Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update
United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities
Website: www.aodaalliance.org
Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com
Twitter: @aodaalliance
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aodaalliance
Send Us Your Feedback on the New Initial Report of the Government-Appointed Customer Service Standards Development Committee
October 24, 2024
Ontarians with disabilities still face far too many barriers when they try to enjoy customer service in venues such as hotels, restaurants, stores, and health care providers. What actions do you think the Ontario Government must take to ensure that customer service in Ontario is accessible to all people with disabilities? Here is a new opportunity for you on this important issue.
On October 10, 2024, the Ford Government made public the Initial Report of the Government-appointed Customer Service Standards Development Committee. We all have up to January 9, 2025, to send our feedback to the committee. You can read the Initial Report of the Customer Service Standards Development Committee, which the Government publicly posted on October 10, 2024, and the survey of customer service disability barriers conducted by the Standards Development Committee.
Here’s some background. Right after the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) was passed in 2005, the Ontario Government appointed the Customer Service Standards Development Committee as its first Standards Development Committee. Its job was to recommend what should be included in an enforceable AODA accessibility standard to spell out what organizations must do to provide accessible customer service.
After that Customer Service Standards Development Committee finished its work, the Government enacted the 2007 Customer Service Accessibility Standard. It was the first accessibility standard enacted under the AODA. It was very weak and limited. It was also very poorly enforced. We have campaigned ever since then to get it effectively enforced and to get its requirements strengthened.
Under Section 9 of the AODA, once an accessibility standard has been on the books for five years, the Government must arrange to have it independently reviewed. The AODA requires the Government to appoint a new Standards Development Committee to review that accessibility standard to advise if it needs to be strengthened.
The previous Ontario Government was therefore required to appoint a new Customer Service Standards Development Committee by 2012 to review the sufficiency of the 2007 Customer Service Accessibility Standard. The Ontario Government did so, but not until 2013, one year later than the law required.
That second Customer Service Standards Development Committee made some very minor and weak recommendations to improve the 2007 Customer Service Accessibility Standard, but not all the recommendations were implemented.
In response, in June 2016, the previous Wynne Government revised the Customer Service Accessibility Standard. Those revisions were minor. The revisions did not significantly improve things for people with disabilities.
As the next stage in this process, the AODA required the Ontario Government to appoint a new Customer Service Standards Development Committee by June 2021, five years after the 2016 revisions were enacted. The Ford Government violated the AODA by failing to take this step by that deadline.
Last year, the Ford Government finally appointed this third Customer Service Standards Development Committee. It has reviewed the AODA Customer Service Accessibility Standard. The AODA Alliance made a presentation to it back on January 12, 2024.
The Customer Service Standards Development Committee must now get input from the public on its initial report and recommendations. The Standards Development Committee will then be required to review that feedback and take it into account as it revises and finalizes its report to the Government.
How You Can Help
- Before January 9, 2024, email the Customer Service Standards Development Committee. Give them your feedback on its Initial Report. Are its recommendations sufficient? What more do you think this Standards Development Committee should recommend? Email the Standards Development Committee at CSreviewSDC@ontario.ca
- Let us at the AODA Alliance know what you think of that Initial Report. We will prepare a brief to send to the Customer Service Standards Development Committee. We’d love to get your feedback by December 1, 2024, so we can take it into account in preparing our feedback! Please write the AODA Alliance at aodafeedback@gmail.com
- Let others know about this consultation. Encourage others to send their feedback to the Customer Service Standards Development Committee.
For More Background
Check out:
The March 15, 2016 AODA Alliance/ARCH Disability Law Centre brief to the Ontario Government on reforms needed to strengthen the Customer Service Accessibility Standard.
The Customer Service Accessibility Standard and
The AODA Alliance website’s Customer Service page, where you can see all our advocacy efforts to tear down disability barriers to customer service.