Barrier Free Manitoba

While accessibility-rights legislation is still being contemplated in Manitoba, Ontario has made sure and steady progress toward the systemic removal of barriers and the prevention of new ones. Following are some highlights.

Accessibility Standards for Customer Service

This is the first of Ontario's accessibility standards. It's major focus is on breaking down attitudinal barriers through increased awareness, extensive training and organizational responsibility for quality customer service.

The standards require that all organizations in Ontario (an estimated 340,000 of them) put policies, practices and procedures in place to ensure that the provision of goods and services to persons with disabilities reflect four fundamental principles of:

• Dignity
• Independence
• Integration
• Equal opportunity

The standards require that organizations train all those who deal with the public, as well as those who establish policies, on these principles with instruction on how to serve, interact and communicate with persons with various types of disabilities.

Organizations are also required to establish and make public a process for receiving and responding to feedback about customer service to persons with a disability. Finally, all organizations with 20 or more employees must report on their compliance to government.

All public sector organizations within provincial jurisdiction were responsible to comply with these standards by January 1, 2010. All other organizations had a compliance deadline of January 1, 2012 and must report to government by the end of this year.

The number and range of new accessible customer service policies which have now been established is staggering. Here's a selection from leading and/or notable non-government organizations:

• Mercedes-Benz
• Shoppers Drug Mart (pdf)
• Great West Life
• The Globe and Mail
• Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (pdf) (done voluntarily as banks are federally, not provincially, regulated)
• Ontario Federation of Labour (pdf)
• Tim Hortons
• United Way Toronto
• Loblaws (Word)
• YMCA across Southwestern Ontario (pdf)
• Ottawa Senators (Go Sens! I mean go Jets!)

This represents the beginning of a seismic shift in terms awareness of ,and the start of concerted corporate attention to, the human rights of persons with disabilities. And this only the first of Ontario's standards.

The pity is that most of these policies and most of the training are currently only applicable in Ontario. Having such impressive progress in customer service and expectations extended to Manitoba consumers and citizens seems a very achievable first step under our provincial accessibility rights legislation.

Integrated Accessibility Standards

The second of Ontario's accessibility standards is now officially law in that province. Called the "Integrated Accessibility Standards," the standards set out requirements related to:

• Accessibility procurement for public sector organizations
• Accessible self-service kiosks
• Accessible communication formats and supports
• Accessible websites and web content
• Accessible educational and training resources
• Accessible emergency procedures, plans and public safety information
• Accessibility employment policies and practices related to recruitment, assessment and selection
• Accessible conventional and specialized transit

The requirements and deadlines under these standard vary by type and size of organization. Accessible web site requirements, for example, come into effect for the Ontario government this year. These same requirements come into effect for other organizations with 50 or more employees by 2014. If you are interested in more information on these standards, click here for a brief (pdf) summary.

Annual Multi-Year Departmental Accessibility Plans

Yet another positive feature of Ontario's legislation is the requirement that Ministries ('departments in Manitoba), along with a range of other governmental bodies, annually prepare and submit multi-year plans which report on:

• Past efforts to remove barriers
• Priorities for action in the coming years
• Plans for addressing these priorities.

The 2011-2012 plans tabled by each of the Ministries (running from Aboriginal Affairs to Transportation) are posted at a central website. The plans include one from the Office of the Premier and Cabinet Office.

These plans demonstrate the power of legislation and government commitment in having all departments held accountable for taking proactive measures to address accessibility issues. One particularly impressive plan is "Leading the Way Forward," the multi-year service plan prepared by the Ontario Public Service.