Funeral homes and memorial services

People come to a funeral home's website at a difficult time. They are looking for an obituary, the time and place of a service, a livestream link for a relative who cannot travel, or a way to leave a message of condolence. Others are planning ahead for themselves or a parent. Many visitors are older, some have low vision or hearing loss, and almost all of them are grieving or under strain. A site that is hard to read or impossible to use with a keyboard or screen reader can keep someone from saying goodbye.

About 27% of Canadians aged 15 and over reported one or more disabilities in 2022 (Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Disability 2022). For funeral homes, an accessible website is part of caring for families and the community they serve.

Where websites in this sector usually fail

The patterns below come up often on funeral home and memorial websites. They are typical issues, not findings about any particular business.

What the regulation requires

Under the Accessible Information and Communication Standard Regulation, Man. Reg. 47/2022, organizations with one or more employees in Manitoba have been covered since May 1, 2025. Web content must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA if it was published on or after that date or is needed to access the organization's goods or services (s. 7(1) (opens in a new tab)). Obituaries and service details published since that date, livestreams, price lists and pre-planning forms are likely to fall within that requirement.

Livestream and obituary platforms are sometimes supplied by a third party. Where the funeral home has no direct control, the exceptions in s. 7(2) (opens in a new tab) may be relevant, but they are narrow, and families should still have another way to receive the information, such as a phone call or an emailed copy of the service details.

• Notice of accessible formats (s. 5 (opens in a new tab)). Families should know they can ask for price lists, arrangement documents and service programs in a format that works for them, such as large print or an accessible electronic file.
• Feedback process (s. 9 (opens in a new tab)). There should be a gentle, accessible way to tell you about barriers, by form, email or phone.
• Training (s. 4 (opens in a new tab)). Funeral directors and staff who speak with families, the person who posts obituaries and whoever chooses livestream or website software fall within the training requirement. Large employers must also document a training policy (s. 4(4) (opens in a new tab)).

What we test first

1. Finding an obituary and the service time and location
2. Watching a livestream or recorded service
3. Leaving a condolence message
4. Viewing price lists and service options
5. Completing a pre-planning form
6. Contacting the funeral home by form, email or phone link

Each journey is tested with keyboard only, NVDA on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS and iOS, text resized to 200% and content reflowed at 320 CSS px, in addition to automated scans. See our method.

Fixing without a redesign

A funeral home's website is meant to feel calm and dignified, and remediation should keep it that way. We work with the least visible change: a slightly darker shade of text, labels connected to form fields, price lists converted to real text, and captions added to video. We never install overlay widgets, and if anything we repaired is later found not to meet WCAG 2.1 AA, we correct it at no charge.

Read about our services, see a sample report, or contact us for a fixed written quote after an audit. You can also call (431) 816-6210 or email [email protected].

Last reviewed October 2026. General information, not legal advice.