TORONTO - A Federal Court judge has ordered the government to make its websites accessible to visually impaired users after a blind Toronto woman said she'd been unable to apply for a job online.
Donna Jodhan, a special-needs business consultant with a MBA, launched a constitutional challenge aiming to grant visually impaired people equal access to the services and information on several federal government websites.
Government lawyers argued there was no discrimination because those same services are provided in other formats, such as on the phone, in person or by mail.
The court found today that the federal government has not implemented existing accessibility standards and that some of the standards are obsolete.
It gave Ottawa 15 months to update its websites in compliance with charter rights.
The case was argued in September.