AODA—Preparing Your Business For Compliance

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, (AODA) requires phased-in compliance by public and private organizations, with five sets of mandatory standards to ensure that Ontarians with disabilities are able to obtain full access to goods, services, accommodations, employment, buildings and premises.

Current compliance requirements

Large organizations will need to implement the latest requirements as of January 1, 2014. A large organization is a private sector organization with 50 or more employees in Ontario. Small organizations, which are defined as non-public sector organizations with fewer than 50 employees in Ontario, will have until January 1, 2015, to meet the requirements.
Organizations are required to:

• Establish accessibility policies, which state how the organization achieves or will achieve accessibility and include a statement of organizational commitment;
• Establish and implement multi-year accessibility plans (does not apply to small organizations), which set out the organization's strategy for removing barriers to accessibility and for meeting its obligations under the AODA.

In addition, large organizations will be required to make any new Internet websites and web content accessible. New websites and content must conform with WCAG 2.0 Level A by January 1, 2014. WCAG 2.0 sets out guidelines for organizations to follow to make their websites more accessible. There are three levels of accessibility and further levels of accessibility will be required in the future.

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 orsandra_broekhof@sympatico.ca

AODA—Preparing Your Business For Compliance

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, (AODA) requires phased-in compliance by public and private organizations, with five sets of mandatory standards to ensure that Ontarians with disabilities are able to obtain full access to goods, services, accommodations, employment, buildings and premises.
Currently, there are four standards in place: the Customer Service Standard, the Information and Communications Standard, the Employment Standard, and the Transportation Standard, the latter three of which are contained in the Integrated Accessibility Standards. While the fifth standard, the Built Environment Standard, has been the subject of public consultations, it has yet to be issued. This update will provide information about the compliance requirements for four of the six standards—the Customer Service Standard, the Information and Communications Standard, the Employment Standard and the general requirements under the Integrated Accessibility Standards.
Deadlines for compliance with the standards vary depending on the nature and size of an organization. Thus, it is important employers ensure that they have complied with current requirements and are preparing to meet the upcoming additional requirements under the standards.

Current compliance requirements

Since January 1, 2012, private sector organizations in Ontario are expected to be in compliance with the Customer Service Standard. In brief, the Customer Service Standard applies to every person or organization with at least one employee in Ontario that "provides goods or services to members of the public or other third parties." Amongst the requirements under the Customer Service Standard, organizations are expected to have an Accessible Customer Service Plan in place and to train employees on how to serve persons with disabilities. Organizations with more than 20 employees are required to file an accessibility compliance report online. More information on the Customer Service Standard is available in our previous update.
In addition, as of January 1, 2012, under the Employment Standard, employers are required to provide individualized workplace emergency response information to employees who have a disability where the disability will require such a measure.

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 orsandra_broekhof@sympatico.ca

Manitoba customer service accessibility standard

The Manitoba Customer Service Accessibility Standard (CSAS) under the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA) comes into effect November 1, 2015. The CSAS requires all of Manitoba’s public, private and non-profit organizations with one or more employees that provide goods or services directly to the public or to another organization in Manitoba, to establish and implement measures, policies and practices to remove barriers for access to the goods or services it provides.
There are different timelines for organizations to meet the standard:

• The Manitoba government to comply within one year: November 1, 2016
• The public sector to comply within two years: November 1, 2017
• Private and non-profit organizations to comply within three years: November 1, 2018

Accessible customer service standard “is provided when all persons who are reasonably expected to seek to obtain, use or benefit from a good or service have the same opportunity to obtain, use or benefit from the good or service. (source Customer Service Standard Regulations)”
These measures, policies and practices must also meet the requirements and obligations under the Manitoba Human Rights Code.

This is similar to Ontario’s Customer Service Standard, How can Ontario help in compliance?

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

Individual Medical Exam requirements.

In the recent decision, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (“OHRT”) addressed the issue of when it would be reasonable for an employer to request an Independent Medical Exam (“IME”) from an employee during the accommodation process. The OHRT ruled that an employer request for an IME will be justified when it was “reasonable” in the circumstances of creating an individualized accommodation plan.
In the subsequent hearing which addressed whether the accommodation and the request for an IME was appropriate, the Applicant said that before the Respondent could order an IME it should have first consulted with his family physician, it should have ensured it had a contractual right to the IME and it should have followed its own policies which required the human resources department to explore the medical issue first before an IME was undertaken.
The HRTO rejected the Applicant’s submissions and made the following comments on the employer’s decision to order the IME:

• The HRTO held that given the inconsistent nature of the Applicant’s doctor’s medical evidence and the accommodation plan, the Respondent had a bona fide reason to question the adequacy and reliability of the information the applicant had provided and the proposed accommodation.
• The HRTO said that while consulting with the Applicant’s family doctor first was an option, it was not always mandatory because there were sufficient reasons to question the adequacy and reliability of the information submitted by the Applicant’s doctor.
• The HRTO held that the guidelines authorizing IME’s were applicable to the Applicant and the Respondent should follow its own policies but it was not bound by a mechanical process in deciding when an IME was warranted. Rather, the Respondent was expressly authorized to take an individual view to accommodation to determine when an IME would be required which means it could deviate from its policies.
• The HRTO emphasized that when it was reasonable to do so based on the individual facts of an accommodation case, the employer could request an IME so that it could satisfy its obligations under the Human Rights Code and the duty to accommodate. In this case, it was reasonable given the inconsistent medical submitted by the family doctor.

This is an important case for employers and employees. It provides that when the medical evidence is not clear and difficulties have arisen on constructing a proper accommodation plan, an employer may request an IME so long as it was reasonable to do so to meet its obligation sunder the Human Rights Code. Employers will not necessarily be bound by policies or protocols. Rather, the guiding principle will be “reasonableness”.
This is important information for the Employment standard.  What does your company do to comply with the Human Rights Law and 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 or sandra_broekhof@sympatico.ca