It has been almost five years since the first deadline for compliance under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Like previous years, New Year’s day will have a deadline for many organizations. On January 1st, 2017 organizations (including condominiums) with between 1 and 49 employees must ensure the following requirements are satisfied:
- Documents provided to the public must be accessible when asked; and,
- Employment practices (i.e. how you hire, retain, and promote) must be accessible.
For condominiums with 20 or more employees the following requirement is added:
- An Accessibility Compliance report must be filed by December 31, 2017.
If your condominium has more than 50 employees you have to satisfy the following requirement:
- Make new or redeveloped public spaces accessible.
Most condominiums with employees likely have between 1 and 19 employees so I’ll focus on those. Condominiums with between 1 and 19 employees have the following deadlines so far:
- January 1, 2012 – accessible customer service and emergency info.
- January 1, 2015 – create accessibility policies; accessible self-service kiosks.
- January 1, 2016 – Train staff on accessibility laws; make it easy for people with disabilities to provide feedback when asked.
- January 1, 2017 – Make public info and employment practices accessible.
- January 1, 2018 – Make new or redeveloped public spaces accessible.
For condominiums with no employees, many of the above do not apply.
For more information, visit the Ontario website.
