Legislation sets new ground rules
The job required someone who could type 60 words per minute. In the past, that criterion may have eliminated a blind candidate or someone without an arm. It’s also possible a potential employee could have been rejected on the basis of a mental health issue or chronic health problem. Not anymore.
Under Ontario’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), employers in that province will soon be obligated to ensure a barrier-free workplace through all stages of the employment cycle, whether it’s the initial job posting, the interview or the eventual job.
“There are a lot of misconceptions,” said Angela Browne, a St. Catharines, Ont.-based paralegal and disability consultant. “It’s not a hiring quota system. It’s restructuring your policies so you’re welcoming people with disabilities.”
The term “barrier” covers a range of disabilities: physical, sensory, mental health, developmental and learning. According to the act, it’s “anything that prevents a person with a disability from fully participating in all aspects of society.”
There are about 1.85 million people in Ontario with some form of disability. According to the Ontario government, in 2006, almost one-half of them between the ages of 15 and 64 were unemployed, compared to about one-quarter of those in the same age group without disabilities.
“The initial reaction of business owners is, ‘I can’t afford to put in ramps and accessible washrooms.’ Our answer is, ‘You can’t afford not to,’” said Edie Forsyth, corporate director of Accessibility Experts, a consulting and training firm in Oshawa, Ont. “If 15.5 per cent of the population in Ontario has some form of disability — and we think those numbers are low — you’re missing a large market.”
Complying with the act may not be as costly as some employers think, according to Forsyth. The tools required at work by people with disabilities, such as software or specialized equipment, are often the tools they need for daily life, she said.
In the case of someone in a wheelchair, accommodation could be as simple as raising a desk a few inches. With a blind employee, it could require sending documents electronically, said Forsyth.
“If they were attending a meeting, they would need to have the minutes and any of the handouts sent to them prior to the meeting so they could read it all,” she said. “It’s a simple accommodation but doesn’t cost any money.”
The range of accommodation will vary, from attaching an amplifier to a telephone to allowing people with anxiety to bring a service animal to work or offering someone with a mental health issue more flexible scheduling.
The employer’s responsibility is only to the point of undue hardship, according to Soma Ray-Ellis, co-chair of Himelfarb Proszanski’s employment and labour practice in Toronto.
“You do not have to go bankrupt in the process,” she said. “These types of remedial legislation attempt to deal with human dignity — specifically, physical and psychological integrity and empowerment. It’s not simply about ramps. It’s also about attitudes.”
While the act became law in 2005, it is being rolled out in five standards: customer service, built environment, information and communication, transportation and employment. Customer service was the first to become law in 2008, with mandatory compliance for public sector employers by Jan. 1, 2010, and Jan. 1, 2012, for the private sector.
The employment standard is currently awaiting ministerial approval (expected this fall), following several months of public consultation. The proposal made 24 recommendations that cover employment policies and training; recruitment, assessment and hiring; and retention. As with the customer service standard, employment is expected to apply first to public institutions, with mandatory compliance in the private sector slightly later.
There is no direct funding to assist employers but, according to the ministry, the act “does allow individual organizations the flexibility to plan and make improvements over time.” Accessibility improvements can also be “integrated into regular business and fiscal planning over time to ensure cost effectiveness.”
The goal is to make employment in Ontario fully accessible to people with disabilities by 2025. Penalties for non-compliance range from $50,000 per day for an individual or director to $100,000 per day for a corporation.
The province should be somewhat lenient in the beginning, said Browne, although that’s no reason to be complacent — employers should already be examining policies and procedures to ensure they comply.
“They also need to ask themselves what kinds of positions they have in their firm, what kinds of positions they may be developing, how each of these positions should be done and whether they could be done in a different way than what they have traditionally been,” she said.
The next step is to provide training. Forsyth recommended starting with the basics: Educate staff on disability types, how to interact with them and what’s it’s like to have a disability.
“In our program, we do simulation exercises where we remove their ability to do things by putting blindfolds on them, using wheelchairs and goggles and headphones. Then we send them out there to see what barriers exist,” she said. “They get a real eye-opening experience.”
Private sector employers should set a goal to have all employees trained by January 2012, said Forsyth. Meanwhile, changing the traditional mindset of the workplace is the foremost challenge.
“It begins with a cultural shift in our attitudes,” she said. “It’s not the disability that’s the problem. It’s the barriers.”
Danielle Harder is a Whitby, Ont.-based freelance writer.
