Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Since the economic burden of mental disorders in Canada has been estimated at $51-billion per year, with almost $20-billion of that coming from workplace losses, the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) has launched a collaborative project with the Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ) and the standards division of the Canadian Standards Association (CSA Standards) to create a voluntary national standard for mentally healthy workplaces. The standard aims to…
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Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
In Ontario there is a regulation called the Accessibility Standard for Customer Service. One of the requirements of this regulation is that persons with disabilities are allowed to enter your organization’s public premises with a service animal. A person should be able to remain with the animal unless otherwise excluded by law. If the animal is…
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Friday, June 10th, 2011
Now that the Integrated Accessibility Regulation under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act is now law and will come into force on July 1, 2011, let’s take a closer look at the accessibility standard for employment.
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Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Employers in Ontario must be aware of the changes that are happening and the requirements that will be placed on them in the very near future under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act …
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Monday, June 6th, 2011
Every employer has experience accommodating employees due to their religion, family needs, health or disability. Accommodation is a necessary practice to manage a workplace today, and it’s the law in Canada, enshrined in the Canadian Human Rights Act and various provincial statutes. But every case of accommodation is different, and interpretations of the law vary.
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Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
The Accessibility Standard for Customer Service Regulation obligates Ontario businesses and their employees to communicate with persons with disabilities in a manner that takes into account the person’s disability. Employers must train employees to interact and communicate with people that have various types of disabilities…
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Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
The employment standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is found under part III in the Proposed Integrated Accessibility Regulation (PIAR), which is slated to become law around July 2011 (not confirmed). This standard requires an organization that is an employer to engage in the proactive identification, removal and prevention of barriers hindering the full participation in employment of persons with disabilities. It also requires…
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Tuesday, March 29th, 2011
There are specific requirements for each of the Proposed Integrated Accessibility Regulation (PIAR) standards. This post will focus on the specific requirements under the AODA Information and Communication Standard.
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Thursday, March 10th, 2011
The AODA customer service standard outlines what businesses and other organizations in Ontario must do to make their goods and services more accessible to people with disabilities by January 1, 2012. Every person or organization that provides goods and services to members of the public or other third parties, and has at least one employee in Ontario, must comply.
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Thursday, March 10th, 2011
You might have seen something on the news or online recently about Charlie Sheen, or maybe one of your co-workers or friends mentioned some of the outlandish things Sheen has said in interviews recently. You might have thought, “Charlie Sheen? He’s still around?” Or maybe you know his hit sitcom, Two and a Half Men, so you know he hasn’t faded away into obscurity. At any rate, you might have been surprised that by his own admission he had done and was continuing to do the amount and kinds of drugs that only celebrities can do and continue to live.
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Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
What is your workplace policy on protecting (accommodating) employees and others who have food allergies, environmental sensitivities and other “hidden” of “non-evident” potential disabilities?
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Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
The Ontario Human Rights Code provides for a variety of prohibitions against discrimination on stated grounds, including disability. However, the Code goes on to specify “a right of a person under this code is not infringed for the reason only that the person is incapable of performing or fulfilling the essential duties or requirements attending the exercise of the right because of disability”. Reading through the legalese, what this means is that it is not a prohibited act of discrimination to deny an employee a job for the reasons that his disability prevents him from performing that job. However, the Code goes on to provide that a person cannot be found incapable of performing the duties of his position if it is possible for the employer to accommodate his particular needs “without undue hardship”.
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Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
For years I have followed the work of advocacy groups in order to understand the needs of people with disabilities. One issue stands out among the research: the removal and prevention of barriers is vital to provide equal access to daily living. Two recognizable advocacy groups are asking the federal government to get on with a plan of action.
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Friday, February 11th, 2011
A recent Ontario Human Rights Tribunal case offers a clear message to employees: you have to make your employer aware of a disability if you want to trigger the employer’s duty to accommodate.
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Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
Dealing with disabled employees can be a vexing issue for most employers. A number of questions arise when an employee takes time off either temporarily or permanently due to a disability, whether physical or mental. These issues include:
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