Apr 21

Written by: Joe Longo
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 

On January 1, 2008 the Accessibility Standards for Customer Service in Ontario became law. Businesses and organizations that provide goods or services to people in Ontario are now legally required to make their customer services operations accessible to people with disabilities.

What does this mean for your business or for you as a customer?

Niagara North Community Legal Assistance and the Library have arranged an information program called “Breaking Barriers Together: Customer Service Accessibility Standards” on April 23 starting at 7:30pm at the Victoria Avenue Library.

Come and listen to a panel presentation and discussion, with representatives from municipal government, community organizations and the Niagara North Community Legal Clinic including Lisa Butler of the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario.

The customer service standard requires every designated public sector organization and all other providers of goods or services in Ontario who have at least one employee in Ontario to do the following:

Establish policies, practices and procedures on providing goods or services to people with disabilities including allowing people to use their own personal assistive devices and guide dogs to access your goods and use your services and about any other measures your organization offers.

Use reasonable efforts to ensure that your policies, practices and procedures are consistent with the core principles of independence, dignity, integration and equality of opportunity.

Communicate with a person with a disability in a manner that takes into account his or her disability.

Train staff, volunteers, contractors and any other people who interact with the public or other third parties on your behalf on a number of topics as outlined in the customer service standard.

Permit people with disabilities who use a support person to bring that person with them while accessing goods or services in premises open to the public or third parties.

Where admission fees are charged, provide notice ahead of time on what admission, if any, would be charged for a support person of a person with a disability.

Provide notice when facilities or services that people with disabilities rely on to access or use your goods or services are temporarily disrupted.

Establish a process for people to provide feedback on how you provide goods or services to people with disabilities and how you will respond to any feedback and take action on any complaints. Make the information about your feedback process readily available to the public.