The Ministry of Economic
Development, Employment and Infrastructure has proposed changes to the Customer
Service Standard and Integrated Accessibility Standards regulations under the Accessibility
for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). If approved, the changes will
be enacted on July 1, 2016, and take immediate effect.
This
proposal includes incorporating the Customer Service
Standard into the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation and making
changes to requirements of the Customer Service Standard.
Proposed customer service
standard changes include:
The ministry would like the public and interested stakeholders to provide comments on the proposed changes by December 31, 2015.
It may sound
like a lot of substantial changes, but I expect if they are enacted, they will
make it easier for organizations to manage their accessibility obligations
under the AODA standards. However, there will likely be another confusing
transition period as we figure out who has to do what and by when.
To help manage
the changes, the government has set a seemingly reasonable implementation date
of July 1, 2016, and proposed transition periods, where appropriate. This date
falls between the upcoming accessible employment standards and communications
deadlines on January 1, 2016, and the following 2017 deadlines.
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How does this change
your organization’s implementation of the AODA?
If you are
interested in learning more about Accessibility
for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) or how to make accessibility a natural
part of your business through the application of Corporate Social Responsibility, please contact Sandra Broekhof @ 416-579-1035 orsandra_broekhof@sympatico.ca
