DOCUMENT 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

City of Ottawa

 

 

 

 

 

5 Year Municipal Accessibility Plan

 

Table of contents

 

Section                                                                                                                             Page

 

Message from Mayor Jim Watson                                                                                 3

Message from Kent Kirkpatrick, City Manager                                                           3

 

STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT                                                                                               4

 

Background                                                                                                                                    4

 

Methodology                                                                                                                       5

 

Consultation                                                                                                                         6

 

Guiding Principles                                                                                                              6

 

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY                                                                                     6

 

Leadership                                                                                                                           7

 

Structure and Governance                                                                                              7

 

COMAP and Integrated Accessibility Regulation Implementation (IAR) Plan     8

 

Legislated Goals                                                                                                                 8-9

 

Non-Legislated Goals                                                                                                        10-11

 

IAR Implementation Timeline Chart                                                                              12

 

 

Message from Mayor Jim Watson

 

The City of Ottawa and our City Council is committed to removing and preventing barriers so that residents can take part in all that our great City has to offer. 

 

The City of Ottawa Municipal Accessibility Plan (COMAP) is an annual report that outlines new initiatives and illustrates past achievements in improving accessibility within the City. Council continues to demonstrate their ongoing commitment through the approval of the City’s Retrofit Program for this term of Council. This program represents an annual investment of $2 million to improve the accessibility of City facilities and built environment. Other programs and services such as Snow-Go, the Tactile Signage program and Audible Pedestrian Signals also support mobility for residents.

 

Working with our Accessibility Advisory Committee, the City remains committed to hearing what residents have to say about the services we deliver. As part of our continuing effort to improve, our eighth annual AccessAbility Day, was held on December 9, 2011. This day-long celebration of accessibility achievements also provided the opportunity to receive important feedback on the accessibility of the City’s human resource management, transportation services and information and communication services.

 

The City of Ottawa has laid a solid foundation for continuously advancing and strengthening the City’s commitment to improving accessibility for all residents. Over the next 5 years, the City is committed to achieving the goal of meeting AODA standards and making the City of Ottawa one of the most accessible capital cities in the world.

 

A Message from City Manager, Kent Kirkpatrick

 

The City remains dedicated to continuous improvement in the area of accessibility and to reaching the goals set by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).

 

The City of Ottawa Municipal Accessibility Plan (COMAP) outlines initiatives that will improve accessibility in our community, and reflects the City’s commitment to the successful implementation of the AODA standards.

 

In 2010, the City was proud to demonstrate compliance with the AODA Customer Service Standard. Over 25, 000 City employees, volunteers, community partners and City contractors have now received training in accessible customer service. Everyone who participated in the training program now has the foundation required to improve service delivery across the City.

 

Our work thus far has prepared us well to continue to successfully implement the remaining provincial standards, including the standards for information and communication, employment, and the built environment. By developing initiatives in these key areas, we continue to remove and prevent barriers and create a more inclusive City for all residents.

INTRODUCTION

 

STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT

 

The City of Ottawa is committed to providing equitable treatment to people with disabilities with respect to the use and benefit of City programs and services. The City seeks to identify and remove barriers to accessibility and prevent the creation of new barriers. The City is working to provide services in a manner that respects the dignity and independence of all Ottawa citizens, our employees and visitors.   The City of Ottawa is equally dedicated to ensuring that all AODA legislated obligations are met in a timely manner and that compliance with these standards is maintained.

 

Background

The purpose of the City of Ottawa Municipal Accessibility Plan (COMAP) is to demonstrate how the City will be implementing the legislative requirements of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act (ODA) (2001), the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (2005) and to manage compliance with emerging AODA regulations related to the Corporation of the City of Ottawa.  In addition, the City recognizes that there is also a need for innovation outside of the legislation and that additional initiatives are required to either prepare for forthcoming legislation, or in some cases, to work beyond the legislation to meet resident’s accessibility needs. The City recognizes that achieving these objectives requires a corporate-wide approach in order to identify and remove barriers for residents, employees and visitors.

 

Over the past several years, the City of Ottawa has undertaken a number of initiatives aimed at ensuring that the municipality remains as inclusive and barrier-free as possible. These include, but are not limited to:  

 

·         Developing ten City of Ottawa Municipal Accessibility Plans (COMAP) as part of the requirements of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act 2001 (ODA);

·         Providing Accessible Formats since 2002;

·         Investing over $7 million on accessibility retrofits in City facilities since the introduction of the Built Environment Retrofit Program;

·         Creating an accessible taxi program that now boasts more than 173 accessible taxis;

·         Training over 25,000 City employees, volunteers, community partners and City contractors on Accessible Customer Service;

·         Providing Accessible Customer Service training to all staff beyond the AODA parameters.

·         Reviewing over 50 policies, procedures and other relevant documents to include accessibility;

·         Installing Audible Pedestrian Signals at approximately 51% of all city intersections; 

·         Creating an annual AccessAbility Day event to highlight achievements and bring awareness to the importance of accessibility to City services;

·         Meeting and maintaining compliance with the AODA Customer Service Standard.

 

Methodology

This 5 year COMAP has been developed to enable the City to clearly demonstrate how  the requirements of the AODA Integrated Accessible Regulations 191/11 (IAR) will be implemented. In addition, it enables the City to communicate to residents the non-legislated accessibility initiatives which have been introduced to ensure City services consider accessibility moving forward. These include initiatives in the area of the built environment for which AODA legislation is still forthcoming and in the area of transportation for which the City’s Transit Services and Rail Implementation Office are exempt as they are federally regulated.

 

Since 2001, the City of Ottawa has maintained both an Accessibility Advisory Committee and an Accessibility Working Group. These committees play a vital role in the development of the annual COMAP report for the City of Ottawa. In addition to these committees, and to advance the City’s response to the new provincial legislation, several internal sub-committees were initiated in the areas of policy, emergency, training, information and communication and employment to:

 

·         Assist in the interpretation of the IAR clauses;

·         Determine the City’s readiness to meet the legislative requirements;

·         Identify gaps;

·         Create work plans to meet corporate and legislative timelines; and,

·         Determine who is responsible for implementation within the City of Ottawa.

 

During this analysis, with the assistance of Legal Services, it was determined that there are several clauses within the AODA Integrated Accessibility Regulation that are not applicable to the City of Ottawa.

 

These include the following regulations:

#8   - Exemption from filing reports;

#15 - Education and training resources and materials;

#16 - Training to educators;

#17 - Producers of educational or training materials;

#18 - Libraries of educational and training institutions; and,

#33 - #77: (33 to 74 conventional and  specialized transit, and rail, 75 School Transportation, 76 Public Sector Organizations, 77 Ferries).

 

On June 23, 2011, senior management approved areas of responsibility, an action plan to meet the legislative requirements and a timeline for completion. The refined five- year plan is attached to this report as Appendix A for consideration at the Finance and Economic Development Committee on April 3, 2012 and for Council’s consideration on April 11, 2012.

Progress on the five-year plan will be provided to senior management as required and to the Finance and Economic Development Committee and City Council on an annual basis. The City Clerk and Solicitor will report on compliance to the province, as per the provincial schedule.

 

Consultation

Consultation on the plan was conducted during the 2011 AccessAbility Day celebration held on December 9th 2011. After hearing a presentation on the AODA requirements and current initiatives undertaken by the City of Ottawa, members of the public were invited to provide feedback on the accessibility of the City’s information and communications services, our employment services and transportation services.  Additional feedback was received for a two week period following the event in a variety of accessible formats. Feedback was collected and was included in the AODA IAR implementation plan or included in COMAP as non-legislated actions or initiatives. 

 

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

The guiding principles of the City’s COMAP include:

 

·         Seeking efficiencies by training all existing staff only once;

·         Ensuring that areas of accountability are clearly defined by implementing clauses by department; and,

·         Developing support tools and templates to assist staff with implementation.

 

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

The City of Ottawa supports the goals of the AODA to make the Province of Ontario accessible by the year 2025. As such the City’s senior management has approved the following approach and supports to fulfill the City’s requirements.

 

Leadership

City Council has supported the creation of accessible services to help improve inclusion across the City which benefits all residents, visitors and employees.  Towards that end, the City has tabled their first corporate-wide Accessibility Policy and Accessible Formats and Communication Supports Procedures which includes all AODA regulations and which can be updated to reflect new regulations as they are enacted (Appendix A and B).  In addition, Council also approved the development of an Accessibility Impact Checklist (Appendix C) which will serve as a tool for staff to help ensure that accessibility is integrated into the early stages of City initiatives and to track the integration of accessibility features into all City programs, services, facilities and planning. Staff shall report on the identification, prevention and or potential creation of barriers within all reports going to Committee and Council.       

 

Structure and Governance

The responsibility for the implementation of the AODA falls within the City Manager’s Office. This ensures that the decisions regarding accessibility are made in concurrence with the City’s Strategic Plan. In 2011, senior management approved a five- year plan which will see the City of Ottawa reach compliance with all the relevant clauses of the AODA ahead of provincial deadlines. Accountability for the various clauses within the new Integrated Accessibility Regulation is a shared responsibility with operational departments. The City Manager’s Office has oversight responsibility for ensuring compliance at the corporate level and operational departments retain the accountability for ensuring that their respective clauses are executed according to legislative requirements pertaining to the service they deliver. For example:

 

·         Emergency Clauses are led by Emergency and Protective Services;

·         Accessible Taxis are led by Emergency and Protective Services;

·         Websites compliance is led by Service Ottawa and Information Technology Services;

·         Employment requirements are led by Human Resources;

·         Information and Communication Supports is led by Corporate Communications;

·         Procurement and Kiosks requirements are led by Finance; and,

·         Library requirements are led by Ottawa Public Library.

 

General clauses are led by the City Manager’s Office through the work of the Accessibility Office (AO) and guided by the corporation’s Accessibility Working Group with representation from each department. Responsibilities of the Accessibility Office include; but are not limited to, the development of the corporate wide accessibility plan (COMAP), implementing the legislative consultation process, working with other municipalities and the province on accessibility-related issues, developing and reviewing policy, creating training modules and materials, reporting on progress to  senior management, AAC, Council, and working with the City Clerk and Solicitor on all compliance reporting to the Province of Ontario.   

 

COMAP and Integrated Accessibility Regulation Implementation Plan

The implementation plan considers best practices and lessons learned from the execution of the AODA Customer Service Regulation. In the first phase of the Customer Service Regulation legislative roll-out it became clear that staff needed to begin training as early as possible to ensure a meaningful implementation strategy. This allowed staff time to learn about the standards and implement the requirements into their everyday work as soon as possible in the roll-out of the legislative requirements. The deadline for the training requirement of the Integrated Accessibility Regulation (IAR) is January 1st 2014; however, with over 16 000 staff and volunteers to train it has been determined that training is scheduled to begin in 2012 to ensure full compliance in advance of the deadline.

 

 In order to streamline this training to staff they will be trained only once on the entire Integrated Accessibility Regulation. To help ensure that the training program will be successful; staff undertook a review of all relevant corporate policies to reflect the AODA legislative requirements. Over fifty municipal policies, by-laws, procedures and guidelines have been reviewed or modified and will be approved before the training begins in 2012.

 

In addition to the AODA requirements, the City continues to work to increase accessibility for residents and visitors by creating additional non-legislated initiatives that support the goals set by Council in accordance with the AODA.  Examples of this work include: the Audible Pedestrian Signals program; Lansdowne redevelopment which has been designed in accordance with the City’s Accessibility Guidelines for Built Environment; and accessibility initiatives undertaken by Transit Services and the Rail Implementation Office who work under federal jurisdiction. 

 

LEGISLATED GOALS:

 

Customer Service

Maintain compliance with the Accessible Customer Service Standard and continue to identify additional customer service enhancements as required: 

a) Provide accessible Customer Service training to staff, volunteers and third parties;

b) Receive and respond to feedback about the manner in which goods or services are provided to persons with disabilities; and,

c) Provide notice of service disruptions.

 

General Requirements

Meet and maintain compliance with the AODA’s Integrated Regulation general requirement:

a) Complete a review of all relevant City of Ottawa bylaws, policies, procedures and guidelines to reflect the requirements of the AODA Integrated Accessibility Regulation;

b) Ensure the procurement of City goods, services, facilities and kiosks include accessibility criteria and features; and,

c) Provide training on the AODA Integrated Accessibility Regulation and the Human Rights Act to all employees, volunteers; all persons who participate in developing the organization’s policies; and all other persons who provide goods, services or facilities on behalf of the City of Ottawa.

 

Employment

Ensure the City of Ottawa’s employment policies and practices are inclusive of people with disabilities:

a) Ensure all employees and successful applicants with disabilities are informed of available supports and accommodations;

b) Ensure applicants with disabilities are informed of available accommodations during the recruitment, assessment and the selection processes;

c) Consult with employees to provide and arrange for accessible formats and communication supports;

d) Provide to employees, upon request, individualized workplace emergency response information;

e) Maintain a return to work process and provide individual documented accommodation plans for employees with disabilities when required;

 f) Ensure the needs of the employees with disabilities are taken into account for the purposes of performance management, career development, advancement and redeployment.

           

Information and Communication Supports

Provide accessible information and communication to residents, visitors and employees: 

a) Ensure City processes for receiving and responding to feedback are accessible to people with disabilities by providing for, or arranging for, the provision of accessible formats and communication supports;

b) Upon request, provide accessible feedback and communication supports in consultation with the requestor, in a timely manner that takes into account the person’s accessibility needs and at no additional cost for all City documents including emergency plans and public safety information;

c) Ensure all City of Ottawa websites and web content conform to the World Wide Web Consortium Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 initially at level A and increasing to Level AA in accordance with the timelines set out by the AODA Integrated Regulation; and,

d) Inform the public of the availability and provide accessible materials where they exist and provide accessible formats and communication supports upon request.

 

Built Environment

a) Increase accessibility of City facilities through the auditing and implementation of an annual retrofit plan based on approved budgets; and,

b) Retrofit up to 30 City facilities with respect to: automatic door openers, washrooms, passenger loading areas, parking, signs, ramps, limited use limited access (LULA) lifts, reception desks, change rooms, kitchen, client counters, door widening, elevators, drinking fountains, telephones, stairs/railings/ramps, sidewalks/walkways, benches and picnic tables.

 

Accessible Taxi Services

Ensure accessible taxi service is available to the public within the City of Ottawa:

a) Consult with the Accessibility Advisory Committee and the public to determine the proportion of on-demand accessible taxicabs required in Ottawa and demonstrate progress toward meeting that need;

b) Ensure that no person with a disability is charged additional fees or is charged a fee for storage of mobility aids or mobility assistive devices; and,

c) Ensure vehicle registration and identification is visible in accordance with Provincial legislation and is available in accessible formats for passengers with disabilities.

 

NON-LEGISLATED GOALS:

 

In addition to the legislated goals under the AODA, the City of Ottawa is committed to additional initiatives that help ensure the City is becoming more and more barrier-free; including:

 

Customer Service

a) Host an annual AccessAbility Day event to inform the community about the accessibility of City services and celebrate accessibility achievements.

 

Employment

a) Monitor the percentage of applicants with disabilities who participate in the self-identification survey as part of the e-recruitment tool;

b) Monitor the successful hires of persons with disabilities relative to the percentage of those who self-identified as part of the application process;

c) Increase the completeness of the internal data base of existing employees with disabilities to reflect their representation in the workforce;

d) Conduct outreach with educational institutions (elementary and high schools, colleges and universities) to promote employment opportunities to students with disabilities;

e) Partner with Employment Accessibility Resource Network (EARN) to hold events with service providers to increase awareness and understanding of persons with disabilities;

f)  In collaboration with EARN members, develop a website for a “one-stop shop” for the hiring of persons with disabilities;

g) Track and monitor the percentage of accommodations provided to employees and applicants;

h) Deliver training to employees to foster a respectful workplace (includes training on better understanding learning disabilities, equity and diversity); and,

i)  Increase the completeness of the internal data base of persons with disabilities to reflect their representation in the workforce.

 

Information and Communication

a) Finalize an Information Architecture (IA) review of ottawa.ca and prepare for a 2012 launch of the final look-and-feel of the City’s website which will incorporate AODA legislative technological requirements. Service Ottawa will create a governance strategy and guiding documents for web publishing and will work closely with Communications, Information Technology Services and e-media teams on the implementation of this initiative;

b) Increase accessibility in Ottawa public library locations with the addition of tactile signage and assistive workstations; and,

c) Increase accessibility for the Child Care Subsidy on-line application.

 

Transportation

a) Development of procedures which are consistent with Transit Services’ Accessible Customer Service Policy and the spirit and intent of the AODA;

b) Facility improvements to enhance barrier-free access to transit stations and facilities (e.g. installing additional power doors, lowering operating controls, installing new curb ramps, etc.);

c) Training for staff consistent with the requirements of the AODA Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation;

d) Continuation of partnership with community agencies in the provision of travel training to persons with disabilities;

e) Development of a replacement strategy for Para Transpo’s fleet of buses;

f)  Provide annual “Access for All” recognition award for taxi drivers who provide exceptional service for persons with disabilities; and,

g) The Rail Implementation Office (RIO) is committed to enhancing the accessibility of its services and working to better meet the needs of people with disabilities through the incorporation of general accessibility practices into its planning, procurement, policy development and consultation activities - meeting the spirit and intent of the AODA.

 

Built Environment

a) Audible Pedestrian Program: Increase accessibility for pedestrians by reaching the goal of 50% of City intersections being equipped with Audible Pedestrian signals by 2015; and,

b) Snow-go Program: Continue City funding to the Snow Go and Snow Go Assist programs (administered by the Senior Citizens Council in partnership with nine community agencies) which provides assistance with snow removal in the driveways and walkways of seniors and residents with disabilities.

 

Compliance Monitoring

 

The Accessibility Office shall monitor progress of this plan and shall coordinate and report on progress semi-annually to the senior management. The AO shall report annually to Committee and Council through the Municipal Accessibility Plan (COMAP) Update Report. The City Clerk and Solicitor is responsible to report on City compliance to the province, as per the provincial schedule (to be determined).

 

City of Ottawa Integrated Accessibility Regulation Implementation timeline chart