The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act—AODA Standard

Accessibility Policy

• Accommodation

  The term accommodation refers to a variety of assistive responses to a request from an individual to improve access to services. Examples of an accommodation may include providing additional time to review material, moving furniture to manage wheelchair access or permitting entry of a service animal.
  
  The College is committed to supporting individuals of all abilities in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). Please contact us to request an accommodation to better access our services.

• Assistive Devices and Measures

  Assistive devices and measures are supports made available to improve access to service for people of all abilities.
  
  Assistive devices may include wheelchairs, volunteers, real-time captioning services (on-screen typing of what speakers are saying), sign language interpreters or deaf-blind interveners. Other examples include Telephone Teletypes (TTY) to communicate with people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind.

• Disability

  According to the Ontario Human Rights Code, a “Disability” is defined as:

  (a) any degree of physical disability, infirmity, malformation or disfigurement that is caused by bodily injury, birth defect or illness and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, includes diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, a brain injury, any degree of paralysis, amputation, lack of physical co-ordination, blindness or visual impediment, deafness or hearing impediment, muteness or speech impediment, or physical reliance on a guide dog or other animal or on a wheelchair or other remedial appliance or device.

  (b) A condition of mental impairment or a developmental disability.

  (c) A learning disability or a dysfunction in one or more of the processes involved in understanding or using symbols or spoken language.

  (d) A mental disorder, or

  (e) An injury or disability for which benefits were claimed or received under the insurance plan established under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997.

  The definition includes disabilities of different severity, visible as well as non-visible disabilities, and disabilities where the effects may come and go.

• Personal Assistive Devices

  For the purpose of this policy, Personal Assistive Devices are personal supports used by persons with disabilities that enable them to carry out the activities of daily living and allow access to services. Individual-owned equipment such as power-mobility devices (power wheelchairs or scooters) are regarded as Personal Assistive Devices.

• Regulatory Matter

  A regulatory matter refers to all decision making processes that focus on an individual registrant of the College (e.g. registration, complaint, a mandatory report, a QM assessment etc).

• Service Animals

  Service animals are used by people of all abilities. Examples of service animals include guide dogs for people who are blind or low vision, hearing alert animals for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and animals trained to alert an individual to an oncoming seizure and lead them to safety.

• Support Person

  A “Support Person” accompanies an individual to help with communication, mobility, personal care, medical needs or with access to goods or services. Medical needs may include, but are not limited to, monitoring an individual’s health or providing medical support by being available in the event of a seizure. A Support Person may be a paid professional, a volunteer, family member or friend.

• Procedures

  1.0 All staff, agents and individuals directly related to Council and to statutory decision making at the College receive training related to accessibility and the needs and experiences of persons with disabilities. All new hires, new councilors, non-councilor appointees, and new agents receive training within their respective orientation period. Volunteers or agents who have received training through another mechanism may report this as a substitute to the College selected process.

  2.0 All staff and all agents seek to actively identify and remove barriers to access for people with disabilities.

  3.0 All programs and all roles with direct public interface ensure that they are sensitive to a variety of accommodation needs and requests including but not limited to the use of service animals, and the use of support persons.

  4.0 College communications resources are developed in keeping with anticipated accessibility needs.

  5.0 Customer service evaluations in all programs include opportunity for feedback on issues of accessibility. Ideas for improvement in matters of accessibility are brought to senior management for consideration and potential implementation.

  6.0 The Emergency Management Plan for the College includes evacuation strategies that accommodate persons with disabilities.

  7.0 In known disruption of the services of the College for 48 hours or longer, all customers are notified when appropriate and as able (i.e. electronic notification is possible).

• Regulatory Matter Requests

  In circumstances where an individual accommodation request is related to a regulatory process matter, the request

  (a) must be in writing or in another acceptable medium.

  (b) must specify the nature of the accommodation requested accompanied by supporting documentation to verify the request. Such requirement may be waived by senior staff in exceptional circumstances, and

  (c) must provide sufficient notice of need as to permit review and decision making. This notice period will be a minimum of two weeks. Where notice is not possible, requests for accommodation will be met as possible and as reasonable given the circumstance.

  All requests will be considered by staff and in some circumstances may require legal opinion.

  All decisions related to specific requests relevant to regulatory decision making will be in writing or in a medium that best accommodates the recipient’s disability.

  An appeal request of a decision related to accommodation will be considered by the Registrar.

• Customer Complaints External to Regulatory Matters

  A customer complaint regarding accommodation and accessibility will be escalated to the Office of the Registrar. All complaints must be formal in nature and should be specific and verifiable.

  The decision of the Registrar in relation to resolution of complaint is considered final.

  For additional information or to request materials in an alternative format, please contact Communications at communications@collegept.org or call 1-800-583-5885 ext. 234 or 416-591-3828 ext. 234.