Video accessbility and localization in Canada

Background

Canada’s provinces and territories have some of the most progressive accessibility laws in the world. English and French are official languages, with English accounting for 60% of the population’s first language. French is the first official language spoken for 22.8% of the population. A further 20% of the population list another language as their first language.

As well as a diverse multilingual culture, Canada has some of the world’s most progressive web accessibility laws.

This combination of language multi-diversity and progressive accessibility demands for video and audio subtitling.

Localisation and language drivers

10 provinces and 3 territories cover 10 million square kilometres making it the world's second-largest country by total area.
Quebec (Capital: Quebec City) and New Brunswick (Capital Fredericton) have French as their official language, whilst the other 8 provinces have English as their official language - French and English are both official languages of Canada
It has 38 million inhabitants of which the majority of Francophones (85.4%) live in Quebec and over 1 million live in other regions of the country.
7.3 million (20%) of Canadians listed a non-official language as their mother tongue. Some of the most common non-official first languages include Chinese (1,227,680 first-language speakers), Punjabi (501,680), Spanish (458,850), Tagalog (431,385), Arabic (419,895), German (384,040), and Italian (375,645).

Accessibility overview

Canada’s provinces and territories have some of the most progressive accessibility laws in the world set both at the federal and provincial level
Multiple laws underpin accessibility, many of them follow W3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and include criteria for success in captioning

Download this data sheet and full list of applicable federal and province laws here

Canadian Standard on Web Accessibility (CSWG)
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 Level AA Conformance
The Accessible Canada Act (Bill C-81) (ACA)
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)
The Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA)
Nova Scotia Accessibility Act
Quebec's Act to Secure Handicapped Persons in the Exercise of their Rights with a View to Achieving Social, School and Workplace Integration

Download

Accessible Canada Act/ACA

The Accessible Canada Act was introduced to create a barrier free Canada by 2040

The ACA itself is intentionally opaque, mainly asking regulators to impose guidelines, policies and reporting structures between now and 2040
One further note, the ACA won’t cover all private sector orgs - simply put it applies to any federal organization or any private organization that is under federal jurisdiction such as banking, telecommunication, and transportation
A summary of ACA can be found here https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/accessible-people-disabilities/act-summary.html#h2.10

Background

As well as a diverse multilingual culture, Canada has some of the world’s most progressive web accessibility laws.

This combination of language multi-diversity and progressive accessibility demands for video and audio subtitling.

Localisation and language drivers

10 provinces and 3 territories cover 10 million square kilometres making it the world's second-largest country by total area.

Quebec (Capital: Quebec City) and New Brunswick (Capital Fredericton) have French as their official language, whilst the other 8 provinces have English as their official language - French and English are both official languages of Canada

It has 38 million inhabitants of which the majority of Francophones (85.4%) live in Quebec and over 1 million live in other regions of the country.

7.3 million (20%) of Canadians listed a non-official language as their mother tongue. Some of the most common non-official first languages include Chinese (1,227,680 first-language speakers), Punjabi (501,680), Spanish (458,850), Tagalog (431,385), Arabic (419,895), German (384,040), and Italian (375,645).

Accessible Canada Act/ACA

The Accessible Canada Act was introduced to create a barrier free Canada by 2040

The ACA itself is intentionally opaque, mainly asking regulators to impose guidelines, policies and reporting structures between now and 2040

One further note, the ACA won’t cover all private sector orgs - simply put it applies to any federal organization or any private organization that is under federal jurisdiction such as banking, telecommunication, and transportation

A summary of ACA can be found here https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/accessible-people-disabilities/act-summary.html#h2.10