Have You Met Your January 1st Requirements?

With tomorrow set to mark the first day of 2010, the January 1st date is particularly meaningful for service providers operating in the province of Ontario. The Customer Service standard is the first of five to be implemented under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), and there are certain requirements that providers must comply with by tomorrow's deadline.    

Based on the questions I have received personally, and the online conversations I have observed from afar, it occurred to me that there is a great deal of confusion around what service personnel are required to provide, and what consumers are entitled to receive as a result of this impending standard.

So, while full details and requirements of the Customer Service standard can be found within the Guide to Ontario Accessibility Standards, I have summarized the most relevant information below...   

The customer service standard applies to all organizations, both public and private, that provide goods or services either directly to the public or to other organizations in Ontario, (third parties), and that have one or more employees in Ontario.

The standard does not specifically set accessibility requirements for the goods themselves, but rather the way that they are provided to customers.  All providers that are covered by the customer service standard must comply with the 11 requirements summarized below:

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.
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.

Providers with 20 or more employees and all designated public sector organizations have three additional requirements to meet:

1. Document in writing all your policies, practices and procedures for providing accessible customer service and meet other document requirements set out in the standard.
2. Notify customers that documents required under the customer service standard are available upon request.
3. 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.

Deadlines:

The deadlines for complying with the customer service standard are based on two categories or organizations defined in the standard.

January 1, 2010 - for all providers listed or described as designated public sector organizations in the schedules to the standard.

January 1, 2012 - for all providers with at least one employee that are not designated public sector organizaions.

It is my hope that thist provides both service providers and consumers with the general guidelines surrounding this standard.  I will welcome further inquiries from visitors, as I believe full understanding is the first step towards ensuring compliance and accessibility for all.