Believe it or not, 9 months remain before all public sector organizations must be in compliance with the AODA Customer Service Standard. Believe it or not there are some companies that have yet to begin addressing the standard. Let’s discuss the first requirement shall we?

You must establish policies, practices and procedures on providing goods/services to persons with disabilities. How is your company meeting this requirement? Most importantly who is responsible for writing the policies, practices and procedures? Have you created a committee that is representative of all the important functions?

In my opinion, it is crucial that front line employees who interact with the public be involved in this process.  A logical way to go about this is to make this requirement the responsibility of the current policy makers. But a fresh new way to look at things may help us identify and eliminate some of the barriers we face in our society.

What are your thoughts?