Full Accessibility in Ontario? It's Going to Take a Lot of (Already Delayed) Work

The impending arrival of a key deadline for Ontario's Accessible Employment Standard offers us a perfect opportunity to remember that if we want to reach our 2025 accessibility goals, we really need to get to work.

As you may know, we stay non-political on this blog, but allow me to share, in a completely non-partisan way, something that's relevant to our discussions for this month-long focus on accessibility. In fact, it mirrors a statement we published on this very blog on Tuesday! 

I present to you yesterday's comment by New Democratic Party MPP Jennifer French, who represents Oshawa and is critic for community safety and corrections services and for pensions. French spoke to her colleagues in Queen's Park regarding her experience at the Durham Region Accessibility Forum. 

"Speaker, as you know, we have a goal in Ontario to be fully accessible by the year 2025. Members across the legislature from all parties supported that goal and committed to it. Well, speaker, we are not on track to achieve it. And we should be," she said. "Our communities are stronger and more engaged when more people can access our businesses, community spaces, centres for learning, and the workforce. We have the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, or AODA, and it is a solid piece of legislation that was supported by all parties in this house.

"Unfortunately, the Act doesn't have the strength of our convictions. It doesn't have the teeth it deserves to make the kind of difference it needs to to ensure all Ontarians can access and equitably participate in their communities. I challenge all of us to recommit to reaching our shared goal of a fully accessible Ontario by 2025. Let's get back on track."

Strong words and while her  intent may be filled with passion, the result could be empty if we continue along her path.

One of the challenges of long-term goals is that they can be overwhelmed by short-term priorities and thinking. When AODA was launched, 2025 was a long ways away, so it's easy to defer tasks to a future when there's plenty of future to be had.

We're quickly running out of time to hit our goals. But there's another key date that is fast approaching that can help us refocus our efforts

On Jan. 1, 2017, Ontario's Accessible Employment Standard requires that all businesses and non-profits with between one and 49 employees must complete four standard requirements: hiring, workplace information, talent and performance management, and communicate accessibility policies. This is a continuation of the expectation that was established on Jan. 1, 2016 that saw all businesses and non-profits with 50 or more employees needing to meet six standard requirements (the aforementioned four, plus accommodation plans and a return to work process.)

You can learn more about this standard and the requirements on the Province of Ontario's accessible workplaces page.

For years now, we've been working under the believe that people will make changes because it's the right thing to do. At Echidna, we don't necessarily focus on that motivation when we write because we also want to show the positive impacts accessibility has on the bottom line -- accessibility measures can help improve your business practices and on-line performance. And we've seen people embrace that messaging.

But, as a province, we have a long way to go. And while calls to action like Ms. French's are powerful in and of themselves, they can fall flat if there's no "teeth," as she said, behind them.

Even laws are only as strong as their enforcement. And, to date, that enforcement is woefully lax.

I'm not calling for a crackdown on all websites, structures, and companies that aren't compliant. I firmly believe that you get more buy-in through collaboration rather than clubbing people over the head. But these 2025 goals are not going to happen on their own. We're not going to magically wake up in a world where all people can integrate with society with no barriers to access or information.

It's going to take work. And we're running out of time to roll up our sleeves.