Accessible Canada Act (ACA) Documentation
Table of Contents
- Employment
- The Built Environment
- Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
- Consultation Insights
- Communication (other than ICT)
- The Procurement of Goods, Services and Facilities
- The Design and Delivery of Programs and Services
- Transportation
Appendix A - ACA Section 6, Principles
Appendix B - Regulatory Conditions
General
Purpose and Scope
This Accessibility Plan has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Accessible Canada Act and its regulations (ACA).
The purpose of this Accessibility Plan is to outline Paramount Streaming Canada’s strategy for identifying, addressing, and preventing barriers to accessibility across our digital platforms and services. This includes our websites, applications, and the digital systems used by both customers and team members.
You can provide accessibility feedback (including feedback on this plan) or request an alternate format of our Accessibility Plan or description of our feedback process in several ways, including by:
Feedback form on our website | Contact Us form |
Phone | (416) 969-7116 |
Website: | |
Contact Person | John Sweet Vice President, Accessibility and Technology Compliance |
Feedback can be provided anonymously.
Principles of the ACA
This Accessibility Plan has been written in accordance with the principles of the ACA (see Appendix A).
Executive Summary
The guiding principles of dignity, independence, integration, and equal opportunity reflect our commitment to ongoing progress and transparency. This plan applies to all Paramount Streaming Canada operations subject to ACA requirements and will be reviewed and updated at least once every three years to reflect evolving best practices, feedback from persons with disabilities, and measurable progress against our accessibility goals.
Commitment to Accessibility.
Paramount Streaming Canada is committed to building a barrier-free digital environment where all users can access and enjoy our services independently and with dignity. As a division of Paramount Entertainment Canada ULC and part of a global entertainment company, we recognize the importance of accessibility not only as a compliance obligation but as a critical part of our responsibility to the public.
As part of the Paramount Streaming division, Paramount+ is dedicated to continuously improving the accessibility of our platforms through proactive design, inclusive development practices, user feedback, and collaboration with experts in accessibility and assistive technology. We understand accessibility as an ongoing effort, one that requires listening to our users, responding to their needs, and embedding inclusive thinking into every part of our organization.
Consultations
Prior to and during the preparation of our Accessibility Plan, we conducted several consultation initiatives to obtain invaluable input from our community and industry experts in Canada.
Contact Support Page
Paramount+ maintains a support form on its support website that includes support information specific to accessibility. Our support form is designed to collect information from persons with disabilities in a range of areas, such as:
- Content accessibility (i.e., closed captioning, audio description)
- Digital accessibility (i.e., assistive technology use on the websites and applications)
- Information access (i.e., public-facing information about Paramount+’s accessibility features)
Additionally, Paramount+ offers a public point of contact for accessibility inquiries. The Accessibility Champion receives this feedback and ensures it is directed to the appropriate teams for follow-up.
Feedback from Canadian viewers submitted to our Accessibility Champion and through our public support form has shaped accessibility priorities, particularly regarding assistive technology usability and content availability.
External Accessibility Audits
To inform this plan, Paramount+ engaged Applause, a third-party accessibility testing vendor, to conduct a comprehensive review of the Paramount+ application. The assessment included assistive technology testing across web, mobile, and connected TV platforms, as well as evaluation of the visual user interface for alignment with accessibility best practices. Findings from this review were used to identify current strengths and areas of improvement based on current WCAG 2.2 (Web Compliance Accessibility Guidelines) AA standards, and coupled with feedback from our consultations helped shape the direction of the plan.
External Collaboration
We have engaged with several advocacy groups and experts as part of the development of this plan, and are continuing to set up conversations, presentations, and workshops and to inform our approach.
Prior to the development of this plan, representatives from Paramount+ met with members of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) to seek feedback from the blind and low vision community and to explore opportunities for sustained engagement. The discussion was led by David Greenidge, Director of Operations for CNIB Access Labs, and Monica Enica, a member of the CNIB’s corporate engagement team. The consultation focused on the accessibility of streaming platforms and user experiences for Canadians with vision loss.
David Greenidge emphasized the importance of accessible core features such as closed captioning, color contrast, clearly tagged links, and screen reader compatibility. He stressed the need for users to easily access these features using commonly available interfaces, such as television remote controls. He also highlighted the value of inclusive testing practices, which take into account a variety of assistive technology combinations, including JAWS with Chrome, VoiceOver on Apple devices, and TalkBack on Android.
Monica Enica discussed the limitations of many physical TV remotes for users with vision loss and emphasized the importance of alternative methods of interaction—particularly via smartphones like the iPhone, which many users in the blind community rely on due to its accessibility leadership. The group also discussed the potential benefits of indoor wayfinding technologies, both for blind and low vision users and for individuals who are neurodivergent, as a forward-looking opportunity to support inclusion in public and corporate environments.
This initial conversation provided valuable insight into the expectations and challenges experienced by blind and low vision users in Canada and laid the groundwork for potential long-term collaboration with CNIB to gather ongoing feedback and guidance.
Priority Areas
Employment
Our goal is to ensure that employment at Paramount+ is accessible, inclusive, and supportive for people with disabilities. We’re working to identify and reduce barriers across the employee experience—from recruitment and onboarding to day-to-day work and career growth. We aim to foster a workplace where everyone can contribute fully and feel valued, and we welcome feedback as we continue to improve our practices.
The Built Environment
While many of our team members work remotely, we remain mindful of accessibility in our physical workspaces. Our goal is to ensure that the work environments are accessible, welcoming, and usable for employees and visitors with disabilities. We are committed to identifying and addressing potential barriers as part of our ongoing efforts to support an inclusive workplace in partnership with Paramount Corporate’s facilities management.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
Outcome
Ensure that all Paramount+ support resources and public communications are perceivable, operable, and understandable for users with disabilities. We aim to provide complete, helpful information about accessibility features and support, and to make it easy for viewers to contact us with questions, concerns, or feedback.
Where We Are Now
Paramount+’s public-facing support sites include detailed accessibility information:
- Instructions for enabling closed captioning and audio description
- Keyboard commands for web player use
- A support form, and contact details for the Accessibility Champion
Internal accessibility reviews have confirmed general compatibility with assistive technology. Exceptions are listed below.
Identified Barriers
- Headings: The heading structure of some pages does not follow a valid hierarchical pattern, which can make it harder for screen reader users to understand the organization of content or navigate efficiently.
- Link Purpose: Some links, such as “View All”, lack sufficient context about their destination, making it harder for screen reader users to understand their purpose without additional surrounding information.
- Landmarks: Some pages have inconsistent use of landmarks and semantic markup, which can limit efficient navigation for assistive technology users and reduce clarity about page structure.
- Customer Support Technologies: Many methods of feedback require users to be sufficiently literate, keyboard and computer savvy. Deaf people who sign or people with disabilities that could limit their communication skills would benefit from alternative submission formats, such as video submissions, in addition to what exists today.
Actions
What we’ve done:
- Deliver Customer Support: Maintained direct email contact with viewers seeking assistance through the contact form on the support site.
- Inform Our Viewers: Integrated accessibility information into core help content.
- Evaluate Accessibility: Performed internal accessibility reviews of the support site using screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, and sighted user testing.
- Customer Support Training: The Streaming Accessibility Team delivered training to Paramount+’s international customer support team to ensure that newly created support content meets accessibility standards.
What we’re doing:
- Evaluate Accessibility: Continue to evaluate the accessibility of the information and communications technologies we use for both internal and external audiences.
- Standardize Practices: Establish and standardize accessibility guidelines and authoring practices to ensure consistent implementation across all support content.
- Universal Design Principles: Adopt universal design principles and best practices in digital accessibility.
What we plan to do:
- Continuous Improvement: Remediate the barriers identified in our internal review and raised by interested groups.
- Monitor Accessibility: Establish a quarterly accessibility health check of support resources.
- Customer Support Training: Establish a regular cadence for the Streaming Accessibility Team to train the Paramount+ international customer support team on creating accessible support content, with emphasis on screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, and clear, semantically structured UI (user interface).
- Availability of Audio Described Content: As Paramount+ expands its catalog of audio described programming in Canada, a list of available titles will be published on the support site to help viewers easily find accessible content.
Consultation Insights
Feedback emphasized the importance of clearly labeled controls for turning on captions and descriptions and improving link text clarity and heading structures for screen reader users.
Communication (other than ICT)
Ensure that all Paramount+ support resources and communications are perceivable, operable, and understandable for users with disabilities. We aim to provide complete, helpful information about accessibility features and support, and to make it easy to contact us with questions, concerns, or feedback.
The Procurement of Goods, Services and Facilities
Ensure that all goods, services, and facilities procured for Paramount+ are perceivable, operable, and understandable for users with disabilities.
The Design and Delivery of Programs and Services
Outcome
Our goal is to ensure that all viewers, including those with disabilities, can access and enjoy Paramount+’s entertainment, news, sports, and lifestyle content. We are committed to providing closed captioning and audio description wherever feasible and expanding that coverage over time. At the same time, we continue to improve the accessibility of our platforms in accordance with recognized accessibility guidelines, ensuring that users can navigate and engage with our services independently and with ease.
Where We Are Now
Paramount+ engages with Applause, an external accessibility testing vendor, to conduct audits of its platforms across web, mobile, and connected TV. These audits include both assistive technology testing and visual interface evaluations.
Paramount+ voluntarily provides closed captioning for virtually all full-length English-language content. Closed captioning is a default requirement, and in the rare circumstances where content is initially delivered without captions, we make best efforts to ensure that this is corrected.
For audio description, Paramount+ makes a concerted effort to request described versions of content from partners when such files are available. Viewers can access information about our audio description features and supported platforms through the Paramount+ support site.
An internal triage process is in place to ensure viewer-reported accessibility issues—particularly those related to captions or audio description—are escalated and resolved in a timely and coordinated manner.
Identified Barriers
- Navigation Challenges: Concerns with focus order and keyboard accessibility make navigation difficult or confusing for users relying on keyboard navigation, impacting their ability to find what they need quickly and easily and making it difficult for users to navigate forms and other interactive elements efficiently.
- Gaps in Text Alternatives: Images and videos on our platforms sometimes lack text descriptions, impacting users who rely on screen readers or have visual impairments may miss out on important information.
- Video Content: Opportunities to expand the availability of video content with consistent and accurate Audio Described Video (DV) and Closed Captions (CC) to help users more thoroughly understand the content.
- Poor Color Contrast: Some text and background color combinations do not have enough contrast; users with visual impairments or color blindness may find it difficult to read the text.
- Communication Methods: Status messages (e.g., notifications) are not always accessible; users may miss important updates or information.
- Interactive Elements: Chat tools, drop-down menus, selection options, and online forms are not consistently accessible.
- Ineffective Error Messages: The amount of information required during an online transaction can sometimes be challenging, requiring more time to complete.
- Content Creation. Accessibility is not always considered from the outset in the creation of programs and services, creating potential for delay in audio descriptions or captions upon content delivery.
- Service Delivery. Delivery of services, including customer support and user interactions such as error messages status messages may not be fully accessible.
- Program Accessibility. Programs (e.g., shows, movies) may not be fully accessible due to issues with focus order and keyboard accessibility, including visual content and interactive elements.
- Audio Description: The availability of audio described content in Canada is limited. Paramount+ does not produce original programming and relies on licensors to supply described versions of their content. The audio description feature is currently only supported on a subset of platforms, which restricts access for some users who rely on this feature.
Actions
What we’ve done:
- Design Collaboration: Collaborated with the Design System team to incorporate accessibility standards early in the design process.
- Standardize Practices: The Streaming Accessibility Team authored an internal Accessibility Knowledge Base to act as a reference guide for designers, developers, and QA engineers.
- Evaluate Accessibility: Performed WCAG 2.2 audits across web, mobile, and connected TV platforms.
- Accessible Meetings Training: Delivered training on accessible communications, presentation techniques, and other inclusion practices to product managers and executive leadership.
- Customer Support Triage: Established an internal response channel to promptly collect and respond to customer concerns, especially those relating to closed captioning.
What we’re doing:
- Standardize Practices: Expanding the scope of the internal Accessibility Knowledge Base to include more detailed coverage for connected TV platforms.
- Automate and Scale: Exploring accessibility automation tools to be used by engineers in order to prevent new barriers and identify current ones
- External Validation Testing: Exploring a collaboration with Applause to integrate accessibility validation earlier in the product development lifecycle.
What we plan to do:
- Extensive Accessibility Training: Roll out a digital accessibility training to all of Paramount Streaming staff.
- QA Training: Pursue formal accessibility training and certifications for internal QA engineers at Paramount+.
Canadian users emphasized the importance of responsive support for captioning issues and requested greater availability of audio described content across a broader range of genres, including reality, sports, and news.
Transportation
We list it in this Plan as acknowledgment of its importance as part of the Accessible Canada Act, but the topic is largely outside the scope of Paramount+’s mandate. When and where transportation plans arise as part of our business operations, we will prioritize the ease of accessibility for persons with disabilities as part of our transportation procurement.
Regulatory Conditions
As required by section 42(1) of the ACA, we have set out the following applicable conditions and provisions:
- Conditions imposed under section 9.1 of the Broadcasting Act that relate to the identification and removal of barriers and the prevention of new barriers are set out in Appendix B.
- Provisions of any order made under subsection 9(4) of the Broadcasting Act that relate to the identification and removal of barriers and the prevention of new barriers are set out in Appendix B.
- Provisions of any regulations made under subsection 10(1) of the Broadcasting Act that relate to the identification and removal of barriers and the prevention of new barriers are set out in Appendix B.
Conclusion
We believe we can make a real difference for persons with disabilities by addressing the barriers described in our Accessibility Plan. We are motivated by the opportunity to improve accessibility for our employees, and to do our part to realize a barrier-free Canada.
As we implement our plan, we will continue to work and consult with persons with disabilities. We will publish an updated Accessibility Plan every three years and communicate updates by publishing interim progress reports every year in between, in accordance with the ACA.
Appendix A – ACA Section 6, Principles
In preparing this Accessibility Plan, we have taken into account the principles set out in section 6 of the ACA:
(a) all persons must be treated with dignity regardless of their disabilities;
(b) all persons must have the same opportunity to make for themselves the lives that they are able and wish to have regardless of their disabilities;
(c) all persons must have barrier-free access to full and equal participation in society, regardless of their disabilities;
(d) all persons must have meaningful options and be free to make their own choices, with support if they desire, regardless of their disabilities;
(e) laws, policies, programs, services and structures must take into account the disabilities of persons, the different ways that persons interact with their environments and the multiple and intersecting forms of marginalization and discrimination faced by persons;
(f) persons with disabilities must be involved in the development and design of laws, policies, programs, services and structures; and
(g) the development and revision of accessibility standards and the making of regulations must be done with the objective of achieving the highest level of accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Appendix B – Regulatory Conditions
Conditions imposed under section 9.1 of the Broadcasting Act that relate to the identification and removal of barriers and the prevention of new barriers
No conditions apply at the present time.
Provisions of any order made under subsection 9(4) of the Broadcasting Act that relate to the identification and removal of barriers and the prevention of new barriers.
No orders apply at the present time.
Provisions of any regulations made under subsection 10(1) of the Broadcasting Act that relate to the identification and removal of barriers and the prevention of new barriers
No regulations have been made at the present time.