ACA vs AODA

What is ACA?

The Accessible Canada Act (ACA, 2019) requires federally regulated entities — federal government, banks, telecom, broadcasting, transportation — to identify, remove and prevent accessibility barriers, with the explicit goal of "a Canada without barriers by 2040" and detailed regulations layered on top including the ICT regulations referencing EN 301 549.

What is AODA?

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is a 2005 Ontario law that mandates accessibility for the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors operating in Ontario — including a digital requirement that public-facing websites conform to WCAG 2.0 Level AA.

ACA vs AODA — the key differences

The principal difference is jurisdictional: ACA applies in Canada — federally regulated entities, while AODA applies in Ontario, Canada. ACA is maintained by Accessibility Standards Canada; AODA is maintained by Government of Ontario. The standards differ on scope, conformance grading, and penalty structure — but a well-designed accessibility programme can satisfy both simultaneously by adopting the strictest applicable requirement and cross-mapping findings.

How to comply with both at once

Adopt the stricter applicable conformance level — typically WCAG 2.2 Level AA — as your engineering baseline. Audit against that baseline once, then cross-map findings to both ACA and AODA specific requirements. A single Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) using VPAT 2.5 INT can document both.

When you might need just one

If you operate exclusively in Canada — federally regulated entities and have no cross-border procurement exposure, you may only need ACA. The same applies in reverse for AODA. For organisations selling cross-border, into the EU or US public sector, the safer default is to plan to both simultaneously.

Sources

• Accessible Canada Act — Government of Canada
• AODA — Government of Ontario — Government of Ontario