Deadline fast-approaching for compliance with Accessibility Act

When it comes to developing a holistic, integrated approach to improving accessibility in the public service, there are definite challenges — even though it’s “definitely worth undertaking.”

So says Lynne Laramée, executive director, human resources, at the Canadian Space Agency.

“Smaller departments like the CSA have the same objectives as larger departments with fewer resources, which can contribute to capacity challenges. Oftentimes, in smaller departments, the same people are also responsible for multiple files,” she says.

The agency has been busy of late in responding to newer obligations from the federal government as part of the Accessible Canada Act (ACA), requiring federally regulated organizations with more than 100 employees to publish their first Accessibility Plan by June 1, 2023. Those with fewer than 100 employees have until 2024 to comply.

The legislation is vying to increase the inclusion and participation of Canadians who have disabilities or functional limitations and promote equality of opportunity by increasing accessibility and removing barriers in areas of federal jurisdiction.

Deadline fast approaching

And the June 1 deadline is sneaking up on some people, says Megan Beal, partner at Faskens in Toronto.

“There is this consultation obligation under the legislation so it's not something that you can leave till the day before June 1 and then scramble to put something together because you have to build in timing for that consultation. So, if people are starting on it now, they'll be able to meet that deadline; but I'd be concerned that people are leaving it much longer.”

Depending on the size and industry, some employers may already be meeting certain accessibility guidelines, even if they weren't required to, says Ellie Marshall, an associate at Blakes in Toronto.

“Others, I think, are probably really underprepared for this because the legislation is broad — it captures such a broad swath of businesses.”

The CSA launched its three-year Accessibility Plan in December 2022 so it’s well ahead of the game in meeting the June deadline.

The HR team led a collaborative process to develop the plan, according to Laramée. 

“They worked closely with a multi-disciplinary working group to collect and analyze data and feedback as well as identify barriers and solutions for all areas of focus required by the Accessible Canada Act. They consulted with the CSA champion for persons with disabilities and the Accessibility Network throughout the process to understand their perspectives and lived experiences.

“They collected their feedback on the draft plan and proposed actions before finalizing the Accessibility Plan.”

Consultation needed

Under the legislation, there are effectively three things that organizations must do, according to Marshall: have a feedback process, have an Accessibility Plan, and then provide progress reports on how they're implementing their plan.

That first piece is important because unlike legislation at the provincial level in Ontario or British Columbia, for example, the federal law has a requirement to consult people with disabilities, according to Marshall.

“There's a duty to consult, and I think that adds a much higher bar in terms of putting together the plan… because they can't just cut and paste a template from a lawyer like me.”

Employers also must set out how they went about those consultations, with guidance available from Employment and Social Development Canada, she says.

“That's something that could cause pause going forward given that, if you think about [an employer] as large as an airline or a bank, what does that actually mean that you’ve ‘consulted’?”

There's not much substance on what that consultation obligation is, says Beal.

“The language of the regulation is just that the Accessibility Plan has to have an explanation of how persons with disabilities were consulted… And it doesn't have much more teeth to it than that.”

The module that the government has provided, which goes into more detail, is not legally binding, she says, but talks about how many people, the range of disabilities, what that process looked like, and what types of questions were asked and received.

“But I think each organization is going to do that differently, depending on how important these obligations really are to their organization.”

What’s required in the Accessibility Plan?

According to Ottawa, the Accessibility Plan is a document “respecting your organization's policies, programs, practices, and services in relation to the identification and removal of barriers, as well as to the prevention of new barriers from emerging.”

And the government has provided detailed guidance that's very helpful, says Marshall.

“Compared to other new legislation I've seen from the federal government, they've been quite generous in providing information to employers. But, with any new legislation, there's always questions around interpretation and enforcement that will have to be worked out in the coming years.”

Similar to privacy legislation, the accessibility rules encourage organizations to have a culture of accessibility, she says, so “if you fully implement what's required of your organization under this law, you should be creating internal policies and practices that allow you to turn your mind to accessibility issues by default. That’s, I think, the intention.”

One of the big challenges is that accessibility issues involve so many different facets of an organization, including HR, IT, facilities and procurement, says Laramée.

“The level of complexity is quite high for individual departments and agencies, and the degree of complexity increases when factoring in the whole of government context.”

For the CSA, the HR team has been guiding the implementation of the plan, she says. That’s meant appointing a champion for persons with disabilities and forming an accessibility network, comprised of employees with disabilities and allies, to work collaboratively with HR on the Accessibility Plan and sustain ongoing efforts to remove barriers and enhance accessibility at the agency.

They also created an “accessibility tracker,” a collaborative tool to collect and analyze feedback, chart their progress and “help [us] stay the course over the next three years,” she says.

A number of key employment-related actions were included in the plan. For instance, the CSA added accessibility as a core component of its new integrated leadership framework and it developed a three-year recruitment strategy that “places a strong emphasis on reducing the hiring gap for employment equity groups, including persons with disabilities,” says Laramée.

The agency has also started the process of adopting the Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport, meant to help employees to get the tools, supports and measures they need, she says.

“We also linked the CSA’s Accessibility Plan and a three-year mental health strategy to support a more integrated approach to understanding and responding to the intersectionality of accessibility issues.”

Dual obligations in federal sectors

One of the challenges of the accessible legislation concerns the nature of the federal jurisdiction, with several regulators involved, says Marshall.

For example, the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors are regulated by the CRTC, while the transportation industry is regulated by the Canadian Transportation Agency — so the organizations need to be reading both sets of regulations.

“We’ve had some clients have some confusion about that, saying, ‘Oh, well, I only need to follow the CRTC regs because I'm a telecom company,’ and then we have to remind them that, no, actually both of them work together.”

It’s about looking at two different legal obligations “and mashing together one plan that meets the obligations of both and then reporting dually to whatever the industry body is, as well as the Accessibility Commissioner,” says Beal. “There's more work involved for organizations in those industries.”

Some federal government bodies had to provide accessibility plans by the end of last year, she says.

“There are some floating out there that can be looked at, to see an example of what it looks like. But I think it is going to be quite unique to each organization in how much time and energy they want to spend on this because the regulations could lead to a very short, vague Accessibility Plan, or it could be something much more complex.”

Overall, the spirit of the legislation is around the human rights piece, says Marshall, and quite flexible in how you design the plan.

“From an accessibility law perspective, you need the flexibility because the Accessibility Plan must be responsive to the organization itself. So, obviously, the size of the organization, the industry, the services it provides, are going to be so different across the country that the legislation needs to be flexible in that way.”

Potential barriers to accessibility

Employers should go through each area that the legislation will eventually cover off, such as information and communications, employment or customer service, says Beal, “each with a plan to how to identify the barriers under each of those headings, and then come up with a plan for how they're going to do that.”

That could mean, for example, having digital information available in different formats, she says.

“There's a tendency to think of disabilities as being physical and just focusing on ‘Can somebody who is in a wheelchair, for example, access that service?’ but it's obviously a lot more broad than that. And I think this regulation and this statute highlight that that you need to give consideration for, for example, individuals with hearing impairments if you only have a video with sound with no subtitles: how are you providing that in a way that they can do it? Or, conversely, if somebody has a visual impairment, what alternative format are you providing that in if they can't read the information? That's generally where the focus will be, at least immediately.”

And these aren’t necessarily quick fixes, says Beal, citing as an example making a website accessible.

“That can be a large undertaking, you need web developers with expertise on the accessibility standards — it’s not something that can happen overnight and it can be quite costly to undergo that process.”

Technically, an employer may meet the regulation requirements with something that’s “very bare bones,” she says, “but in the world we live in today — where there's so much focused on accessibility and inclusion — I think a lot of organizations do take these things quite a lot more seriously than that.

“So I think [it’s about] actually sitting down and putting their mind to ‘What are we actually trying to do here, to identify, remove and prevent barriers for employees or customers or the public that's using our services? What are those barriers? How can we fix them? What's the timeline for moving this forward?”