Overview
The
Accessible Canada Act is a law that came into force in July 2019. Its aim is to identify, remove and prevent barriers to accessibility and to make Canada barrier-free by January 1, 2040.
In accordance with this law, the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner must prepare and publish an accessibility plan showing how it identifies, will remove and prevent barriers. This version of the plan must be kept online for seven years after publication, and updated versions must be published every three years. Persons with disabilities must be consulted in the preparation of the accessibility plan and every updated version. The plan must describe the manner in which this consultation took place. The Office must provide alternate formats of this plan to people who request it.
This accessibility plan concerns the Office's policies, programs, practices, and services. It aims to identify and remove barriers, and to prevent new barriers from emerging in the areas described in section 5 of the Accessible Canada Act.
In approaching its responsibilities under the Accessible Canada Act and in the development of this plan, the Office embraced the guiding principle of “nothing without us." This means that people with disabilities are engaged and involved in the identification, prevention, and removal of barriers.
The Office also prepared this plan in accordance with the principles enumerated at section 6 of the law, that:
everyone must be treated with dignity;
everyone must have the same opportunity to make for themselves the life they are able and wish to have;
everyone must be able to participate fully and equally in society;
everyone must have meaningful options and be free to make their own choices, with support if they desire;
laws, policies, programs, services, and structures must take into account the ways that different kinds of barriers and discrimination intersect;
persons with disabilities must be involved in the development and design of laws, policies, programs, services, and structures; and
accessibility standards and regulations must be made with the goal of achieving the highest level of accessibility.
Statement of Commitment
The Office is committed to meeting all of its obligations under the Accessible Canada Act and its regulations (the Accessible Canada Regulations). By establishing a working group on accessibility and by continuing to consult persons with disabilities, the Office is committed to the proactive identification, removal and prevention of barriers to accessibility at the workplace and in all aspects of its communications and activities. Accessibility neither begins nor ends with this plan; it is an ongoing process. We strive to continuously improve accessibility in everything we do.
Consultations
Employees at all levels of the Office and stakeholders, including the general public, were consulted for the purposes of informing this accessibility plan.
Through these consultations, each person was offered the opportunity to provide anonymized accessibility feedback through a survey in the areas described under section 5 of the Accessible Canada Act. They were also provided with an alternative method for contacting the Office with questions or comments about accessibility.
