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¶¶ÒùÊÓƵ Progress Report on Accessibility 2023

On this page

  1. General
  2. Introduction
  3. Accessibility pillars
  4. Consultations
  5. Feedback
  6. Performance measurement

1. General

Please send your feedback to the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Advisor (Accessibility Action Plan).

You can send your feedback by email, phone, through the feedback form, or by mail using the contact information listed below.

You can also use the contact information listed below to ask us for a copy of our feedback process description or our progress report in these alternative formats: print, large print, Braille, audio or an electronic format that is compatible with adaptive technology that is intended to assist persons with disabilities. We will provide the format you ask for as soon as possible. Braille and audio formats may take up to 45 days. Print, large print and electronic formats may take up to 15 days.

Contact us

Please send your feedback:

By emailHMAE-PlandAccessibiliteAMC-GACAccessibilityPlan@international.gc.ca

By online form: Provide your feedback

By mail:

¶¶ÒùÊÓƵ – Accessibility Feedback
c/o Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Advisor, HMAE (Accessibility Action Plan)
200 Promenade du Portage
8th floor
Gatineau, Québec
J8X 4B7

By phone: Toll-free 1-800-267-8376

Social media:

2. Introduction

The Accessible Canada Act (ACA) came into effect in July 2019 and sets out 7 pillars that federally regulated entities must take into account to develop an accessibility action plan that removes barriers for persons with disabilities and prevents new ones from forming. GAC has added an eighth pillar to its accessibility plan to outline efforts to make GAC a more inclusive organization for persons with disabilities through culture change.

The GAC Accessibility Action Plan (AAP) 2023-2025 was published in November 2023. GAC is committed to cultural transformation, to achieving barrier-free accessibility for persons with disabilities, and to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. Numerous activities are in place to make our environment more inclusive for persons with disabilities in areas such as employment, communications, the built environment, procurement, the design and delivery of programs and services, as well as workplace culture. The the design and delivery of programs and services and transportation pillars require significant additional effort and implementation will commence in 2024. We have developed an implementation framework, as well as a performance measurement framework, to measure progress. As we move forward, additional activities to address and remove barriers will be added.

The following is a summary of current activities GAC is undertaking to take down barriers and improve accessibility.

3. Accessibility pillars

Employment

Desired outcome: Achieve the targets set out in the Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada and retain our employees who live with a disability

Staffing, targeted training and awareness

The following are some of the measures in place to build on hiring targets in the Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada and the GAC Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan: 

Duty to accommodate

Regarding the promotion of accessibility within duty to accommodate practices, GAC:

GAC is taking steps towards integrating the Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport into the department. Activities include: 

Other actions include:

Built environment

Desired outcome: Accessibility principles and values are upheld for employees at headquarters and missions

As GAC is not an owner of real property in Canada, we work with Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) as our landlord and mandated project delivery agent to ensure that all real property projects, including the Global Affairs Renovation Project (GAC Reno), make accessibility factors and deliverables a foundational piece of planning, design and implementation delivery. GAC developed the Domestic Accommodation Real Estate Strategy and Long-Term Accommodation Plan, which includes accessibility as part-and-parcel of our ongoing domestic accommodations efforts and planning commitments for modernizing GAC workspaces. 

GAC engages with equity-seeking networks, such as those involved in anti-racism, diversity and inclusion activities and with persons with disabilities, among others, to evaluate existing conditions, seek feedback on accommodations, introduce surveys on future initiatives, and plan longer-term initiatives for future years that include accessibility concerns. Some examples of this type of engagement include:

Information and communications technology (ICT)

Desired outcome: Move towards an accessible-by-default approach to technology

Communication, other than information and communication technologies

Desired outcome: All information provided to employees complies with the TBS and ACA guidelines

GAC ensures that digital content is accessible by default. Clients are regularly advised on and guided in the use of plain language and web accessibility standards. For example, the use of plain language is promoted when drafting communications products, social media content and web publishing. Alternative text is applied to social media content. By the end of 2023, GAC aims to include alt-text in an even higher proportion of publications on all social media accounts.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 level AA is applied to all content published on GAC websites. GAC champions accessible design choices, including colours, fonts and contrast, to ensure visual elements are accessible to users of assistive technology. GAC also participated in the GC Task Success Survey, covering Q2 of the 2023-24 fiscal year, and leveraged the data to justify working on improving GAC’s top website tasks. GAC implements iterative design processes that consider accessibility during website updates, as done for the intranet redesign. Communications products are provided in alternative formats, where applicable and possible. For example:

The procurement of goods, services and facilities

Desired outcome: Achieve TBS and PSPC best practices

Regular messages are sent to procurement officers encouraging them to take full advantage of available training on accessibility in procurement offered by Shared Services Canada and PSPC.

The design and delivery of programs and servicesFootnote 1

Desired outcome: All the design and delivery of programs and services are accessible to all employees

Input will be provided once the plan is implemented.

Transportation

Desired outcome: Employees with disabilities at mission are aware of safe and secure accessible transportation options

Input will be provided once the plan is implemented.

Workplace culture

Desired outcome: A department where all employees are respected, included and welcomed

Although culture change is not specifically mentioned under the ACA, it is a pillar of the Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada. A cultural transformation is necessary to make spaces more inclusive of persons with disabilities and the desired outcome is to ensure that persons with disabilities feel respected, included and welcomed.

Efforts are underway towards this goal. In 2023, GAC engaged with branches and bureaus to share the plan and its vision for removing barriers to accessibility. In addition, GAC is currently redeveloping its Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, Accessibility and Anti-Racism intranet page, and has included a new page dedicated to improving accessibility. The accessibility intranet page links to the plan and includes recruitment tools, steps to follow during the duty to accommodate process, and a link to the Office of Public Service Accessibility Hub. It also includes all relevant legislation and government policies.

Training

All new courses and learning materials hosted on Campus International must fully meet accessibility standards. As part of this initiative:

4. Consultations

The GAC Accessibility Action Plan Survey “Building the GAC Accessibility Action Plan: Nothing Without Us” was published in June 2023 and was developed in consultation with GAC employees with disabilities. Thesurvey generated 394 responses, including 225 from persons with disabilities. The survey also captured demographic information on gender, racial identification and sexual orientation, providing valuable insights into the intersectional identities of GAC employees with disabilities and managers/supervisors (both with disabilities and who supervise persons with disabilities). The survey will be conducted annually, and the results will be analyzed to inform our performance management indicators, workplace culture change strategies and future reporting. 

In addition, 106 GAC employees participated in consultations through online focus group meetings, either in small groups or one-on-one. Of those consulted, 50 were from the persons with disabilities community. Consultations provided insights on the employee experience in key areas such as the duty to accommodate process, concerns with the accessibility of GAC buildings, availability of software to accommodate employees, the procurement process, the shuttle vehicles, and the need for culture change. They also provided important information on how persons with disabilities experience barriers when posted abroad, including obstacles that are not adequately addressed by the Foreign Service Directives.

5. Feedback

When GAC published its Accessibility Action Plan, it included an integrated feedback process and an online form. The process allows everyone to provide comprehensive responses and to describe their lived experiences and their perspectives on the Plan.

Following the release of our plan, we received 7 responses through the official feedback mechanism dealing with barriers in ICT, the built environment and employment. Three of these were quickly resolved or offered positive feedback. Most of the other responses address complex situations that will have to be reviewed and considered before responding. Some cover barriers under more than one of the ACA pillars.

6. Performance measurement

GAC is developing an implementation plan and a performance measurement framework featuring short, medium and long-term timelines for planned actions and clear measures to indicate and track progress. Whenever possible, the Accessibility Action Plan Performance Measurement Framework will align with the performance measurement frameworks of the GAC Equity Diversity and Inclusion Plan and the Anti-Racism Strategy and Action Plan. Questions will be added to our annual Nothing Without Ussurvey to help measure progress over time. Where possible, GAC will seek to use existing data from the Public Service Employment Survey as our baseline. Additional key success factors and key performance indicators will be included in the Accessibility Action Plan Performance Measurement Framework.

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