of compliance.
It’s just good business
When you consider that 1 billion people around the word have some form of disability (visual, hearing, motor, cognitive), it just makes sense to make your documents accessible, no matter what the law says. Those 1 billion people are all people you need to talk to. And like everyone else, they do everything over the web—make dinner reservations, renew their drivers licence, schedule a flu shot, send birthday greetings, file their income taxes, and more!
It pays to be inclusive
Research has amply demonstrated that being inclusive pays dividends. It unlocks new audiences, burnishes your corporate image, and spurs creativity. Having an accessible website also boosts search engine optimization, a big side benefit.
Remember too that we live in a rapidly greying world. In countries like the U.S. and Canada, the elderly are a bigger and bigger target market—and many of them have money to spend!
The good news: TRSB can handle it all
Accessibility fits perfectly with translation. They are both steps in the document production process and they both require advanced language skills. At TRSB, we have an accessibility team that works hand in hand with our writers and translators. Everybody’s right there!
We also have a complete desktop publishing department with advanced file processing capabilities. We can work with virtually any document and any website. And all the work is coordinated by a single project manager, no matter how many languages are involved.
A turnkey accessibility partner
Inquire today how TRSB can make your documentation fully accessible. At the end of the process, you’ll receive a compliance report that documents our quality control process and completion of the WCAG checklist. If you also require PDF compliance with the universal accessibility standard (PDF/UA), we can handle that too.