Build in accessibility from the start Services should meet or exceed accessibility standards. Users with distinct needs should be engaged from the outset to ensure what is delivered will work for everyone. Guidance: Build in accessibility from the start Quality should be built in from the start, preventing the need to revisit previously implemented components due to issues, such as accessibility. The faster and earlier issues are found the less costly they are to fix. Accessibility in Canada is about creating communities, workplaces and services that enable everyone to participate fully in society without barriers. The Government of Canada is committed to taking a proactive and systemic approach for identifying, removing and preventing barriers to accessibility without delay complementing the rights of persons with disabilities under the Canadian Human Rights Act. To meet these commitments, accessibility should be a consideration throughout the service development lifecycle. This requires that accessibility be monitored and built into our processes to continually promote alignment with accessibility standards. While iterating and improving frequently and designing with users, accessibility should be a key consideration, and become a source of work items throughout the service design lifecycle. When designing with users, efforts should be made to identify a wide variety of users with a wide variety of needs, to ensure accessibility standards are met or exceeded. Aligned Behaviours 1. Starting at the outset, our team's service and platform design continually considers the lowest levels of digital skill, confidence and access. 2. Our team understands how to make their services or products accessible. 3. Our team considers accessibility throughout the service design process. 4. Research and testing are conducted to ensure our service is accessible to people of all abilities no matter how, where, or when they access the service. 5. Our team conducts ongoing user research with users with low level digital literacy, people with disability, and people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. 6. Our team implements automated accessibility checks for our services. Misaligned Behaviours 1. Our team has no competency with accessibility and relies on another team to identify accessibility shortcomings. 2. Accessibility compliance is added at the end of the development cycle in order to pass compliance checks or audits.