The Ontario Seniors’ Secretariat is committed to delivering high quality accessible services to all Ontarians. It’s a part of our broader commitment to excellent customer service and to helping make Ontario an accessible province.
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) has already laid the foundation to meet the goal of building an accessible province by 2025. Under the act, Ontario is developing standards that will remove the barriers faced by people with disabilities.
On January 1, 2008, the first accessibility standard under the act came into force. Through the Accessibility Standards for Customer Service (O. Reg. 429/07) people with disabilities will be able to receive the service they need in a way that takes their disability into account. The Ontario government is leading the way through compliance with this standard by January 1, 2010. Private sector and non-profit organizations will need to comply by January 1, 2012.
In the future, more standards are expected to be released in other important areas, including:
- Information and communications
- Transportation
- Employment
- The built environment
- our services and information are accessible to people with disabilities;
- managers and staff are properly trained to provide accessible customer service; and
- reasonable efforts are made to ensure that clients are informed of any temporary service disruption that affects our services.
