The Accessible Canada Act: a look at compliance and proactive planning in federally regulated workplaces

From June 5 to 6, 2024, Infonex (external link)  hosted a two-day conference on the Accessible Canada Act (external link) , which focused on how federally regulated employers can meet compliance standards of the act. Day one of the conference was chaired by the Diversity Institute’s (DI’s) executive director, Mohamed Elmi, who opened the day by welcoming the attendees and speakers. “All organizations, large and small, need effective equity, diversity and inclusion strategies in a rapidly changing environment,” he said. Introducing the focus of the day, he also highlighted the work of the Diversity Institute in developing strategies and resources for organizations to improve their inclusion strategies, including the Diversity Assessment Tool (external link)  (DAT), a free application that assesses the equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policies and practices of an organization to help it develop a customized strategy. Developed by DI, the tool provides tangible actions organizations can take to improve workplaces for equity-deserving groups. The Diversity Institute is building an add-on to the DAT with a deeper focus on accessibility.

David Lepofsky, a retired lawyer and an accessibility advocate who played a critical role in the creation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), was the keynote speaker for day one of the conference. He explained the advocacy work the disability community has done tirelessly for decades to dismantle the barriers they face. This includes advocating for persons with disabilities to be protected in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, the creation of Canada's first provincial anti-discrimination accessibility law in 2005 and the creation of the Accessible Canada Act in 2019. Lepofsky highlighted the progress that’s been made and emphasized there’s still a long way to go. 

Mandi Crespo, manager of accessibility consulting services at BDO Canada, then talked about tangible actions. She presented a roadmap on how to develop an organization's accessibility plans to be effective and efficient. From her roadmap, Crespo said the first step is conducting an assessment to understand the barriers that exist. The second step is to engage with stakeholders including leaders, employees and customers, to get a full picture of what areas need to be addressed. Crespo emphasized the importance of using multiple channels of communication to engage with the stakeholders, like through meetings or anonymous forms, which will cast a wider net and help gather a range of information. 

The second day of the conference was hosted by Nancy Mitchell, director of research, special projects at DI. She welcomed attendees and highlighted the importance of standards, documents that provide guidelines, characteristics or requirements for products, processes or services. Along with the Standards Council of Canada, DI has worked to understand how EDI can be embedded into the principles that standards uphold. “Ultimately, when you have inclusive standards, you’re able to drive innovation and processes, and you mitigate unintentional biases in the process,” Mitchell said. She pointed to the Publicly Available Specification (external link) , created by DI, which provides context, terminology and resources to help organizations in their EDI journey. She added that this standard supports the 50 – 30 Challenge (external link) , a voluntary code that aims to advance gender parity (50% women and/or non-binary people) and representation of other equity-deserving groups (30%), including persons with disabilities, on Canadian boards and/or in senior management.

Jutta Treviranus, director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University, presented on proactive planning with employees and the community. While most societies focus on serving the “average” person, there are major benefits to considering others beyond the average group and including everyone. “I believe diversity is our greatest asset and inclusion is our greatest challenge,” Treviranus said.

Virtually everyone at some point in their life will experience a disability, she said. “If we design for the entire spectrum, every one of us has room for growth and change,” Treviranus said, adding that our systems need adaptability and responsiveness. “We need organic systems that provide natural responses to change.”

Artificial intelligence (AI), for example, Treviranus said, will often reinforce, amplify and accelerate barriers by building off historic patterns. Accessible and equitable AI standards for the Accessible Canada Act are critical. “When our processes are guided by individuals who have lived experiences of struggle and adversity, our systems will function in times of struggle and adversity,” she said.

Mitchell wrapped up the day by summarizing the discussions and panels. “We shared insights at the granular level, like what you can do to make your website better for screen readers, all the way up to the high-level implementation of plans and frameworks,” she said. “I hope this, coupled with the information from day one, really provides you with a robust understanding of barriers and some of the ways forward and the strategies for change.”