HRPD 706 Labour & Employment Law

Assignment 3
Public Policy Analysis
Access for Ontarians with Disabilities Act
(AODA)

Kshitij Mittal
Renato Dias
Gurjeet Singh
Wendy Tam
Shizhi Bai
Preetinder Kaur

Access for Ontarians with Disabilities Act

(AODA)
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) became law on June 13,
2005. Under this landmark legislation, the government of Ontario has developed mandatory
accessibility standards that identifies, removes, and prevents barriers for people with disabilities.
Who is Affected?
The AODA applies to all levels of government, nonprofits, and private sector businesses across
Ontario who have one or more staff.
The AODA give government authority to set monetary penalties to enforce compliance with
accessibility standards. The maximum penalties under the AODA include:
A person and unincorporated organizations that are guilty of a major offence under this Act can
be fined up to $50,000 dollars for each day the violation continues
A corporation that is guilty can be fined up to $100,000 per day
Directors and officers of a corporation with fiduciary responsibility who are guilty are liable to a
fine of up to $50,000 a day
Why Does Ontario Needs this Act?
When we think of disabilities, we tend to think of people in wheelchairs and physical disabilities
Disabilities that are visible and apparent. But disabilities can also be non-visible. We cant
always tell who has a disability. The broad range of disabilities also includes vision disabilities,
deafness or being hard of hearing, intellectual or developmental, learning, and mental health
disabilities. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) uses the same

definition of disability as the Ontario Human Rights Code, which includes both visible and
non-visible disabilities.
Disability impacts the lives of many Ontarians, and the numbers of people with disabilities is
increasing. Today, 15.5% of Ontarios population has a disability and this number will continue
to grow as the population ages.
Improving accessibility is the right thing to do. Its also the smart thing to do. According to the
Royal Bank of Canada, people with disabilities have an estimated spending power of about $25
billion annually across Canada. People with disabilities also represent a large pool of untapped
employment potential. When we make Ontario accessible to people with disabilities everyone
benefits.
Compliance Reporting Requirements
In 2014, organizations with 20+ employees filed a second report with the government
confirming their continued compliance with the Customer Service Standard. And with effect
from January 1st, 2014, organizations with 50+ employees have to comply with the
requirements below and report their compliance.

Create a multi-year plan to meet accessibility requirements.

Establish policies to meet AODA requirements and tell employees and customers about
them.

Consider accessibility when purchasing or designing electronic kiosks.

Make new websites, and content on those websites, accessible.

1. What are the stated purpose and objectives of the law?

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is a provincial law (Ontario) which
recognizes injustice and discrimination against persons with disabilities in Ontario, this Act
purposes to benefit all Ontarians citizen by: Providing opportunities for persons with disabilities;
Achieving accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities with dignity, respect, accommodation,
services, facilities, employment, buildings, structures and premises on or before January 1, 2015,
identifying, removing and preventing barriers for people with disabilities.
AODA objectives are: putting a halt to discrimination, lack of opportunities, and injustice against
persons with disabilities; breaking barriers which prevents a person with a disability from full
collaboration with her/his workplace.
2. What was the historical content in which this law was first enacted?
On October 12, 2004, the Ontario Government under Premier Dalton McGuinty, presented Bill
118 into the legislature for First Reading (A first reading is when a bill is introduced to a
legislature). This Bill 118 became the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act once
passed in May 2005.
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Two speeches were prepared to the Government in the Legislature on First Reading in
support of Bill 118. The first speech was by Premier McGuinty and the second speech was
by the Minister of Citizenship, Marie Bountrogianni.

The first reading was a victory and first chance for all Ontarians, even for those who fought
for ten years for this legislation starting back in 1994. McGuinty chose to make the first
speech on the bills introduction, also chose for this to be the first bill of that session of the
Legislature.

Ten years had passed and it can be seen that progress on implementing this legislation get off
to a good start in the earliest years. Ontario now remains behind schedule for archiving full
accessibility by 2025.

There are five accessibility standards in place under the Accessibility for Ontarians with
Disabilities Act (AODA) to provision the formation of an accessible province by 2015:
Customer Service, Employment, Information and Communications, Transportation, and
Design of Public Spaces.

3. What is the coverage of the law or to whom does it apply? Are there any exceptions or
exclusions? How significant are they?
The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities describes
persons with disabilities as those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory
impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective
participation in society on an equal basis with others.
NO, Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and
participation restrictions. Impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity
limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a
participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life
situations. Anyone who up to standard the definition mentioned above should get some help to
overcome physical, technological, or informational barriers, such as provided accommodation,
and ensuring equal and respectful treatment of persons with disabilities.
The Guide can help to ensure that legislation, policies, programs and services: are inclusive of
people with disabilities; respect the rights and needs of people with disabilities; promote positive
attitudes and raise awareness about the needs of people with disabilities in order to prevent
unintended negative outcomes.

4. What are the main features of the law?

The aim of AODA is to uproot boundaries that keep a person with a disability from taking an
interest completely in the public eye on account of his or her inability. On the off chance that two
laws clash with each other, Section 38 of the AODA states that the law that gives the more
elevated amount of availability is the law that must be taken after.

The ministry invites people to sit on standards development committees to create proposed
accessibility standards. Three groups of people are on every committee who represent people
with disabilities, representatives from organizations and representatives from Ontario
government ministries. The minister builds up the Accessibility Standards Advisory Council. The
Council gives advice to the minister about the process for developing accessibility standards and
progress made by the standards development committees. A majority of the Councils members
are people with disabilities.

5. Evaluate the respective rights and obligations of employers and employees

Employers Must:
1. Establish policies, practices and procedures on providing goods or services to people with
disabilities.
2. Use reasonable efforts to ensure that your policies, practices and procedures are consistent
with the core principles of independence, dignity, integration and equality of opportunity.
3. Set a policy on allowing people to use their own personal assistive devices to access your
goods and use your services and about any other measures your organization offers (assistive
devices, services, or methods) to enable them to access your goods and use your services.
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4. Communicate with a person with a disability in a manner that takes into account his or her
disability.
5. Allow people with disabilities to be accompanied by their guide dog or service animal in those
areas of the premises you own or operate that are open to the public, unless the animal is
excluded by another law. If a service animal is excluded by law, use other measures to provide
services to the person with a disability.
6. Permit people with disabilities who use a support person to bring that person with them while
accessing goods or services in premises open to the public or third parties.
7. Where admission fees are charged, provide notice ahead of time on what admission, if any,
would be charged for a support person of a person with a disability.
8. Provide notice when facilities or services that people with disabilities rely on to access or use
your goods or services are temporarily disrupted.
9. Train staff, volunteers, contractors and any other people who interact with the public or other
third parties on your behalf on a number of topics as outlined in the customer service standard.
10. Train staff, volunteers, contractors and any other people who are involved in developing your
policies, practices and procedures on the provision of goods or services on a number of topics as
outlined in the customer service standard.
11. Establish a process for people to provide feedback on how you provide goods or services to
people with disabilities and how you will respond to any feedback and take action on any
complaints. Make the information about your feedback process readily available to the public.
Additional requirements for employers with 20 or more employees

12. Document in writing all your policies, practices and procedures for providing accessible
customer service and meet other document requirements set out in the standard.
13. Notify customers that documents required under the customer service standard are available
upon request.
14. When giving documents required under the customer service standard to a person with a
disability, provide the information in a format that takes into account the person's disability.
6. Describe the adjudication, dispute resolution and enforcement mechanisms. Are the
resulting outcomes fair and equitable?
7. What are the possible remedies in the event of a violation of the law?
Monetary remedies
There are generally three monetary remedies that can be ordered by a human rights tribunal or
commission. The applicant may receive money for:
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Restitution and compensation for money that the individual lost or was forced to spend
because of the discrimination, such as lost wages and benefits, increased rent, or moving
expenses;

General damages, including the right to be free from discrimination, and injury to the
person's dignity, feelings and self-respect as a result of the discrimination; and

Interest on any of these remedies.

Non-monetary remedies
Non-monetary remedies may involve ordering the respondent to "do" something. Examples of
non-monetary remedies include:

1.

correcting the discriminatory behaviour,

2.

job reinstatement,

3.

provide housing to the applicant,

4.

allow the applicant to become a member, etc

8.
9. Are there any special issues or emerging trends in this area of the law?
A new action plan in Ontario has been released in order to build on the progress and
development of the AODA since its implementation to make Ontario fully accessible. They are
seeking to improve upon five key aspects of daily life through customer service, information and
communications, employment, transportation and design of public space.
The deadline for this proposal is 2025 and organizations with more than 50 employees are urged
to create a barrier free building. As technology becomes are more important of our lives, AODA
has also focused on developing web accessibility as well.

10. Evaluate the effectiveness of this law in relation to its stated purpose and objectives. Are
the outcomes of addressing?
The purpose of the AODA is to develop, implement and enforce accessibility requirements and
we feel that this law is moderately effective. This law is focused more on compliance rather than
punishment and for action to be held against a company it can be difficult. It can be difficult
because the AODA does not seek to punish and fine all organizations in order to ensure it follows
the policies that are set out.
It can also be seen as less effective because of the way it is enforced. Currently the Ministry of
Community and Social Services is responsible to enforce compliance but individuals who are
seeking to make a complaint can take their claim to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. It can

be a complicated matter because the HRTO does not enforce AODA. Also the minimum
standards for compliance with the AODA are not fully set out and figuring out what the
minimum is to avoid a discrimination claim.

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References
Electronic Sources

http://legalline.ca/legal_answers/yukon/human_rights/remedies_available_for_human_ri
ghts_violations.html

http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/disability/arc/reference_guide.shtml#h2.15

http://accessontario.com/aoda/

http://www.hrpa.ca/Pages/AODA.aspx

http://www.canadaemploymenthumanrightslaw.com/2012/09/articles/aoda-1/whoenforces-aoda-standards/

http://www.wsps.ca/HSO/media/HSO/NetworkMag/NetworkMag2/sidebar8.htm

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