Executive summary

Like all ministries, Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) complies with the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR). This regulation established phased-in requirements in the following accessibility standards:

  • customer service
  • information and communications
  • employment
  • transportation
  • design of public spaces

The general requirements are:

  • procurement
  • training

In 2012, the Ontario Public Service (OPS) released its first multi-year accessibility plan (MYAP) entitled Accessibility in the Ontario Public Service: Leading the Way Forward.

TBS’s 2016 Accessibility Report demonstrates how the measures taken in 2016 support the key outcomes and deliverables of the 2012-2016 OPS MYAP.

TBS strategically developed the 2015-2016 TBS Accessibility and Inclusion Plan to be a dual plan to ensure that accessibility is embedded as part of creating a barrier-free and inclusive workplace culture. The plan focused on three key areas:

  1. investing in the capacity of middle managers
  2. promoting an even more inclusive workplace culture
  3. making accessibility and inclusion a fundamental part of TBS

The report back lists the measures taken to accomplish the ministry’s 2015 - 2016 goals. These goals align with the IASR standards.

Below are some highlights of the ministry’s major accessibility and inclusion accomplishments for 2016.

Policies and plans:

  • Led policies across OPS, ensuring that accessibility and inclusion are taken into consideration, including HR policies on anti-racism, sexual harassment, workplace discrimination and harassment as well as the IT strategy
  • Partnered with the OPS Diversity Office to create policies for anti-racism and the new Multi-Year Accessibility Plan (2017-2021)
  • Partnered with the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services to develop and implement accessible customer service policy

Leadership:

  • Created an Executive Champion for Accessibility and Inclusion in the ministry
  • Required managers to include accessibility and inclusion performance commitments
  • Required managers to track the completion of mandatory courses on accessibility and inclusion for their staff
  • Launched the OPS Executive Recruitment Inclusion Lens to support inclusive, barrier-free competitions for hiring of executives

Programs:

  • Led the design, procurement and planning of the 2017 OPS Employee Survey ensuring an accessible version was available
  • Coordinated submissions for the OPS as Canada’s Top 100 Employer, Greater Toronto’s Top Employers, Canada’s Top Employers for Young People, Canada’s Best Diversity Employers, Canada’s Greenest Employers, Top Employers for Canadians Over 40, and Canada’s Top Family-Friendly Employers

Culture:

  • Fully implemented the ministry’s commitment to an accessible and inclusive workplace culture by developing the TBS Accessibility and Inclusion Plan and ensuring ongoing focus is placed on accessibility in the ministry
  • Hosted and promoted events supporting culture transformation, accessibility and creating inclusive workplaces, such as the Day of Pink in Support of LGBTQ community, Asian Heritage Month and Anti–Racism
  • Delivered training on creating accessible documents to over 1,200 staff

Communications:

  • Generated awareness of events and resources through internal newsletters and community of practice groups
  • Trained staff on creating accessible documents and websites
  • Developed and shared accessibility tools to ministry staff, including manuals and online resources such as Beyond Compliance which measures how much an organization exceeds accessibility requirements under the IASR
  • Provided fully accessible intranet platforms (internal websites) through InsideOPS and ensured Ontario.ca was fully accessible

Moving forward, TBS will be developing a 2017 - 2021 Accessibility and Inclusion Plan aligning with the 2017 - 2021 OPS Multi-Year Accessibility Plan and the 2015 - 2020 OPS HR Plan. TBS will also conduct a thorough review of achievements and lessons learned to inform areas of focus in the years to come.

In summary, TBS will continue to ensure that accessibility and inclusion are reflected in the development and review of policies and programs. Plans, actions and communications within TBS will continue to support the ministry’s accessibility and inclusion priorities. In doing so, TBS aims to provide excellent service to the people of Ontario and enable all ministry employees to reach their full potential.

Section one: report on measures taken by TBS in 2016

Customer service

MYAP key outcome

People with disabilities who are OPS customers receive quality goods and services in a timely manner.

Measures taken by TBS in 2016

Continued providing accessible and inclusive services by building accessibility and inclusion into decision-making, project management, procurement, technology, infrastructure, I&IT and training, and focusing on leadership, developing an effective feedback process and raising awareness.

Feedback process

TBS continued gathering feedback for accessibility issues through Ontario.ca in order to provide accessible customer service. Ontario.ca includes a “contact us” link which routes feedback to the correct resource for response/resolution. It also includes an accessibility link which provides Ontarians with an overview of the OPS’s commitment to accessibility. This process also applies for internal websites for staff.

TBS continued to provide accessible formats and communication supports in a timely manner, upon request.

Build awareness

Resources were promoted to TBS and OPS staff to support employees with different abilities, through various communication channels, such as the ministry newsletter, websites, videos and email.

TBS promoted the use of the OPS Inclusion Lens to develop and review programs and services, which ensures potential accessibility barriers were considered and addressed.

Information and communications

MYAP key outcome

Information and communications are available in accessible formats or with necessary supports to all OPS staff and customers.

Measures taken by TBS in 2016

To support the requirements listed under the Information and Communications Standards, TBS effectively communicated information about accessibility and inclusion throughout the ministry, including having updated and accessible public and internal web content. TBS also focused on promoting accessibility and inclusion policies, programs, practices and training.

Promoting policies, programs, practices and training

The TBS Accessibility and Inclusion Plan as well as the 2015 Report Back were provided in accessible formats.

Internal newsletters and various stakeholder channels were used to communicate about the TBS Accessibility and Inclusion Plan as well as policies and programs impacting accessibility. These channels included the deputy minister’s blogs, senior executive forums and online resources.

TBS’s internal Accessibility and Inclusion website was updated with information on how to create accessible documents and webpages. The website also served as a central repository for accessibility resources.

TBS promoted learning opportunities, including a learning session on accessibility, through various internal OPS and ministry communications channels.

Culture network

TBS used successful strategies to share events on accessibility and inclusion through ministry communities of practice including the Culture Network and the TBS Accessibility and Inclusion committees.

Websites and web content

TBS ensured all correspondence and communications products were fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA standards for Ontario.ca, InsideOPS, OPS newsletters and paper formats used alternate text when printed.

Policies and legislation

TBS updated HR policies, such as the Respectful Workplace Policy, and also provided quarterly reports on the OPS HR Plan.

Updates on accessibility, such as relevant legislation, mandatory training and reporting requirements, were communicated to staff and stakeholders through various channels.

Promoted accessibility and inclusion

TBS continued to promote diversity, accessibility, inclusion and training regarding the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and the IASR within the ministry through internal websites, newsletters, memos, events, as well as at staff and managers' meetings.

Information on how to conduct accessible meetings, through the accessible venue checklist, continued to be promoted to staff.

Management and staff participated in diversity and culture committees to share information at unit, branch or divisional meetings and events. Similarly, diversity, accessibility and inclusion were included as topics as part of unit, branch or divisional meetings and events.

Program areas continued to participate in ministry culture, accessibility and inclusion committees and promoted awareness of OPS or ministry events. The ministry hosted and promoted events in support of culture transformation, accessibility or creating inclusive workspaces, such as Day of Pink in support of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) communities, Asian Heritage Month, Anti-racism, Indigenous Awareness, Caribbean Carnival, Social Model of Disability, and Taking Care of Elderly.

TBS’s accessibility lead delivered training on how to create accessible documents to over 1,200 employees across the OPS.

In addition to events, accessibility and inclusion were also promoted by the deputy minister, including articles to celebrate the International Day of Pink as well as the ministry’s accessible intranet platform.

The ministry’s IT program areas worked with external partners, such as the Information Technology and Association of Canada and Women Executive Network, to deliver and promote inclusive educational events.

Additionally, TBS promoted a culture of awareness on an enterprise level by writing and/or posting 18 articles featuring the topics of accessibility, inclusion and diversity that are accessible to all OPS employees.

Employment

MYAP key outcome

OPS employees with disabilities participate fully and meaningfully in their employment.

Measures taken by TBS in 2016

Policies and legislation

TBS created and updated its policies to ensure accessibility, inclusion and diversity were taken into consideration. One key policy update in 2016 was the Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Prevention (WDHP) Policy, which became the Respectful Workplace Policy. The policy strengthens the focus on prevention and early intervention of workplace harassment and discrimination for all grounds, including disability, by supporting a respectful workplace. It enables ministries to fulfill their legislative requirements, under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Another key policy is the Employee Performance Policy which included direction to take into account the accessibility needs of employees.

In addition to leading various policies internally, the ministry also partnered with other areas in the OPS to strengthen accessibility. For example, TBS collaborated with the OPS Diversity Office on the Anti-Racism and Sexual Harassment Prevention action plans, and with the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services on an OPS Accessible Customer Service Directive.

Information on these policies and programs was shared with staff and stakeholders in order to build awareness. Plans are in place to review the policies on a regular basis to ensure continued relevance. For example, HR policies will be reviewed approximately every five years.

Leadership strategy, competencies and opportunities

Through the TBS People Strategy, the ministry continued its commitment to creating an accessible and inclusive workplace. Highlights included:

  • accessibility and inclusion goals were included in staff and manager performance plans
  • mandatory courses were communicated to all ministry staff and completion was tracked throughout the year
  • TBS, in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF), continued developing tools to ensure continuous improvement of accessibility. Tools were shared with accessibility champions in the ministry and across the OPS

TBS also collaborated with the OPS Diversity Office on the proposed commitments for the 2017-2021 OPS Multi-Year Accessibility Plan (MYAP). TBS has an important role for the OPS moving forward, with specific focus on: customer service, governance, policies and legislation, training, communications, learning and development, recruitment, employee support, mental health, and procurement.

The ministry promoted inclusive leadership practices through leadership and development courses, leadership forums, cultural fairs, and mentoring as well as the IT Building Leaders initiative.

Lastly, in collaboration with the OPS Diversity Office, TBS integrated communications and promoted the use of the Inclusion Performance Commitments for 2016-2017, which managers and leaders included in their performance plans. Representatives from the OPS DO have been included as part of the OPS Leadership Strategy think tank.

Diversity Career Champion Program (DCCP)

The Diversity Career Champion Program, an OPS-wide mentorship initiative kicked off its 2016 cycle with approximately 100 TBS staff (50 employee partners and 50 executive champions). Several events have been planned for the near future, including learning sessions.

Orientation package

A ministry-wide orientation program was prepared as part of implementing the TBS People Strategy. This program will enhance existing divisional orientation programs. Additionally, IT program area managers participated with interns in the Ontario Internship Program Orientation and career development activities.

Hiring practices

TBS launched the OPS Executive Recruitment Inclusion Lens, which is a web-based, analytical tool that is used in all executive recruitments to ensure that accessibility and diversity principles are applied to support inclusive, barrier-free competitions for senior management positions.

TBS provides resources to all managers across the enterprise to support inclusive, barrier-free hiring process through the Managers’ Toolkit, as well as the Fair Hiring Practices guide.

The TBS Fair Hiring Action Plan is currently under review and will be implemented soon.

Design of public spaces

MYAP key outcome

There is greater accessibility into, out of and around OPS facilities and public spaces.

Measures taken by TBS in 2016

The training on Design of Public Spaces is mandatory for all managers, TBS Facilities Management Unit, TBS Emergency, Physical Security and Coordination Office. It was encourage to managers to work with the Facilities Management Unit when facing major renovations or moving to new buildings to ensure all accessibility barriers are removed.

The ministry continued posting signs in English and French in TBS facilities as well as adding Braille for facilities requiring new signs. For example, a recent office at 77 Wellesley Street West in Toronto included accessibility in the design by having Braille signage at the entrance. As well, TBS is consulting on the Queen’s Park Reconstruction Project.

General outcomes

MYAP key outcome

OPS staff are able to identify barriers to accessibility, in OPS policies, programs, services and facilities, and actively seek solutions to prevent or remove them on a continuing basis throughout the organization.

Measures taken by TBS in 2016

Procurement

TBS reviewed the OPS Procurement Directive to include accessibility requirements when procuring goods and services. All approved vendors of record must meet accessibility standards. In collaboration with other ministries, TBS is reviewing the existing procurement process and looking to revise the accessible procurement checklist, through a new procurement community of practice group.

The OPS Inclusion Now! Strategy is part of the package given to vendors for leadership development programs across the OPS coordinated by TBS. Vendors are required to follow the principles listed in the OPS Inclusion Now! Strategy and build in content about diversity and inclusion in the learning sessions.

Additionally, the ministry incorporated accessibility design, criteria and features when procuring goods and services, such as the public appointments training eModule and in-class training for agencies appointees. Vendor performance was monitored for IT procurements to ensure that vendors are taking accessibility and inclusion into account in their delivery of IT goods and services.

Lastly, training and helpful resources such as the accessible procurements checklist were provided to relevant financial staff though the ministry Financial Management Forum.

OPS Enterprise-wide audit on accessibiltiy

In 2016, TBS Ontario Internal Audit, at the request of the OPS Diversity Office, conducted an enterprise-wide accessibility audit. The purpose of the audit was to identify potential areas for improvement to further improve services offered by various ministries. The Treasury Board Secretariat audit results highlighted: numerous measures taken to incorporate the key principles of accessibility into policies; customer service, web and employment standards; readiness surveys for the built environment; and internal testing/reporting practices for websites. TBS is currently taking actions to address opportunities identified in the report.

Training

Resources and tools were shared across TBS to build awareness on accessibility and inclusion.

In collaboration with MNRF, TBS continued to share expertise on accessibility and inclusion by delivering training on “Building Bridges over Barriers,” which helps staff understand how to implement the OPS Inclusion Lens, and “Creating Accessible Documents” workshops.

The TBS accessibility and inclusion lead updated the training material on creating accessible documents, which is delivered to over 1,200 OPS staff. These updates were based on research, best practices and lessons learned. As well, IT partners helped to ensure the material aligned with online courses on creating accessible documents.

The OPS online learning portal, LearnON, was updated to make the creating accessible documents courses available to all OPS staff. This allowed tracking of the course in an employee’s learning history. As part of certifying compliance to AODA, managers were requested to run the LearnON report to track completion of mandatory courses for their teams. (Please refer to IASR Section 7). Staff were also encouraged to take non-mandatory courses or workshops to build awareness of accessibility and inclusion. These included web accessibility training, Job Opportunity Information Network Conference, National Accessibility Conference, Accessibility Expo as well as mental health, LGBTQ, anti-racism and sexual harassment awareness. TBS integrated inclusive messaging and examples in its IT learning portal, LearnIT.

Accessibility and inclusion resources and courses were made available on the TBS intranet and were promoted through ministry and OPS newsletters, as well as informally by managers.

A*Pal, a self-guided, user-friendly tool for creating accessible documents, was developed by Ministry of Transportation and promoted across TBS.

TBS hosted numerous speakers and presentations on diversity, accessibility and inclusion. For example, TBS hosted a course on Opt for Inclusion™, which measures the competencies required of a leader or contributor to create an inclusive workplace. It examines how a person’s beliefs, values and biases affect how they complete their daily work and interact with others.

Various members of the ministry, including staff of the Deputy Minister’s office, took part in OPS Employee Networks, including the South East Asian, East Asian, and Disabilities networks as well as Tomorrow’s OPS.

Budget

TBS divisional accessibility and inclusion leads suggested to their senior management teams to include accessibility and inclusion within their planned activities, such as divisional leadership forums, branch meetings, speaker series, and culture transformation events.

Section two: addressing the identification of barriers in legislation and implementation frameworks

Introduction

In 2005, the government introduced the AODA, with the goal of making Ontario accessible by 2025. In support of this goal, the government committed to review Ontario legislation to identify and address accessibility barriers, and undertook a coordinated review of 51 statutes considered to have a high impact on persons with disabilities.

As a result of this review, the government made changes to 11 statutes spread across seven ministries to ensure that Ontario laws better reflect accessibility considerations. The changes to the 11 statutes were included in the government’s 2016 Budget.

Each ministry continues to be responsible for identifying and addressing barriers in their legislation and the policies and programs through which that legislation is implemented, and for reporting on results through its accessibility report.

Our ministry remains committed to the goal of ensuring that Ontario legislation and implementation frameworks do not create barriers to persons with disabilities.

Measures in place in 2016

TBS ensured that accessibility and inclusion were taken into account when developing new policies and programs or reviewing existing ones, as well as when migrating ministries’ to InsideOPS or Ontario.ca.

The following measures are in place to assess accessibility and inclusion in our ministry’s proposals for new acts, regulations, policies and programs, and services:

  • using the OPS Inclusion Lens when developing programs and policies
  • ensuring that all documents produced, both internal and external, are fully accessible
  • ensuring that the feedback process through Ontario.ca is followed and permits feedback in person, by telephone, in writing, or by delivering an electronic text by email or on CD/USB. The ministry follows the OPS Accessible Customer Service Policy, available to all customers upon request
  • ensuring that InsideOPS follows the active offer in place by providing alternate format upon request at no extra cost to OPS staff who request it. InsideOPS also offers a link to the Accessible Customer Service Policy posted on Ontario.ca
  • ensuring that new OPS ministries websites, and its web content migrated to InsideOPS, conform with the legal requirements, removing barriers to provide an inclusive customer service and communication to OPS staff

Actions taken in the past year

In 2014, the former Ministry of Government Services - Legal Services Branch reviewed various procedural rules, policies and guidelines for select high-impact legislation. These included, but were not limited to, statutes that:

  • affected persons with disabilities directly
  • provided for the delivery of widely applicable services or programs
  • provided benefits or protection or
  • affected a democratic or civic right or duty

Following their comprehensive review, TBS Legal Services worked with their counterparts at the Office of the Legislative Counsel to ensure that any future high-impact legislation would be assessed appropriately including, but not limited to, the lens of accessibility and inclusion and reducing barriers per the AODA.