Monday, February 6, 2017

Proposed Ontario Changes to Accessibility Regulations



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

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