NEW AODA COMPLIANCE OBLIGATIONS FOR SMALL EMPLOYERS

The start of the new year brought with it new compliance standards under the Integrated Accessibility Standards Requlation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (“AODA”). As of January 1, 2017, small organizations will have to ensure that they comply with the applicable provisions of the Accessible Employment Standards, which focus on the recruitment and ongoing support of employees with disabilities.

 

Reporting Obligations

Small organizations need not file an accessibility report with respect to these compliance requirements. Small organizations with between twenty (20) and fifty (50) employees will still need to file accessibility compliance reports with respect to their obligations under the Customer Service Standards.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

An AODA Director may levy penalties against organizations of any size that fail to comply with their obligations under the AODA, including the Accessible Employment Standard. Penalties range from $200 – $2,000 for individuals and unincorporated organizations. Corporations may be assessed penalties between $500 and $15,000. A major contravention of AODA obligations may attract a daily penalty of $100,000 for corporations and $50,000 for individuals and unincorporated organizations where there the entity has a prior history of major contraventions.

What are some unique issues that small organization have to deal with in terms of accessibility?

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

NEW AODA COMPLIANCE OBLIGATIONS FOR SMALL EMPLOYERS

The start of the new year brought with it new compliance standards under the Integrated Accessibility Standards Requlation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (“AODA”). As of January 1, 2017, small organizations will have to ensure that they comply with the applicable provisions of the Accessible Employment Standards, which focus on the recruitment and ongoing support of employees with disabilities.

Educational and training institutions have a unique set of obligations under the Information and Communications Standards. These include providing accessibility awareness training to educators and providing student records and information on program requirements, availability and descriptions in an accessible format to persons with disabilities.

Educational and training institutions include:

·       Institutions governed by the Education Act or the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005;

·       Institutions that offer all or part of a post-secondary program leading to a degree pursuant to a consent granted under the Post-secondary Education Choice and Excellence Act, 2000;

·       Ontario colleges and universities;

·       Public or private organizations that provide courses or programs or both that result in the acquisition by students of a diploma or certificate named by the Minister of Education under paragraph 1 of subsection 8 (1) of the Education Act; and

·       Private schools within the meaning of the Education Act.

If they receive notification of need for accessible formats and communications, educational and training institutions must provide resources or materials in an accessible format that take into account the accessibility needs of the person with a disability to whom the information is to be provided. These needs must be considered by either procuring or obtaining a conversion ready electronic format of those resources or materials, or by arranging for the provision of comparable resources and materials where they cannot be procured, obtained, or converted. To facilitate these requirements, producers of educational or training textbooks have had to make available accessible or conversion ready versions of textbooks since January 1, 2015, and will have to make available accessible versions of other materials by January 1, 2020.

What are some unique issues that small organization have to deal with in terms of accessibility?

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

NEW AODA COMPLIANCE OBLIGATIONS FOR SMALL EMPLOYERS

The start of the new year brought with it new compliance standards under the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulations of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (“AODA”). As of January 1, 2017, small organizations will have to ensure that they comply with the applicable provisions of the Accessible Employment Standards, which focus on the recruitment and ongoing support of employees with disabilities.

 

Small Organization Compliance with the Information and Communications Standards

January 1, 2017, was also the deadline for small organizations to comply with the Information and Communications Standards, which establishes processes that organizations must follow to ensure that the manner in which they create, provide and receive information and communicate with other entities is accessible to people with disabilities.

Small organizations that have a mechanism for receiving and responding to customer feedback should also take note of this standard because accessible formats and communication supports for such mechanisms must be communicated to the public and made available for use upon request. Small organizations must consult with the person making the request in order to determine what a suitable format or communication support may be in their particular circumstance.

Furthermore, small organization that have developed emergency procedures, plans or public safety information that they have made available to the public generally must ensure that such information is provided in an accessible format with appropriate communication supports if requested to do so.

The Information and Communications Standards do not generally apply to product labels, unconvertible information, and information that an organization does not control. If a person requests that information or a communication be made available to them in an accessible format and it cannot be converted because doing so is either not feasible or the technology to do convert it is not readily available, the organization must inform the person why the request cannot be fulfilled and provide them with a summary of the information or communication.

What are some unique issues that small organization have to deal with in terms of accessibility?

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