MULTI-YEAR ACCESSIBILITY PLAN

Accessibility Plans

Section 4: “large organizations shall,

(a) establish, implement, maintain and document a multi-year accessibility plan, which outlines the organization’s strategy to prevent and remove barriers and meet its requirements under this Regulation.
(b) post the accessibility plan on their website, if any, and provide the plan in an accessible format upon request; and

(c) review and update the accessibility plan at least once every five years.”

Dye & Durham has also established an AODA Project team that will meet annually to review the Accessibility Policies to ensure they continue to provide sufficient procedures/practices for removing barriers with Dye & Durham products, services and within its workplace.

AODA Project Team

Implement an annual training program for all employees and contractors.

We are updating our onboarding procedures to develop a checklist for all new and existing hires providing customer focused services on

Process updated to create unique phone/email for improved tracking of questions/requests and consistent responses/actions.

This Process is reviewed annually based on changes to internal workflows.

January 1, 2021, all internet websites and web content must conform with WCAG 2.0 Level AA, other than,
i. success criteria 1.2.4 Captions (Live), and ii. success criteria 1.2.5 Audio Descriptions (Pre-recorded).

We are carrying out the following activities to meet compliance requirements:

• Conducting thorough annual accessibility audits (including automated and manual scans) to assess existing level of accessibility for websites/online products and determine approach to implement WCAG 2.0 Guidelines for new products/content introduced after January 1, 2014.
• Incorporating AODA success criteria as part of design specifications and product requirements for all products to be launched after January 1, 2021 as part of the conception process.
• AODA compliance requirements incorporated into roles/responsibilities and expectations for employees in product development, marketing, IT, content/editorial.
• As new external websites are designed, or as existing external websites are reviewed for redesign/relaunch, WCAG 2.0 guidelines will be incorporated where practicable.
• We include contractual provisions in all supplier contracts for upgrades and contents to our public facing websites to ensure services provided conform to AODA requirements.

Section 24-Every employer shall, when making offers of employment, notify the successful applicant of its policies on accommodation.

Section 25- “Every employer shall inform its employees of its policies used to support its employees with disabilities, including, but not limited to, policies on the provision of job accommodations that take into account an employee’s accessibility needs due to disability.

(2) If an employee who receives individualized workplace emergency response information requires assistance and with the employee’s consent, the employer shall provide the workplace emergency response information to the person designated by the employer to provide assistance to the employee.

Individualized emergency response plans are maintained in HR and are:
• Communicated to the employee’s manager, where the employee’s consent has been obtained, and on an as needed basis.
• Reviewed and assessed on an ongoing and regular basis to ensure that accessibility issues are addressed.

We will appoint a Floor Warden as part of our Health and Safety Committee whose responsibility will be to implement our Health and Safety Plan and ensure that during emergency situations, persons with disabilities are not left behind.

(2) The process for the development of documented individual accommodation plans shall include the following elements:

1. The manner in which an employee requesting accommodation can participate in the development of the individual accommodation plan.
2. The means by which the employee is assessed on an individual basis.
3. The manner in which the employer can request an evaluation by an outside medical or other expert, at the employer’s expense, to assist the employer in determining if accommodation can be achieved and, if so, how accommodation can be achieved.
4. The manner in which the employee can request the participation of a representative from their bargaining agent, where the employee is represented by a bargaining agent, or other representative from the workplace, where the employee is not represented by a bargaining agent, in the development of the accommodation plan.
5. The steps taken to protect the privacy of the employee’s personal information.
6. The frequency with which the individual accommodation plan will be reviewed and updated and the manner in which it will be done.
7. If an individual accommodation plan is denied, the manner in which the reasons for the denial will be provided to the employee.
8. The means of providing the individual accommodation plan in a format that takes into account the employee’s accessibility needs due to disability.

We have created an easily accessible Accommodation Request form posted to our intranet site where employees with disabilities can confidentially request for accommodation

(a) shall develop and have in place a return to work process for its employees who have been absent from work due to a disability and require disability-related accommodations in order to return to work; and
(b) shall document the process.
(2) The return to work process shall,
(a) outline the steps the employer will take to facilitate the return to work of employees who were absent because their disability required them to be away from work; and
(b) use documented individual accommodation plans, as described in section 28, as part of the process.
Performance Management

30. (1) An employer that uses performance management in respect of its employees shall take into account the accessibility needs of employees with disabilities, as well as individual accommodation plans, when using its performance management process in respect of employees with disabilities.

We will continue to review our current process and update if required.

We will continue to review our current process and update if required.

We will continue to review our current process and update if required