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Georgian College Accessibility Plan

Accessibility at Georgian

Introduction

Georgian's Accessibility Plan impacts many different aspects of the College. The plan is being distributed and reviewed by educators, students, community, managers, union representatives and physical resource personnel on all campuses.

The Ontario Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) 2005, became law on June 13, 2005.

The purpose of the Act is to:

  • Develop, implement and enforce accessibility standards with respect to the goods, services, facilities, accommodation, employment, buildings, structures and premises by January 1, 2025.
  • Provide for the involvement of persons with disabilities, the Government of Ontario and representatives of various sectors of the economy in the development of accessibility standards.

Commitment to Accessibility Planning

Georgian College is committed to continually improving access to all College premises, facilities, and services which spans across three main campuses and four regional campuses located throughout Central Ontario, Canada.

The aim of Georgian’s annual Accessibility Plan is to identify, remove and prevent barriers to persons with disabilities and establish priorities for future accommodations.

Recent Initiatives

  • Colour contrasting paint on stair nosings in courtyard between Library Commons, K and B Building, Barrie
  • New Centre for Access office / lab, Owen Sound
  • Replace interlock brick with concrete at main entrance, Owen Sound
  • Reviewed two workshop formats and two on-line customer service staff training applications
  • Initial planning for Centre for Access and Disability Services Midland and Muskoka (Bracebridge) campuses

Distribution of the Accessibility Plan

View Georgian College's most recent Accessibility Plan or use the links above on this page to view current and past Accessibility Plans.

Alternate formats of Georgian's Accessibility Plan are available by calling (705) 728-1968, ext. 1257

Summary

The AODA includes standards that must be met, as well as penalties for not adhering or complying with these standards.

As Georgian College strives to be a leader in its field, implementing our accessibility plan will benefit not only persons with disabilities, but the College community at large.

Web Standards and Accessibility

Georgian College's web site is being developed based on the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and other standards bodies. We are working towards a fully developed web standards site. The goal of web standards is to ensure accessibility and usability of all web content to all users. This includes cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

  • Guideline 1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.
  • Guideline 2. Don't rely on color alone. Ensure that text and graphics are understandable when viewed without color.
  • Guideline 3. Use markup (XHTML) and cascading style sheets (CSS) and do so properly.
  • Guideline 4. Clarify natural language usage
  • Guideline 5. Create tables that transform gracefully. Tables should be used for tabular information ("data tables"), and should not be used to lay out pages ("layout tables").
  • Guideline 6. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully. Ensure that pages are accessible even when newer technologies are not supported or are turned off.
  • Guideline 7. Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes.
  • Guideline 8. Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.
  • Guideline 9. Design for device-independence.
  • Guideline 10. Use interim accessibility solutions so that assistive technologies and older browsers will operate correctly.
  • Guideline 11. Use W3C technologies and guidelines.
  • Guideline 12. Provide context and orientation information.
  • Guideline 13. Provide clear navigation mechanisms.
  • Guideline 14. Ensure that documents are clear and simple.

View the complete WCAG documentation.