AODA Requirements Coming January 1, 2017

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:

1. Documents provided to the public must be accessible when asked; and,
2. 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:

1.  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:

1. 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.