IF you sell outside the United States, chances are you do business in Canada. And if you do business in Canada, chances are you do business in Ontario, which contains almost 40 % of the Canadian population.
But do you know about AODA?
AODA is the Accessibility for Ontarians Disabilities Act, but you would be mistaken to think of it as the ADA with an O added.
AODA includes a detailed customer service standard. https://www.aoda.ca/customer-care-standard/ That standard requires staff training on interacting and communicating with customers with disabilities, using assistive technology, and interacting with service animals.
Many organizations think that their job is done when their main website or product is accessible. That is most definitely NOT the case. Disabled customers around the world don’t want accessible products as much as they want accessible experiences. That includes all aspects of the product/website excluding the product/website itself. Things like
– Training
– Documentation
– Conferences
– Surveys
– Participating in user research
– Certifications, if available
And yes, customer support. The puppy sure is cute, but if someone at your organization repeated what it said to a customer, it would be a “ruff” experience for your organization when filing an AODA report or defending a lawsuit.
Alt: a pitbull pretending he is a customer support rep with his paw on the keyboard and a headset on with written caption: screen reader user? what’s a screen reader?