AODA Document Accessibility Assessment & Remediation Strategy for an Ontario Municipality
Only 25% of documents met conformance standards. The problem was not the documents. It was the workflows, tools, and training gaps that produced them.
Project Overview
A large Ontario municipality engaged Accessibility Partners to assess the accessibility of its public-facing PDF documents and to understand why non-conformance was occurring — not just to document it. The result was both a document-level remediation plan and an organisational strategy to prevent the same problems from recurring.
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The Document Conformance & Workflow Challenge
Municipalities publish hundreds of documents annually, produced by staff across dozens of departments. Accessibility awareness, authoring tools, and workflows vary widely. The municipality suspected significant non-conformance but did not know the extent, the root causes, or where to begin.
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Our Document Audit & Strategy Approach
We audited 48 representative documents against AODA and PDF/UA standards. Simultaneously, we surveyed the 117 staff members responsible for creating those documents — achieving an 85.7% response rate. The survey covered authoring tools, workflow practices, training levels, and accessibility awareness.
Combining the audit findings with the survey data allowed us to identify not just which documents failed, but why and to build a remediation strategy that addressed the underlying organisational causes rather than simply fixing 48 individual PDFs.
Project Snapshot
- Industry
- Municipal Government
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
- Compliance Standard
- AODA
AODA Document Assessment Results
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48 documents audited: 25% conformance rate
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117 document contributors surveyed at 85.7% response rate
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Root causes identified: training gaps, inconsistent workflows, absence of accessible templates
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Document-specific remediation guidance delivered for all 48 documents
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Organisational remediation strategy addressing processes, tooling, and training delivered
Services Used
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Organisational Survey
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Remediation Strategy
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a document accessibility audit and a document remediation strategy?
An audit identifies accessibility problems, while a remediation strategy focuses on fixing root causes and preventing future issues.
How do you identify the root causes of document non-conformance across an organisation?
We review workflows, tools, templates, staff training, and document creation practices.
What does an AODA and PDF/UA document audit actually check?
It checks headings, tags, reading order, alt text, tables, links, colour contrast, and screen reader compatibility.
How do you prevent the same accessibility problems from recurring after remediation?
Organizations can improve templates, workflows, staff training, and quality assurance processes.