A Digital Strategy Podcast

50 Employees? Your Website Is Probably Breaking the Law

Episode Summary

Most Ontario businesses think accessibility compliance is about ramps and doorways. Then a government auditor emails about their website. In this episode, Symon and Marcello sit down with David Fanjoy, partner at McMillan and an AODA compliance specialist, to break down what web accessibility law actually requires—and why more organizations are getting caught off guard. They cover who AODA applies to, what WCAG 2.0 AA means in plain language, the compliance report that quietly puts you on the government's radar, and why "it's not practical to comply" is the one argument that never works. Plus: how compliance officers actually behave, why a 60-day fix is impossible for an enterprise site, and the point where accessibility stops being about fines and starts being about who you're shutting out. A web-first breakdown of AODA for organizations that would rather get ahead of this than scramble.

Episode Notes

💡 Key Topics:

• What AODA actually covers on the web, and why it applies to all public websites and content if you have 50+ employees in Ontario
• WCAG 2.0 Level AA as the current legal floor, and why 2.1 and 2.2 matter even if the law hasn't caught up
• The compliance report trap: how self-reporting non-compliance gets you audited within weeks
• How compliance officers really operate, and why they reward engaging a consultant with a real timeline
• Why remediation and redesign are different, and how a full enterprise rebuild can take 12–16 months
• The PDFs problem: the accessibility gap teams forget after redesigning the whole site
• Employee thresholds explained (20–49 vs. 50+), including part-time and seasonal, and why contractors don't count
• Why Ontario led in 2005 and how BC, Nova Scotia, and Manitoba are now catching up
• How accessibility failures can escalate into Human Rights Code complaints
• The "not practical" loophole that doesn't exist once you account for available tools and consultants
• Why the real case for accessibility is ethical, not just legal—the people you cut out when information is missing

📖 Chapters:
0:06 — Why web gets overlooked in accessibility
0:44 — Why organizations fail: not caring vs. not understanding
1:03 — A web-first breakdown of AODA
1:48 — What AODA covers online, and the 50-employee threshold
03:19 — WCAG AA vs. AAA, and who meets the higher bar
03:57 — Ontario, the federal split, and other provinces catching up
06:13 — How monitoring and enforcement actually work
07:23 — Budget cuts, spot audits, and the reality of fines
09:28 — Why 30–60 days is fine for remediation, not redesign
11:18 — What makes compliance officers flexible (or prickly)
13:15 — Employee thresholds and the compliance report obligation
14:40 — Reporting non-compliance and getting auto-audited
17:16 — It's never too late to get started
17:50 — WCAG is evolving: letter of the law vs. spirit of the law
20:30 — Being proactive as a design mindset
21:54 — First steps: count your employees, then audit
23:38 — Start with an audit—compliance is only part of it
25:20 — When accessibility becomes a Human Rights Code issue
28:29 — One hard truth and one piece of encouragement
29:49 — The "not practical" loophole that isn't
30:08 — Where to reach David, and how Tennis can help

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