Video archives of London's council and committee meetings have been hastily removed from the city's website and YouTube channel after it came to light they violated provincial accessibility rules.
The videos, which have been archived online since 2011, did not include closed-captions for the hearing impaired. The lack of captioning is a violation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and could have left the city open to hefty fines.
"So ALL council videos are in NON-compliance as they do not meet accessibility requirements, UNACCEPTABLE city has known for 2yrs #ldnont," read a tweet from Councillor Mo Salih Tuesday night.
Councillor Jesse Helmer commended Salih for uncovering the oversight and was quick to shoulder the blame.
"I take personal responsibility for allowing our web site [videos] to be out of compliance with AODA. We need to fix ASAP. #ldnont," tweeted Helmer.
It is unclear how much it will cost the city to add the captioning, but in posts to social media Councillor Tanya Park indicated it is estimated to be about $800,000.
A report on the matter is being put together for councillors and should provide a timeline of when the videos will return to London.ca and the city's YouTube channel.
