How to File Your AODA Compliance Report: A Step-by-Step Guide for 2026

If your business or non-profit has 20 or more employees in Ontario, you must file an AODA compliance report every three years. The report confirms whether you meet the requirements of Ontario's Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR), and the next filing deadline for businesses and non-profits is December 31, 2026.

You file online, in the province's Accessibility Compliance Reporting Portal. The report is short: a handful of yes-or-no questions, one per area of the regulation, plus your organization's details and a certification signed off by someone with authority to bind the organization. Most of the work happens before you open the portal, in checking whether you can honestly answer "yes".

This guide walks through who must file, what the questions cover, what to gather first, the filing steps themselves, and what to do if one of your answers is "no", which most often happens on the website question.

Who must file an AODA compliance report

Every organization in Ontario with at least one employee that provides goods, services or facilities has to follow the accessibility standards. Filing a report is a separate duty, and it depends on your size and sector.

The split for organizations with 20 to 49 employees surprises people. Section 86.1 of the regulation exempts them from reporting on everything except the customer service standards, so their report is very short. That doesn't mean the other rules don't apply to them; it means they don't report on them. Our guide to AODA requirements for small business sets out what each size band has to do.

How to count your employees

Ontario's guidance says to use your peak employee count at any one time during the previous 12 months. Count full-time, part-time, seasonal and contract workers in Ontario. Don't count employees outside Ontario or outside contractors. A business with 15 permanent staff that hires 10 seasonal workers every summer has 25 employees for AODA purposes, and has to file.

What the AODA compliance report asks

The 2026 report is filed through an online portal that replaced the downloadable PDF form used in earlier cycles. According to the ministry's portal user guide, each question asks whether you comply with all applicable requirements of one section of the regulation. Question 1, for example, reads: "Is your organization in compliance with all applicable requirements of the General Section?"

• 20–49 employees: one compliance question, covering the customer service standards.
• 50+ employees: six compliance questions, including one about the transportation standards that only matters if you provide transportation services, directly or through a third party.

You answer Yes or No. If you answer No, the portal shows a list of checkboxes so you can mark the specific areas where you're not compliant, plus an "Other" field. There's a comments box on every question, whatever your answer.

What "compliant with the General section" actually means

A broad question is harder to answer honestly than a narrow one, because it bundles many requirements together. The 2023 report broke those requirements out into separate questions, and they are a good checklist for what the 2026 questions cover. For a business with 50 or more employees, they asked whether you:

• Have written accessibility policies describing how you meet the IASR, including a statement of commitment.
• Have a multi-year accessibility plan that is posted on your website, available in an accessible format on request, and updated at least once every five years.
• Train staff and volunteers on the IASR and on the Ontario Human Rights Code as it applies to people with disabilities.
• Have an accessible feedback process, and tell the public that accessible formats and communication supports are available for it.
• Have public websites that conform to WCAG 2.0 Level AA, apart from live captions and pre-recorded audio description. The 2023 form also asked you to list every website, social media page and app you publish.
• Train everyone who deals with the public on accessible customer service, including how to interact with people who use assistive devices, service animals or support persons.
• Post notice of temporary disruptions to facilities or services that people with disabilities rely on, with the reason, expected duration and any alternatives.
• Provide individualized workplace emergency response information to employees with disabilities who need it, and review it when their situation changes.
• Meet the Design of Public Spaces standards for anything you have built or redeveloped since 2017, such as service counters, waiting areas or off-street parking.

Policies and plans have their own guide: how to write an AODA accessibility policy and multi-year plan. For training, see AODA training requirements.

What you need before you start

Gather these before you sign in. It makes the filing itself a short job.

• Your organization's legal name and operating name.
• Your nine-digit business number (BN9), from your federal or provincial tax return. If you don't have one, contact the ministry for an AODA identifier number to use instead.
• Your organization category (business or non-profit) and employee count in Ontario.
• Your business address and mailing address.
• The name and contact details of your certifier: a director, senior officer or other person with authority to bind the organization.
• A primary contact for the ministry, if that's someone other than the certifier.
• A list of your public websites, web apps and social media pages, and evidence of how each one measures up against WCAG 2.0 AA.
• Your accessibility policies, multi-year plan and training records, so the certifier can see what they are signing off on.

How to file an AODA compliance report, step by step

These steps follow the ministry's February 2026 user guide for the portal. Screens can change, so check the ministry's filing page if anything looks different.

1. Open the portal. Go to the Accessibility Compliance Reporting Portal. You can also reach it from Ontario's Central Forms Repository, under the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility.
2. Create an account. Select "Sign In / Create Account", then "Create Account". Enter an email address and password, confirm the verification code sent to your email, and add your name and phone number. Use an email address your organization will still have in three years: if you lose access to it, you have to open a new account and your previous progress is lost.
3. Start a new submission. Choose "New Submission", find "Accessibility Compliance Report" and select "Begin Submission".
4. Choose your category and employee range. Pick Business / Non-profit and your range (1–19, 20–49 or 50+). These two answers decide which questions you get, so get them right.
5. Add your organization. Enter the legal name, BN9, employee count and addresses. You can add up to 20 organizations on one report, but only if they share the same category, employee range, certifier and answers to every compliance question. Otherwise each one needs its own report.
6. Certify. The certifier checks the acknowledgement ("I certify that all the information is accurate, and I have the authority to bind the organization"), enters the date and their contact details, and names a primary contact. If someone else is preparing the report, save it and use "Share" in Saved Submissions to email the certifier a link.
7. Answer the compliance questions. Select Yes or No for each one, tick the areas of non-compliance for any No, and add comments where they help.
8. Review and submit. Check the summary page, then select Submit. If any answer is No, a confirmation window sets out the legal reminder and next steps before you confirm.
9. Keep your confirmation. The certifier and primary contact each receive an email with a confirmation number. From Previous Submissions you can print a PDF copy.

You can select Save at any stage and come back later from Saved Submissions. One quirk: saving a new draft for the same organization overwrites the existing draft rather than creating a second one.

After you file

Section 14 of the AODA requires you to make your filed report available to the public. Keep the PDF copy where you can share it, for example alongside your accessibility policies. If your address, contact person, employee count or status changes between cycles, submit an Organization Profile Update in the same portal.

What happens if you don't file

Ontario describes its enforcement as progressive: education and outreach first, then audits of organizations that miss a reporting deadline or don't come into compliance, then orders and penalties if non-compliance continues. The ministry also runs compliance audits every year. Ignoring the deadline puts you in the group most likely to be audited.

The ministry did not give extensions to the 2023 deadline. Its advice to anyone who missed it was to file as soon as possible to reduce the impact on their compliance history. Orders and administrative penalties are covered on our AODA requirements, deadlines and penalties page.

If you can't honestly answer "yes" on the website question

For organizations with 50 or more employees, the website requirement is the one most likely to turn a "yes" into a "no". Since January 1, 2021, all public websites and web content published after January 1, 2012 must conform to WCAG 2.0 Level AA, except for live captions and pre-recorded audio description. Many sites that have never been tested don't.

Don't answer "yes" because you hope it's true. Providing false or misleading information in an accessibility report is an offence under section 37 of the AODA, separate from the underlying non-compliance. A truthful "no" with a plan behind it is the better position, legally and practically.

1. Find out where you stand. Run a free automated scan for a first look, then have the key pages and user journeys tested by hand. Automated tools catch only part of what WCAG requires.
2. Fix what you can before the deadline. Start with barriers that stop people completing tasks, such as forms that can't be used with a keyboard or unlabelled buttons.
3. Write down the rest. A dated accessibility remediation plan gives the ministry something concrete if it follows up.
4. Answer "no" and explain. Tick the area that isn't compliant and use the comments box to say what you've done and what's next.

Example comment: "Our website was audited against WCAG 2.0 Level AA in October 2026. Barriers in the online booking form and main navigation were fixed in November. The remaining issues, mostly older PDF documents, are scheduled for remediation by June 2027, and accessible versions are available on request in the meantime."

In its 2023 guidance, the ministry said that filing a report showing non-compliance doesn't trigger automatic enforcement. It offers support instead, and agrees a date by which you're expected to report full compliance. That approach could change, but it shows the system is built to reward organizations that file honestly and act.

Frequently asked questions