A country level Chief Accessibility Officer is still rare, and Canada is treating that role like it matters. We sit down with Stephanie Cadieux, Canada’s Chief Accessibility Officer, to unpack what real accessibility oversight looks like when you are tracking progress under the Accessible Canada Act across thousands of federally regulated organizations, from banks and telecoms to airlines and transportation.

We get specific about the seven priority areas that shape the work, and why Stephanie chooses one focus each year to go deeper than surface level compliance. This year’s lens is the built environment, where the biggest barriers often come from familiar choices made without disability in the frame. Along the way, we talk about the practical work of influencing systems, listening to disabled Canadians, and keeping accessibility on the decision agenda when competing priorities crowd it out.

Then we turn to the pressure point everyone is feeling: artificial intelligence. Canada now has an accessible AI standard from Accessibility Standards Canada, and we explore why standards and regulation matter when AI development outpaces policy. We dig into bias, the risks of making AI the only service channel, affordability gaps, and the shift from checklists to lifecycle accountability as WCAG and technology evolve.

If you care about digital accessibility, inclusive design, AI governance, and disability rights that show up in everyday life, hit subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review so more people find the conversation.

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