Barrier Free Manitoba

Ontario, Canada's most populous province where many national businesses are headquartered, passes progressive accessibility-rights legislation and regulations and it can't help but have a substantial impact on busnisses located in other parts of our fair nation.

The Ontario advocates and government do the heavy lifting and persons with disabilities throughout the rest of Canada enjoy some of the benefits. Thanks Ontario!

Barrier-Free Manitoba, among many others, is sincerely hoping that our provincial government will adapt and extend from the progress that has been made in Ontario so as to meet its stated goal of becoming a true "leader in promoting and protecting the human rights of persons with a disability." Manitobans want and deserve legislation that both catches up and leapfrogs the fine work now in place in our neighbouring province.

Let's all hope that this is what the new Accessibility Advisory Council will be recommending in its June 14th, 2012 report.

Here's the article that has sparked these comments.

Accessibility for Ontarians: Legislation Impacts Businesses in BC
HRVoice.org | February 13, 2012
By Melissa Magder

The province of Ontario has passed a series of laws intended to eliminate all barriers to persons with disabilities. Such barriers include systemic barriers, attitudinal barriers, physical barriers, and those to do with information, technology and communication. The objective is to make Ontario a fully accessible province for persons with disabilities with respect to goods, services, facilities, accommodation, employment, building structures and premises by January 1, 2025.

Although the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is a provincial legislation, many businesses outside of Ontario are also impacted and need to be aware of the requirements. Specifically, companies that are headquartered in another province but have offices or representation inside Ontario must also comply with the AODA. If they do not, they are subject to hefty penalties associated with this legislation.

The starting point is customer service. By January 1, 2012, all private sector Ontario businesses that provide goods or services to the public or to other third parties were legally required to comply with the Customer Service Standard. This is the first of five standards to be passed under the AODA legislation. The law requires all businesses and organizations with more than one employee to create policies, procedures and plans for providing goods or services to persons with disabilities. It also requires mandatory training for anyone who interacts with clients, customers, the external public or third party service providers. There are specific elements that the training must cover, but it is centered on effectively communicating and interacting with persons with disabilities in a manner that takes into account their disability.

Organizations with more than 20 employees must report annually to the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario on their compliance activity. Businesses that do not comply with the Customer Service Standard are subject to a range of fines – up to $100,000.00 per day in the case of an offence.

Why has this become such a priority? 15.5 per cent of Canadians have some form of a disability. This number is expected to increase to 20 per cent over the next 20 years. Furthermore, research shows that persons with disabilities have an approximate spending power of $25 billion annually across Canada. Providing accessible customer service will help ensure that current and potential customers, including those with a disability, choose your business over your competitors. It also creates a positive public image – a factor that is becoming more influential in this age of social consciousness.