Accessibility testing · Canada
Accessibility Testing Services in British Columbia
Accessible BC reaches the public sector, so we audit against what actually reaches you.
Where British Columbia stands right now
British Columbia has an accessibility act. It does not reach your website. That sounds like a technicality, and it is not, because it decides who you answer to today. The Accessible British Columbia Act, passed in 2021, brought a regulation into force on September 1, 2022 that designates more than 750 public sector organizations, local governments and school districts and health authorities and public libraries among them. Each of those has to run an accessibility committee, publish a plan and take feedback. None of that is a web conformance duty and none of it reaches private business.
Worth knowing what is queued behind it, too, because it is not what people assume. The first two standards went to the Minister at the end of 2025, and they cover employment and service delivery. Neither one is a web standard, and the province has announced no information and communication standard at all. So what reaches a British Columbia website right now is federal or nothing. The Accessible Canada Act carries CAN/ASC-EN 301 549, which holds WCAG 2.1 AA inside it. It binds federally regulated organizations wherever they sit. Banking, telecoms, broadcasting, airlines, Crown corporations. Everyone else is left with human rights law. And with the cost of a checkout nobody can finish. So here is what we do about it. We audit against all 55 WCAG 2.2 A and AA rules by hand, with a professional blind screen-reader user working your real journeys. WCAG 2.2 is the bar the next standard will be written against.
The law that reaches you in British Columbia
Accessible Canada Act (ACA)
- Standard
- CAN/ASC-EN 301 549 → WCAG 2.1 AA
- Where it stands
- Dec 5, 2027 / Dec 5, 2028
- Who it binds
- Public and private sectors
- Reaches sellers based abroad
- Not by itself
- What non-compliance costs
- Penalties up to CA$250,000 per violation
- Via CAN/ASC-EN 301 549
- 2.1 AA
- Max penalty (CAD)
- $250k
- Federal web deadline
- Dec 2027
- Private employees covered
- 100+
The Accessible Canada Act dates, 4 of them
- Jul 11, 2019ACA in force
- 2022 to 2024First accessibility plans and feedback processes fall due, a year after each group's fixed day
- Dec 5, 2027Federal public sector web pages: CAN/ASC-EN 301 549:2024
- Dec 5, 2028Mobile apps and documents, plus private entities with 100+ employees
What accessibility testing in British Columbia covers
Start with the honest part. The audit is the same in British Columbia as it is anywhere, because WCAG does not change at a border. What changes is which law is watching and what it costs to fail, and the section above settles that.
The work itself runs in three passes. A machine finds the failures a machine can prove. A human works every one of the 55 A and AA rules by hand. Then a professional blind screen-reader user opens your real journeys and tries to finish them, the way your customers would. Every finding arrives with its screenshot and the fix that closes it, drawn from our free library of 432 guides.
None of the reference sits behind a form, either. Every number below counts pages you can go and read right now, free, whether you ever buy an audit or not.
- A and AA rules we check
- 55
- Techniques and failures
- 432
- ACT test rules
- 90
- ARIA roles documented
- 94
- Terms in the glossary
- 131
- Checklists to work from
- 9
- A free 10-page scan that finds what a machine can prove, before you spend anything
- Paid audits at fixed prices on the pricing page, $499 for 10 pages in 5 business days, $1,499 for 25 in 10
- The exact deliverable, free to read, as the sample report
The honest limit
And an audit is evidence, not a legal opinion. We tell you what fails, who it stops, and what closes it. Whether that satisfies a regulator or a court in British Columbia is a question for your lawyer, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Questions owners in British Columbia ask us
Does the audit change because my site is in British Columbia?
No. WCAG is the same standard everywhere, so the testing is identical wherever you are. What changes is which law is watching and what failing it costs, and that is what the law section on this page settles.
Which law applies to my site in British Columbia?
Accessible Canada Act is the one that reach British Columbia first, and each has its own page here covering what it asks for, who it lands on, and how it gets enforced. Sell into more than one market and more than one of them can reach you at the same time.
Do I have to publish an accessibility statement in British Columbia?
At least one of the laws that reaches British Columbia names an accessibility statement, so plan on publishing one. Our free generator writes it from what the audit found, so the page says what actually works today rather than what you hope works.
What does the audit cost, and how fast is the report?
A Rapid Audit is $499 for 10 pages, with the report in 5 business days. A Standard Audit is $1,499 for 25 pages in 10 business days. Once your team has fixed things, the re-audit is half price within 3 months.
Do you actually test with a blind user?
Yes, on every audit. A professional blind screen-reader user opens your real journeys and tries to finish them, and we write down where they stop. That is the pass no scanner can run.
Related on this site
The reading behind the law that reaches you in British Columbia, and the guides that turn it into work your team can do.
Cities we test in British Columbia
- Abbotsford, British Columbia
- Burnaby, British Columbia
- Campbell River, British Columbia
- Central Saanich, British Columbia
- Chilliwack, British Columbia
- Coldstream, British Columbia
- Colwood, British Columbia
- Comox, British Columbia
- Coquitlam, British Columbia
Show all 59
- Courtenay, British Columbia
- Cranbrook, British Columbia
- Dawson Creek, British Columbia
- Delta, British Columbia
- Esquimalt, British Columbia
- Fort St. John, British Columbia
- Kamloops, British Columbia
- Kelowna, British Columbia
- Lake Country, British Columbia
- Langford, British Columbia
- Langley, British Columbia
- Maple Ridge, British Columbia
- Metro Vancouver A, British Columbia
- Mission, British Columbia
- Nanaimo, British Columbia
- Nelson, British Columbia
- New Westminster, British Columbia
- North Cowichan, British Columbia
- North Saanich, British Columbia
- North Vancouver, British Columbia
- Oak Bay, British Columbia
- Parksville, British Columbia
- Penticton, British Columbia
- Pitt Meadows, British Columbia
- Port Alberni, British Columbia
- Port Coquitlam, British Columbia
- Port Moody, British Columbia
- Powell River, British Columbia
- Prince George, British Columbia
- Prince Rupert, British Columbia
- Richmond, British Columbia
- Saanich, British Columbia
- Salmon Arm, British Columbia
- Saltspring Island, British Columbia
- Sechelt, British Columbia
- Sidney, British Columbia
- Sooke, British Columbia
- Squamish, British Columbia
- Summerland, British Columbia
- Surrey, British Columbia
- Terrace, British Columbia
- Vancouver, British Columbia
- Vernon, British Columbia
- Victoria, British Columbia
- View Royal, British Columbia
- West Kelowna, British Columbia
- West Vancouver, British Columbia
- Whistler, British Columbia
- White Rock, British Columbia
- Williams Lake, British Columbia
Other provinces and territories in Canada
Accessibility testing in other countries
Show all 49
- Denmark
- Norway
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Canada
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Estonia
- Finland
- Greece
- Hungary
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Sweden
- Argentina
- Colombia
- China
- Hong Kong
- Taiwan
- Saudi Arabia
- Qatar
- United Arab Emirates
- Iceland
- Liechtenstein
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Japan
- South Korea
- India
- Israel
- Brazil
Find out where your site stands in British Columbia
Run the free scan. Read the sample report. Order the audit when you want the humans on it, and what lands is a report your developers, your lawyer or a regulator in British Columbia can act on.