Since May 1, 2025, every organization with one or more employees in Manitoba has been required to keep its website accessible to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Failing to comply with an accessibility standard is an offence under the Act. We audit, repair and document your website so it meets the standard, without changing how it looks.
Each section number links to the official text on the Province of Manitoba’s laws website (web2.gov.mb.ca). Summary for general information, not legal advice.
§1What we examine
Fifty success criteria. These five fail most often.
Every audit tests your site against all 50 WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA criteria. On small-business websites, the same few problems account for most failures.
1
Images without text alternativesWCAG 1.1.1 (opens in a new tab)Screen reader users hear nothing, or a file name.
2
Text too faint to readWCAG 1.4.3 (opens in a new tab)Body text needs 4.5:1 contrast. Light grey on white often measures below 3:1.
A 20-minute call to understand your organization, your website and what applies to you.
Audit and quote
We test your website and send a written report and a fixed quote. You know the full cost before any work begins.
Remediation
We repair the issues and send before-and-after comparisons of every page for your approval.
Verification
We re-test against WCAG 2.1 AA and hand over the final report, your accessibility statement and the compliance pack.
§6Commitments
Standards we hold ourselves to.
Accessibility work is easy to oversell. These commitments are written into every engagement.
Trained to the Manitoba standardOur team has completed the Province of Manitoba’s training module on the Accessible Information and Communication Standard, under The Accessibility for Manitobans Act.
Fixed, written quotesThe price is agreed in writing after the audit, before any work begins.
Your design stays yoursFixes are made in the code. Where a visible change is unavoidable, we show it to you first and choose the smallest one that meets the standard.
No overlay widgetsWe never install “one-line” accessibility plugins. They do not make a site meet WCAG and often interfere with the assistive technology people already use.
Our work is guaranteedIf anything we repaired is found not to meet WCAG 2.1 AA, we correct it at no charge.
Verifiable reportingEvery finding cites the exact WCAG success criterion, so you or anyone you choose can check it independently.
§7Reporting
See exactly what you receive.
Each finding lists the WCAG reference, severity, location and recommended fix. Review a complete sample before you speak with us.
Excerpt: findings from a sample audit (fictional business)
Website requirement now applies to every organization with one employee or more
The Accessible Information and Communication Standard now applies to any organization subject to the Act with one or more employees in Manitoba (Man. Reg. 47/2022, s. 2(c) (opens in a new tab)). Web content must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA under s. 7(1) (opens in a new tab).
Information and communication standard reaches the public sector
The standard begins to apply to government agencies, health authorities, the City of Winnipeg and listed cities, educational institutions and libraries (Man. Reg. 47/2022, s. 2(b) (opens in a new tab)).
The World Wide Web Consortium publishes WCAG 2.2, which builds on and is backwards compatible with WCAG 2.1. Manitoba’s regulation continues to reference WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
Does the accessibility standard apply to my organization?
Very likely. The Accessible Information and Communication Standard Regulation (Man. Reg. 47/2022), made under The Accessibility for Manitobans Act, covers organizations with one or more employees in Manitoba. For most businesses and non-profits, the requirements applied from May 1, 2025 (s. 2(c) (opens in a new tab)). If you have staff in Manitoba and a public website, you should assume the web content requirements in s. 7 (opens in a new tab) apply to you. Our standard explained page sets out the timeline and the sections that matter most. This is general information, not legal advice.
I only have one employee. Am I still covered?
Yes. The regulation applies to organizations with one or more employees in Manitoba (s. 2(c) (opens in a new tab)). There is no small-business exemption based on headcount or revenue. Size does affect some obligations: only large employers must document their measures and policies (s. 3(2) (opens in a new tab)) and their training policy (s. 4(4) (opens in a new tab)). But the core web requirement, that web content meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA (s. 7(1) (opens in a new tab)), is the same for a one-person practice as for a larger firm. This is general information, not legal advice.
My website was built before 2025. Does it still need to comply?
Often, yes. Section 7(1) (opens in a new tab) applies to web content published on or after the applicable date, and also to web content that is needed to access your goods or services, whenever it was published. A contact page, a menu, a booking page or a product listing is usually needed to access what you offer. An old news post from 2019 may not be. In practice, most of a working business website falls within the requirement. An audit identifies which pages and features are in scope. This is general information, not legal advice.
Are there any exceptions?
Section 7(2) (opens in a new tab) sets out limited exceptions. Web content may be excepted where meeting WCAG 2.1 Level AA is not technically feasible, where the necessary technology is not readily available, where it would cause undue hardship, where the organization has no direct control over the content, or where the content is product labels or product information. These are narrow. "It would take some effort" is not the same as undue hardship. If you rely on an exception, you should be able to explain why it applies. This is general information, not legal advice.
