After visiting their new site http://www.iheartradio.ca/newstalk-1010 it was clear they didn’t know anything about website accessibility or even the AODA.
It has been a long time since I’ve Audited a site with so many errors, the W3C Validator has a whopping 545 errors alone (Validator Results)
I also used my favourite Automated Tool for checking, Total Validator and it also came back with 382 errors (Total Validator Report, Word document(.docx)(, 249kb).
Using this tool is only the beginning of an Audit so I started to look through the site with my screen reader for the usual accessibility issues and it only reinforced how little the developers know about the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines under which the AODA uses for web accessibility, for example most of the graphical links read as follows: “policy:1.1955220:1474909853/28329379001-5141570711001-5141542954001-vs-jpg”anyone know where that would lead to?
It was also telling that I did a search for Accessibility and got no results, not even any Accessibility Policies which they should have developed and placed on their website by now, see https://www.aoda.ca/deadline-to-prepare-accessibility-policies-approaching/
According to the AODA:
(2) Designated public sector organizations and large organizations shall make their internet websites and web content
conform with the World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)2.0, initially at Level A and
increasing to Level AA, and shall do so in accordance with the schedule set out in this section.
I’m pretty sure that NewsTalk 1010 has more than 50 employees so this would apply to them:
Designated public sector organizations, as well as private and not-for-profit organizations with 50+ employees January 1, 2014
New internet websites and web content on those sites must conform with WCAG 2.0 Level A.
According to the Automated Audit their Website has 151 WCAG 2.0 A errors so they aren’t even close to meeting the guidelines. It’s not like this is an old site and they are refreshing it,it is brand new from the ground up.
They are also branding it as an App named iHeart Radio with a suite of websites perhaps they’ve found some grey area that allows them to scurt the Law either way this is a great example of why the Government needs to enforce the Law, it doesn’t look like Bell Media is following the AODA out of the goodness of their iHeart as the Ontario boasts companies will do.
I did a search of my old articles and this is not the first time that they’ve rebuilt their website, back in 2007 they created a new one for which I did a Site Check
I had contacted the Station Manager at that time and he basically dismissed me, and as of this writing the new station manager has not returned my email where I sent him the automated report to read.
If they had consulted with Inclusive Media & Design they would not have to worry about their site not complying with the AODA.
What this boils down to is that this Government needs to start enforcing the AODA or big business like Bell Canada will just keep thumbing their noses at the AODA, time to throw away the carrot and get out the stick!