Accessibility Statement

Date of Last Revision: August 16, 2023

BGC Canada is committed to making its programming and web resources available and accessible to children and youth in our communities, as well as to our staff, volunteers and visitors. 

We have worked hard to ensure MyBGC is easy to use, interactive, and accessible to everyone, including those who visit this platform on a mobile device and those navigating the site with assistive devices such as screen readers.

How we have made MYBGC More Accessible

Consistent Site Structure and Layout

We’ve taken care to ensure the site has a simple and consistent structure, so visitors will be able to easily understand and navigate through all pages on the site.

Each page includes 3 main site areas:

  1. Header with main navigation
  2. Main content area
  3. Footer

When navigating the content on MyBGC, a 'breadcrumb trail' is visible in the header section of the page. This allows users to understand where they are at all times, and to return to a previous page with a single click.

The MyBGC logo in the top-right segment of the page is visible at all times. Clicking this logo will always return you to the platform's homepage. 

TypeFaces and fonts

MyBGC uses sans-serif typefaces to improve readability for users of all ages and abilities. Text is written in AODA-compliant sizes to ensure accessibility; users may also use the zoom feature of their browser to further increase font size.

Italics and special characters are used as little as possible to improve the readability of our content.

Described Images

For images where the content of the image will add additional context or enhance your understanding of the site, we have added alternative text. These descriptions (alternative text attributes) replace the information that would be conveyed by images for visitors using screen readers or when the images are turned off.

Use of Colour

The web site does not include content or functionality which relies on colour alone to convey key information.

Links

We’ve worked to ensure that the purpose of all links on the site is clear so you will know where each link goes before you click on it. Whenever possible, the link destination will be clear from both the link or button text and the content immediately above where the link appears.

Text To Speech

There is a "Listen To This Article" button in the bottom-left corner of the website. This button is available at all times and will read the main content areas of the page. You can control the speed, volume, tone, and accent of the digital voice once it has begun reading.

This feature is powered by the ReadAloud Widget. To learn more about this widget, visit ReadAloud Widget.

Accessibility Compliance and Drupal 9

AODA Compliance

MyBGC has been designed to be AODA compliant. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, or AODA, identifies, removes, and prevents barriers for people with disabilities. The AODA includes requirements that all organizations must meet, with deadlines specific to an organization’s type and size. AODA became law in 2005 and applies to all levels of government, nonprofits, and private sector businesses operating in Ontario.

To learn more about the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, visit the official AODA website.

About Drupal 9

MyBGC is built on a web platform called Drupal 9. Drupal is renowned for its scalability, security, robustness, and diversity as a software platform. Its mature and dependable development community helps to ensure this platform can deliver engaging and dynamic learning content.

To learn more about Drupal, visit Drupal 9 | Build the best of the web | Drupal.org. 

Drupal core supports Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG 2.0, accessibility standards as do many of Drupal’s community-contributed modules. As this website is updated, we will only include new modules and content that support WCAG 2.0.

To learn more about the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines, visit Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 (w3.org)

Accessibility Barriers

We have worked to make sure valuable features on our site are accessible and provide a valuable experience to as wide an audience as possible. However, we are not yet able to ensure a fully accessible experience. Below are some notable accessibility barriers found on this platform.

Bilingual Support

BGC Canada is a national charity that operates in both English and French. At launch in May 2023, MyBGC is only available in English. We recognize the barrier that this presents to Francophone users and are committed to translating and uploading French equivalents of the content on this platform.

Accessible CAPTCHAs

We have added CAPTCHAs to some of our forms. CAPTCHAs are used to ensure that forms are being filled in by human beings and not robots by requesting that before submitting the form, the site visitor complete basic tasks that cannot be easily replicated by bots. CAPTCHA are typically difficult to make fully accessible. To improve form accessibility, we’ve chosen to use a CAPTCHA designed with accessibility in mind that includes an option to use an audio test rather than a visual one.

External Links and PDFs

Some documents on this platform are in PDF format which will open in a new browser window. To view PDF documents without your web browser, you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat Reader. Adobe’s free reader includes support for screen readers to read PDF documents. You can download the reader free from Adobe at https://get.adobe.com/reader/. 

Contact Us

We are committed to providing the best possible online experience for our site visitors. We welcome your feedback and questions, as well as recommendations for improving our site.

To provide this feedback, please contact us by email at mybgc@bgccan.com.