This site should work the way you need it to.

We build and maintain this website to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.1, at Level AA (WCAG 2.1 AA). That target is not a sentence on a page — it is a setting in the compliance profile the code reads (WCAG21AA), and the automated check described below reads the same setting.

In plain terms: you should be able to use this site with a screen reader, with a keyboard and no mouse, with the text enlarged, or with your own colours, and get the same information as anyone else. Where that is not true, we want to hear about it.

Ontario’s Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation, made under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, requires public websites to meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA. That requirement applies to designated public-sector organizations of any size, and to private businesses and non-profits with 50 or more employees — for whom the deadline passed on 1 January 2021. For a private business with fewer than 50 employees, the website standard is encouraged rather than legally required. Two success criteria are exempt in Ontario either way: live captions (1.2.4) and audio description for pre-recorded video (1.2.5). We publish no audio or video on this site at present.

We are not going to tell you we are legally bound by a rule we may not be bound by. Navneet Vaid is a mortgage agent dealing through The Mortgage Alliance Company of Canada Inc., and whether the 50-employee threshold is met — and whose headcount counts — is a question for the brokerage and its counsel, not something a web page should assert. So read this as a standard we have chosen to hold ourselves to.

We target WCAG 2.1 AA rather than 2.0 AA. Version 2.1 contains everything 2.0 AA requires and adds criteria covering mobile use, low vision and cognitive load, so meeting 2.1 AA means meeting the version the regulation names as well.

Rate information is text, never a picture of text

This is the one worth saying first, because we got it wrong before. Our previous website published its rate figures as images, and the alternative text was the name of the image file — 2.1.png. If you used a screen reader, the rates were simply not there. Nothing could read them, which is also why nobody noticed they had gone stale.

On this site every rate is real HTML in a real table: a caption naming the table and its effective date, a row header for each term, the rate and its APR in adjacent cells, and the qualifying conditions written out in the row rather than buried in a footnote. The effective date is marked up so software can read it. When our rates are out of date or unavailable, the table is replaced by a short notice in plain text rather than a number we cannot stand behind. What gets read aloud to you is what everyone else sees.

Structure and keyboard

• Every page declares its language as Canadian English, has exactly one main heading, and uses real headings in order underneath it rather than large text pretending to be one.
• The first thing a keyboard reaches on every page is a “Skip to main content” link, and the main region can take focus so the skip actually lands.
• The page is laid out with landmarks — a header, one main region, a footer — and the primary menu is named, so you can jump between them instead of tabbing through everything.
• The menu on small screens is an ordinary button that reports whether it is open. Pressing Escape closes it and puts focus back on the button you pressed.
• Focus is always visible: a 3-pixel outline in our brand teal, switched to white on dark buttons where teal would disappear into the background.
• Buttons and menu links are at least 44 pixels tall, form fields 48, so they are large enough to hit without precise aiming.
• If your device asks for reduced motion, animation and smooth scrolling turn off.

Forms

• Every field has a real label attached to it in the markup — not placeholder text that vanishes the moment you start typing.
• Hints and error messages are tied to the field they belong to, so a screen reader reads them together with that field instead of somewhere else on the page. A field with a problem is marked as invalid rather than only turning red.
• The price, down payment and timeline selectors look like segmented buttons but are ordinary radio buttons in a labelled group, so they behave the way you expect with a keyboard.
• If a submission fails, the message is announced and focus moves to it. You do not have to go hunting for what went wrong.
• Payment calculator results are announced when they change, rather than updating silently.

Images and colour

The only image on this site is our brokerage’s Mortgage Alliance logo. It is marked as decorative, because the brokerage’s name is always given as text as well — in the header link and in the attribution line on every page. No information here is locked inside an image — no rates, no figures, no contact details. Colours come from a single set of tokens defined in one file, with dark text on a light background as the default, so contrast is decided in one place rather than page by page. See the limitations below for what we have not yet proven about that.

Accessibility here is a gate, not a checklist someone is supposed to remember. Two automated checks run over the built site on every change we push, and either one can stop a release:

• A structural check reads the HTML the site actually produces and fails the build if a page is missing its language, has an empty or missing title, does not have exactly one main heading, contains an image with no alternative text, has a link or button with no readable name, has a form control with no label, has a table with no caption, or is missing the skip link.
• Then axe-core — the standard accessibility rule engine — runs against every built page with the WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 A and AA rule sets. The budget is zero: one violation anywhere stops the build. Problems are counted per element, not per rule, because that is how many things a person using a screen reader actually hits. An exception has to name the rule, the page, a written reason and an expiry date, and an expired exception fails the build. There are no exceptions on file today.

Automated checks cannot catch everything, and we would rather say so. They run in a simulated browser with no layout and no scripts, so anything that depends on how a page is actually drawn — colour contrast, tap-target size — comes back as “not determined”. We record those as unproven; we do not count them as passes. The checks also only see each page as first delivered, so an opened menu or a form displaying an error is never tested. And tools of this kind find only a minority of real accessibility problems — by the tooling’s own estimate, around a third. A machine cannot tell you whether a heading describes what is under it, whether an error message makes sense, or whether a form can actually be completed. That is why the feedback route below matters more than the gate does.

A statement that claims a perfect site is not a statement worth reading. Here is what we know is still open:

• Colour contrast has not been machine-verified. The palette was chosen with contrast in mind and lives in one file, but the check that would prove it needs a real browser and we have not built that yet. It is on the list.
• Nobody who relies on assistive technology has tested this site yet. That is the test that matters most, and it is a human one. Until it happens, treat this page as a description of effort, not proof of outcome.
• Interactive states are not automatically tested — an open menu, a validation message, anything that only exists after you interact with the page.
• The rates table scrolls sideways on a narrow screen, and our automated check cannot confirm that the scrolling area is reachable using only a keyboard. If it is not, call us and we will read the rates to you while we fix it.
• Things we link to are not ours. The brokerage network’s mobile app, lender websites and any external site we point you at are outside our control, and we cannot make commitments about their accessibility.
• We publish no PDFs on this site today. If that changes, any PDF will be tagged so a screen reader can read it, and the same information will also be available as a web page or in another format on request.

If anything on this site is easier for you in a different format, ask and we will provide it — large print, plain text, a document emailed to you, or read to you over the phone. We do not charge for that. Tell us which format suits you and we will use it for the rest of your dealings with us, so you do not have to ask twice.

The same applies to how we communicate generally. If you need us to slow down, put something in writing, speak to someone you trust alongside you, or work around a particular barrier, say so and we will.

If part of this site blocked you, we want to know — including if you are not sure what went wrong. You do not need the technical term for it. Telling us which page you were on, what you were trying to do and what happened is plenty.

• Phone: (905) 462-8646
• Email: info@tdotlending.com
• Post:
  1200 Derry Road E, Unit 21, Mississauga, ON
• In person: the same address. Call ahead and we will make sure someone is there for you.

We aim to reply within five business days. If a fix will take longer than that, we will tell you what we are doing about it and get you the information you were after another way in the meantime. Feedback about accessibility reaches the same people as any other message — there is no separate queue it can get lost in.

Effective date: [EFFECTIVE DATE]. We review this statement at least once a year, and again whenever we add a new kind of page, form or document to the site. The date changes when the statement does.

This statement covers tdotlending.com. It does not cover the brokerage network’s mobile app or any lender website we link to.

Mortgage services provided through The Mortgage Alliance Company of Canada Inc., FSRA Brokerage Licence #10530.