Ten Years of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act

On June 3, 2015—the 10th anniversary of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)—Ontario’s government introduced an accessibility action plan, which establishes measures to meet the goal of an “accessible Ontario” by 2025. The action plan also responds to the Report on the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act review released in February 2015.

I have spoken about the different ways the government has attempted implantation.  Mayo Moran, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto, was mandated to lead the scheduled independent review of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act(AODA). She tabled her report and recommendations to the Ontario government in November 2014.

Last week I talk about the different observations in the report.  Here are some of the recommendations for compliance. 

Recommendations to the government

• Enforcing the AODA: The report calls for the government to prepare and make public an enforcement plan; to build transparency into the enforcement plan by, for example, posting the number of inspections, investigations and prosecutions as well as lists of organizations convicted, nature of offences and fines; and to incorporate feedback into compliance and enforcement efforts.
• Fund and empower the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario to provide robust compliance support: The report recommends the government provide authoritative guidance to organizations on AODA requirements, for example, by clarifying key requirements, reviewing current standards and sharing best practices and models as is common under the Americans with Disabilities Act in the United States. This would also entail partnering to develop a certification program for training that would ensure portability for workers and volunteers.
• Clarify the relationship between the Human Rights Code and the AODA: The report states that “The relationship between the Human Rights Code and the AODA remains an area of significant confusion.” One solution would be for the Ontario Human Rights Commission to play a role in the AODA standards development process, and by co-developing communications material.
• Plan for new standards: The report recommends that the ADO begin a process of identifying the most significant gaps in the current regime with a view to developing supplementary regulated standards to address those gaps in a timely way. This process should include public input. The review already identified a need for new standards covering the health care and education sectors. Other potential standards include building retrofits to ensure that more businesses incorporate accessibility features into their built environment, and website extranets in the scope of the website accessibility requirements.
• Encourage, support and celebrate accessibility planning beyond the AODA: This includes emphasizing barrier removal in multi-year accessibility plans and recognizing organizations that exceed expectations, as well as introducing accessibility tax incentives for small business.
• Improve AODA processes: This means amending the law and regulations to include exactly what the government expects from organizations, thus removing the guesswork and interpretation from the current standards. This will help organizations meet their implementation and enforcement challenges. This recommendation also includes aligning the accessibility provisions of the Ontario Building Code with the AODA. The main problem is that the Building Code accessibility amendments that will take effect in 2015 are not regulations under the AODA and are therefore not subject to the AODA process for standards review every five years or less. One proposed solution is to re-enact the Building Code amendments as a regulation under the AODA. Under this recommendation, the review also calls for the repeal the Ontarians with Disabilities Act to reduce duplication for the public sector.

Do you know how far toward compliance your company is?

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 or sandra_broekhof@sympatico.ca