March 15, 2010

Regulation

Province holding information sessions on new Ontario accessibility standard

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Although the deadline for private sector compliance with a provincial accessibility standard for customer service is 18 months away, the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario is on the road getting the message out.

The directorate, which operates under the wing of the Ministry of Community and Social Services, is reaching out to organizations to assist them in meeting the requirements of the standard, which came into effect in January in the case of the public sector.

Meeting the requirements is key for companies, including those in construction, that do business in the province.

As part of this outreach program, the directorate is developing and distributing compliance assistance information and resources on the standard — the first of five to be put in place.

“It was felt that the most important thing is to get the information out,” said Linda Markowsky, manager of compliance assistance training, who has been criss-crossing the province giving presentations.

The customer service standard applies to all organizations and businesses in the province that provide goods or services to the general public or other third parties and have at least one employee.

As a general rule of thumb, organizations in the private sector must comply by Jan. 1, 2012.

However, in some cases, firms supplying services to provincial government agencies are being asked to comply with staff training requirements by the end of this month.

Ultimately, some 360,000 organizations across Ontario will be required to comply with the standard.

As the population ages, the number of Ontarians with a disability is expected to increase, as will the need for accessibility.

Speaking at a seminar sponsored by the Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA), Markowsky said nine areas are covered by the customer service regulation. These include:

• Setting up policies, practices and procedures on providing goods or services to people with disabilities and making “reasonable efforts” to ensure that these are consistent with the key principles of independence, dignity, integration and equality of opportunity.

“You need to look at your existing policies, practices and procedures and check to see if they work for people with disabilities.”

• Ensuring that certain staff receive training on how to serve people with disabilities. Training must include how to communicate with people with various disabilities and support needs and how to use assistive devices.

“You need to think about and learn how people with various disabilities communicate, consider barriers to communication and consider approaches for making communication accessible.”

Other requirements deal with setting up a process to receive and respond to feedback, letting people with disabilities bring their service animals and support personnel onto parts of the premises open to the public or other third parties and letting the public know when facilities or services that people with disabilities usually use to access their goods and services are temporarily not available.

Under the regulation, private sector businesses and organizations with 20 or more employees must document in writing all their policies, practices and procedures for providing accessible customer service to people with disabilities, let customers know that these documents are available on request and provide this information to a person with a disability in a format that takes into account his or her disability.

“This doesn’t mean you need a 500-page tome,” Markowsky said. “But you need to have this written down.”

Organizations with 20 or more employees must file an accessibility report in 2012.

The customer service standard is one of five currently in the works. Others cover accessible information and communications, transportation, employment accessibility and the built environment.

Markowsky said a proposed standard governing an accessible built environment is expected to be submitted to the minister this spring.

“The government will then consider the recommendations made by the (standard development) committee, which can be accepted in full, in part or with modifications.”

Markowsky’s presentation on the Acccessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and accessibility standards for customer service was the first to a construction industry sponsored event.

“I’m hoping this will be the beginning of a dialogue with you and your members,” she told seminar participants on site and on line.

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