[Brandon Bignell]
Hello, and thank you for joining us here today. My name is Brandon Bignell. I'm here from BDO Canada, and I'm really happy to welcome you to the introduction to the Accessibility and Inclusion Self-Assessment tool session, here with our partners from Employment and Social Development Canada and the New Society Institute.
To begin with today, I'd like to just start off with the land acknowledgement. Today's session brings together participants from many different territories across the country.
Wherever you are joining from today, we acknowledge that we are on the traditional treaty and unceded lands of First Nation, Inuit, and Métis people. We recognize the ongoing impacts of colonization and our shared responsibility to support reconciliation.
Today I'm joined by Michael Bach, a senior advisor, the New Society Institute. Erick Nettel, Manager Online Services, the New Society Institute. Gert Zagler, director, Workplace Equity Division, Labor Program, and Employment and Social Development Canada. Myself, Brandon Bignell, partner at Risk Advisory at BDO Canada, and Kathleen Macmillan, a manager in accessibility consulting practice here at BDO Canada.
Today, you're gonna be learning about five key things. One, what the assessment tool is and why it matters. Two, identifying the accessibility gaps in your organization. Choosing the right assessment tool for your needs. Confidently completing and interpreting results, and then turning those insights into meaningful actions. Very excited right now to pass it over to my colleague Michael, who's gonna talk a little bit more about the tool.
[Micheal Bach]
To all the participants who are able to join us today, before speaking about the Employment Accessibility and Inclusion assessment tool. And my colleagues, Kathleen and Erick and Renee will speak more to that. I wanted to begin by recognizing the support that made this work possible.
At first, we're really grateful to Employment and Social Development Canada, through the workplace opportunities, reducing barriers to equity or WORBE program. That initiative recognizes that improving employment opportunities for deaf and disabled people, requires more than good intentions.
It requires practical tools, meaningful partnerships, and sustained action. And that's what this initiative set out to deliver. I also want to acknowledge the outset our project partner, BDO, and two of our colleagues, Brandon and Kathleen McMillan here today.
From the outset, BDO brought really deep expertise in audit methodology, organizational assessment and implementation. And having worked with employers in auditing, we wanted to bring that expertise to designing this tool so that it works for employers. And so together we set out to create something that organizations could use in a very practical way to advance accessibility and inclusion. I'd also like to briefly introduce the New Society Institute.
When this initiative started, we were IRIS, Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society. New Society Institute is a nonprofit social development, research and design organization that works alongside and with systemically marginalized communities, including people with disabilities, people from racialized communities, indigenous persons, refugee, immigrant communities, and others who are marginalize to create systems and structures that work for them. And our work is grounded in a belief that the people most affected by exclusion must be at the center of designing solutions.
This initiative is delivered through the accessibility exchange, a national platform developed in collaboration with the disability community that connects deaf and disabled people, their organizations and federally regulated entities to advance accessibility and inclusion and to create a space for those communities and entities to design shared and collaborative initiatives for advancing inclusion.
The Employment Accessibility Inclusion Assessment tool is one of the key tools that we've developed and are delivering through that broader platform, and Erick is going to be speaking to that. I also wanna just spend a few moments on the context for this project. I think, as we all know who are here today across Canada, there's a growing recognition that accessibility is not simply a matter of accommodation, it's a matter of equality, participation, belonging, and we need to design for that kind of inclusion. And this project was designed really at the intersection of two important federal policy frameworks, the Employment Equity Act, and the Accessible Canada Act.
The Employment Equity Act been around for a long time. We know challenges employers to improve representation and outcomes for equity deserving groups, while the Accessible Canada Act, focuses on identifying, removing and preventing barriers. And we saw with this initiative an opportunity to bridge these two agendas, because representation and accessibility are, I mean, they're inseparable. So, I mean, organizations can't achieve equitable representation if barriers remain in place and people can't fully participate in employment, if those barriers are not addressed.
Yet, employers ask, so where do we start? How do we do this? We're committed to the principles and the direction and the policy goal, but we need assistance to make this, to identify how we advance this in a very practical way in our workplaces. And the legislation establishes the obligations, but organizations are lacking, you know, those practical tools to help 'em understand what barriers exist across the employment lifecycle and what actions could make the greatest difference. And so that was really the gap that this project set out to address. Our goal was not to create another checklist, it was to create a practical assessment process with attached resources that helps organizations examine accessibly and inclusion across the full employment experience, recruitment, hiring, onboarding, retention, advancement, I mean, just as importantly though, we wanted the tool to be developed differently.
So, the assessment was created through an extensive co-design process involving deaf and disabled people, job seekers, employees, definite disability organizations, accessibility experts, and federally regulated employers. The people in banking, in telecommunications, in transportation, and the people who experienced barriers every day were not, I mean, weren't consulted at the end to say, do you think this works they really helped shape the process and the design of the tool itself. And I wanna just maybe identify the kind of key principles that guided the work. First, accessibility. So, the tool needed to be usable by organizations with different levels of experience and capacity. Second, practicality. Employers told us that they needed something that could fit into their existing organizational processes. Third, comprehensiveness.
Accessibility barriers, as we know, occur at every stage of the employment cycle. So, the assessment needs to examine that entire life cycle. That was a challenge you'll see in the design, which is why we have a kind of short form for this assessment tool and a more comprehensive tool. Fourth, an intersectional perspective.
We recognize that disability doesn't exist in isolation, that people's experiences are shaped by their multiple identities and systems of exclusion. Whether it's by their disability, their indigeneity, their racialization, and other gender identity and other identities that constitute their experience but that may compound disadvantage. And most importantly, I think the tool is designed to support action implementation, practical solutions.
And so it's not, the purpose isn't measurement for its own sake. So, while you'll see you can arrive at a score with this assessment tool, it's really an opening, a pathway, a bridge to resources and recommendations for how to close and address the gap that the tool helps employers identify. So, at the heart of it, this project's about connecting, like I guess two ambitions that Canada has, and that Canada's increasingly embraced, creating barrier-free workplaces and achieving equitable representation. So, we're pleased, I think we're proud with what we've built through this partnership and we're really grateful to the many deaf and disabled people, employers, community organizations and advisors whose expertise shaped our work and this tool from the beginning to where we're at today.
So, with that overview, I'm pleased to turn things over to Gert Zagler, who as Brandon indicated is director of the Workplace Equity Division Labor program at Employment and Social Development Canada. And again, we're very grateful for the generous support of the WORBE program that made this initiative possible. So, over to you, Gert.
[Gert Zagler]
So, I'm really pleased to be here today, and to be part of today's session that highlights one of the many initiatives that we have been able to support through the workplace opportunities, removing barriers to equity, or as people commonly know it, WORBE Fund that's within the
Workplace equity division. The fund was created to support practical innovative projects, that help identify and address barriers And Michael spoke in a bit to that already. And these are the barriers to employment and workplace inclusion. And so through relatively small investments, these projects have been over time been able to generate tools, research, promising practices that we are hoping to see shared more broadly with employers and organizations across Canada. And that's why today's session's quite exciting.
It's to share this information, so to get people aware of it, and as well to to buy in and start working with it. So, why does this matter? Because creating accessible and inclusive workplace benefits all employees, organizations and the broader economy. Tools such as the one that we'll see today, help employers move from good intentions to measurable action and by identifying the strengths, the gaps, and the priorities for improvement. And this project really does reflect that kind of practical evidence-informed solutions that the Workplace Equity Division seeks to support through the WORBE Fund.
So, again, we're really pleased to be here today and so I'll hand it over to the project team to get on with where you're really here to hear about today. So, looking forward to this session as much as you are. So, back to Brandon.
[Kathleen Macmillan]
Thank you Gert. A big focus for us was making sure this assessment tool was grounded in both evidence and real world application, not just theory. One thing I'd like to highlight is that this wasn't developed overnight. We had roughly three years to research, test, gather feedback, and refine the tool along the way. To start, we built a strong research foundation.
We reviewed a wide range of sources, including legislation such as the Accessible Canada Act, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, the Employment Equity Act, and emerging Accessibility Standards, including the Employment Standard. We also reviewed accessibility plans from organizations across Canada to better understand the barriers organizations are identifying and the priorities they're focusing on through their accessibility plans. But we didn't stop with legislation and policy. One of the things that really strengthened this work was the experience our team was able to bring to it. Over the last four years, we've worked with organizations across Canada and engaged with thousands of people with disabilities through consultations, focus groups, interviews, surveys and accessibility projects.
Through those conversations, we've heard firsthand about the barriers people encounter throughout the employee life cycle. From recruitment and hiring, to onboarding, career development, retention and separation or job exit. We also learned about the supports accommodations and practices that people succeed at work. Those perspectives helped ensure the assessment tool wasn't just informed by legislation and research, it was also grounded in the lived experiences of the people it's ultimately intended to support.
What became clear throughout this work is that many organizations genuinely want to create more accessible and inclusive workplaces, but they're often unsure where to start or what meaningful progress actually looks like. So, we wanted to create something practical, something that helps organizations identify barriers, recognize strengths, and understand what actions they can take to create a more inclusive experience for their employees and job candidates. Because accessibility isn't just about meeting requirements, it's about creating workplaces where everyone has the opportunity to participate, contribute, and succeed.
Beyond lived experiences, we also spoke with HR practitioners, DEI professionals, accessibility leaders, and other key partners, as well as organizations at different stages on their accessibility journey.
These conversations helped us identify common themes, gaps and opportunities, while also providing insight into what organizations are doing in practice to remove barriers, support their employees, and embed accessibility throughout the employee lifecycle.
Ultimately that perspective helped us create something that organizations can actually use to identify barriers, prioritize their actions, and make meaningful improvements over time.
Next, we went on to develop the questions. So, once we had this foundation, we had to translate those insights into the assessment tool itself. We wanted the questions to be practical, clear, and easy to use. To do that, we organize the assessment tool around the employee lifecycle using the same stages identified in the Accessibility Standards Canada Employment Standard.
The assessment tool follows the employee lifecycle from recruitment and hiring through onboarding, retention, career development, performance management, and separation, or job exit. By aligning the assessment tool with Accessibility Standards Canada Employment Standard, we were able to build on an emerging framework that many organizations are starting to become more familiar with, while ensuring accessibility is considered across the entire employee lifecycle.
We were also intentional about balancing foundational practices with more advanced and leading practices. That allows organizations to understand where they are today, identify barriers and opportunities for improvement, and develop a roadmap for continued progress over time. We also spent a significant amount of time testing and refining the tool.
We reviewed the questions, validated them against best practices, received further feedback, and made adjustments to improve the clarity, the usability and consistency. Because ultimately the tool needs to work for organizations of different sizes in different sectors and levels of accessibility maturity.
Finally, we didn't want this to just be a standalone tool. Alongside the tool, we developed a user guide, curated supporting resources and materials to help organizations implement and act on the results. Because the goal isn't simply to answer the questions from the tool itself. The goal is to help organizations identify barriers, prioritize their actions, and make meaningful progress over time. So, overall, this assessment tool represents the combined insight of research, lived experience, practical workplace knowledge from across Canada.
Looking at the final product, I think it's something that the team is really proud of. And now I'm sure you're all excited and eager to hear from Erick, my colleague over at the New Society Institute. And he's gonna go over where you can access this tool and walk you through what it looks like in practice. Over to you Erick.
[Erick Nettel]
Great, thank you. Hello everyone. So, the question is, where do we find the tool? So, I would start by saying that the place where the tool is available, and I want to emphasize this is a free download, is through the Accessibility Exchange. You can find it in the accessibilityexchange.ca. Once you get there, you basically are able to either select a tool in English or in French by choosing what language you wanna work with. But one of the areas I want to start talking about and kind of doing a segue from what Kathleen mentioned was show you very quickly the area where those resources that Kathleen was mentioning recites.
So, for anyone that gets into the Accessibility Exchange, anybody that might be blind or low vision, from top to bottom on the third row, from left to right, we have a link that says resource and training. And right after it, there's a second link that says tools. So, if you click on resources and training, it brings you to the page. And again, there's different layers, but as you are able to scroll down, first it shows you a bar where to search for resources.
Then it shows you how the resources are organized. And then finally as you scroll down, you get to the featured libraries. Within those featured libraries, we have the Inclusive Employment Library, which is actually the first library that is available. And when we click on that inclusive employment library, what happens is it brings us to the page where there's the collections that are part of the library.
The most important thing is that these collections are actually lined up with the different stages that Kathleen mentioned. So, recruitment, hiring, onboarding, retention, promotion and career development, performance management, separation, and the accessible employment cycle.
When we show the tool, you will see that there's an area where you can click and it'll bring you to the Accessibility Exchange, bring you to this page. But for example, if I were to click on the first one, which is recruitment, it will bring us to the list of different accessibility resources. And these resources are not only in English, some of them are also in French, but basically if you click on any of the resources, I'm just gonna click on these guidebook on accessibility.
If I click on it, it'll show you who is the organization that provided the resource, what topics, what phase of consultation, and of course the area of impact, which is employment. But most importantly is going to provide you a summary of what that resource is about. And then there will be links to the resource. So, if it's in French, it'll be also a link in French. But for example, if I click here in the English one, you will see it brings you right away into this particular guidebook. And then you can look for any information that is relevant to you.
So, I'm just gonna go back and this is how the resources work, but the one that everybody has been waiting for and everybody is wondering, okay, show us where is the tool step. So, if I go back to the main page and I click on their tools, it'll bring us to this page. And right now this is the main tool that we have.
If you notice as you scroll down, there's the Employment Accessibility and Inclusion Assessment tool. If I click here, what's gonna happen is it's going to bring you to an introduction that talks about, you know, how it was developed, how it was created, but it also most importantly provides information about the starter assessment.
It also provides information about the full assessment, some information, how to use it, and then it also provides some information how you can download it.
One of the things I do want to underline for anybody interested in downloading the assessment tool is that it was developed to work in a Microsoft 365 environment. So, the Excel version that is required to use the tool needs to be from 2021 or newer. Unfortunately, if anybody tries to use the tool with an older version that is not part of Microsoft 365, it will not work. So, we do wanna underline that. There's also the option for anybody that would like to download the tool to provide your email address. Now, the tool is downloadable, you work on it offline, and that was done on purpose. That was because feedback that was received from different organizations, there was always a concern of what's gonna happen with that information, that establishes how accessible my practices are in the employment life cycle. And I don't want that information to necessarily be up there in the cloud, right?
So, the advantage of downloading the tool is you can work offline with it. But at the same time for us, if you are able to provide your email when you are downloading it, it will help us to know what organizations are interested. It'll help us to connect, it'll help us to provide support. So, we encourage anybody that might be interested in downloading the assessment tool to yes, please share your email address. It'll definitely be something that we will appreciate. So, as you scroll to the bottom, you can see here how it says download the tool, email is optional. If you do not enter the email, it doesn't matter, down here where the link says get download links. If I click on it, now you can see how we have first the Employment Accessibility and Inclusion Assessment tool, the starter version, then you have the full version, and then at the bottom is the user guide. The user guide is a Word document that provides much more information about how to use the guide, what is it that you find in it, et cetera. And you can download the tool, whether it's English or French.
Now I'll show you. The truth of the matter is that the tool is bilingual. So, once you download the tool and once you select what language, within the tool you can select what language you want to use, you save it and the tool will stay in that language. So, basically that's what we did. We selected French, and then save it. So, whenever anybody downloads for French, they'll see French. Whoever downloads for English will see the content in English. So, this is the place where you can download it. Again, it's for free. And again, sorry for insisting, do share your email. We will appreciate it. So, now let's go to the tool. So, I'm gonna go to the starter assessment. So, the first thing you will notice is as you come into the tool is that you have an accessible guide at the very top in the top cells. And these accessible guide was part of the accessibility testing. We did blind some blind accessibility consultants helped us to check the functionality of the tool. And we realized that it was really important to provide this guide, which really, especially for anybody using a screen reader, will really guide them as to how to use the tool and where to find information. The tool starts at the top
with a user guide, right? And the user guide will look at it soon, provides again, some basic information, how to use the tool. But then after underneath the user guide link, we have the eight lifecycle stages. You can click on any stage at any point. After the lifecycle stages, we have the scoring, the next steps, the final report. You can also click on any of the links at any moment and it'll bring you to that page.
As I mentioned, there is the language option. So, on the top right corner, you can see here how it says choose language. If I click on the language, there's the arrow to allow me to select whichever language I want to use. So, let's start by clicking on the User Guide. As I mentioned, there's some basic information about the assessment, what the scoring, the next steps the final report provide. And also some reminder about sharing. There's the arrows that can bring you back home or can help you move forward to start the questionnaire. Once you start the questionnaire, it'll bring you to the first stage, which is recruitment. So because there's less questions in the starter assessment, just to provide, you know, a general overview of where your organization is starting, what you do is you basically read the questions and you have the answer column. When you click in the answer column, in this particular case, you have the option to choose between, not in place or in place. So, you read the questions and you decide, this is something my organization has in place, great.
No this is not something my organization truly has in place, then you select that option. So, let's say the first one is not in place. One of the things I want to show you is how it'll score right away or provide a score, right? And it shows you what's the maximum, the score that you would get for that particular question. If it's in place, then you select in place and the same, it'll give you the score and you can see what's the maximum score. In the case of the starter assessment, it's just a few questions.
You can really answer it very quickly. As I mentioned, if you look here on the right side, on the top right side, this link is the one that would bring you to the collections that I showed you. And down here there's this box that also explains to you what does it mean if I choose not in place, or what does it mean if I choose in place in case you have any questions. So, as I move through the different stages, you can see it's very straightforward.
What we've done here is we basically pre-answered all the different questions. We just thought, yeah, I don't think people want to go through me reading each question and then, you know, showing you what I'm answering. But, as we go through all the stages, the most important thing is once you finalize answering all the questions, you get to the scoring summary. So, here is where you get a percentage of how it is that each one of the stages, how are you doing in each one of the stages, in each component of each stage. But not only that, you get score of where your organization really is in terms of accessibility, right? So, in this example that I answered, it's showing me, oh, I'm not even at 50% right? Of accessibility. And you get a really nice snapshot with the graphic that shows you as well what areas right you're doing better than others. And if some you like in this case performance management and separation, you can see that you know, is not showing you anything because they were not in place.
Once you get that snapshot, you can go to the next steps. And what happens in the next steps is it basically shows you again, what is it that there's in place and what it is that is not in place. And gives you information as to what is it that you need to develop, what is that you need to change in order to get to that stage where you will be in place. And then we get to the final report. And the final report again gives you the score, gives you what are the next steps that you need to take. Even if you're doing very well, there are always steps to continue, that you'll continue taking.
So, as you can see, it really gives you just the full, full report in absolutely every area. So, this is the starter assessment. I'm gonna very quickly go through the full assessment. So, the full assessment main page, exactly the same as what we saw in the starter assessment. The only thing here is if I start, you will see now that there's many more questions and in the the top cell in the middle, you can see how many questions this full edition has for that particular stage.
Now here the answers are a little bit different, right?
They are more detailed. So, there's few definitions that you are gonna be working with. One of them, the first one is if is something that you have not yet started, that means that your organization has not started to work in a particular area, is unaware of the need.
The next one is in progress. That means that the organization is aware of a need for accessibility that they need to improve. But anything that is in place really has been informal, is inconsistent, et cetera. Then the next option is established practice. Now, established practice is where you are aware of it. There's been very clear, concise, embedded practices, policies or systems in your organization that are consistent, right? And then leading practice definitely is from your organization has demonstrated innovation improvement leadership in a particular area.
We also provided not available option because there might be maybe a couple of questions where you go, well this question really does not apply to my organization, right? And it could be for many different reasons. Sometimes might be a smaller organization and you realize, you know, well this particular question does not apply to where we are, right? So, the same, you click on the answer, you select, from the different options that we mentioned. So, here I'm just gonna show you how I'm basically choosing one of each one, right? And oops, leading practice. So, now you can see that the points in this particular case and the maximum is a wider range than what we had in the starter. And that's been on purpose. That's with the idea of really working with the score, right? The final score provide a much better understanding of each one of these questions. So, again, it shows you all the questions. I'm just quickly scrolling so you get a sense right of what it is and the different components. But the same once you have gone through the whole assessment tool, and I'm just going through these quickly, I don't think anybody wanted me to go through the 256 questions and answer them. You finally get again to the scoring summary.
And these will again provide you in detail, where it is that your organization is in each one of those stages, right? In each component. And it also gives you that a snapshot. But also the full assessment gives you not only for the stages but for the components, right? So, you can see within, for example, recruitment, maybe there's one component where you are doing really well, others not. So, again, these snapshots really allow you to see how your organization is doing. And the same when you go into the next steps, these are suggestions of what is it that you can do, right? So, for example, for each one of the answers you provided, you can see how if it's something that is in progress, it'll mark, okay, in this area, this is what you have to do.
Oh, I do have an established practice, that's great. However, you know, you can still do a little bit of work in this area. Oh, I do have a leading practice. Oh, excellent. Well, you know, just to keep in that leading practice, continue doing this type of work, continue with these steps. And then again we go to the final report. And the final report again, just gives you that information that you require to know the next steps that you need to follow to really make that employment lifecycle the most accessible that it can be. And so that is my very quick demonstration of what can be done with both the starter assessment tool and the full assessment tool. And yes, I guess at this point I pass it on to Brandon to invite our colleagues for a question and answer.
[Brandon Bignell]
All right, well, thank you guys all once again for that presentation and for walking us through the tool. Very, very interesting stuff. For those of you that have been asking in the chat about access to it, we will be sending out an email following this session as well and we'll make sure we provide those links to you as well you'll have the links in the chat that have been posted there already. And if you do have any challenges, do feel free to reach out and we're happy to provide any support that's needed.
So, one of the questions we received, and I'll open this up to the team here, is can you confirm if the Accessibility Canada Act is for those federally regulated organizations only, or is it more broadly applicable, similar to the federal regulatory industry in entities similar to employment equity?
[Micheal Bach]
I don't know, Gert, if you want to pick that up at at at all. I mean, the Accessible Canada Act does apply to federally regulated entities, and there's schedules of those entities, both public sector, governmental, parliamentary defense, as well as private sector organizations that are regulated by the federal level. So, the Accessible Canada Act applies across the board. But as Kathleen noted in doing the research for this, because many entities may also be subject to regulation at the provincial territorial level, we grew to the extent that they're available on standards that have been adopted by provincial governments. And the Employment Standard, as she noted, came out over during the course of our research.
And so we incorporated designed questions informed by the Employment Standard. We do reference in the user guide that we're not saying if you pass this assessment with some score that you know, you're fully accessible and fully meet your obligations or for your federally regulated employer under the Accessible Canada Act. But we've taken, we've been very careful to be guided by both those federal and provincial standards. So, I'm not sure if that addresses the specific question, but that's the context in which we designed this.
[Brandon Bignell]
Yeah, that's great.
[Gert Zagler]
Oh, sorry, I was just gonna say I'll jump in too, and yes, Michael has covered it off quite well, but I think tools like this, or any tools of this nature, anybody can use them. They don't have to be limited.
So, even if you're not federally regulated, but you want to do some further work in this area, there's nothing that stops your organization from doing this just because it's a good thing to do. So, and then I've just seen one popped up and says, is this a good tool if you're in the federal contractors program? Absolutely.
So, any time any organization wants to do this sort of work, whether they're governed by legislation or not, a tool like this really helps you unpack all of the different components and elements that you need to be thinking about.
[Kathleen Macmillan]
Thanks for that Gert. I was just gonna mention that we've worked with numerous organizations where they don't need to meet the Accessible Canada Act, but they do want to advance accessibility and inclusion and so they do lean towards the standards that are available, requirements of the Accessible Candidate Act or other provincial legislation just to help better themselves on their accessibility journey.
So, hopefully that answers that one.
[Brandon Bignell]
That's great, so, we received a handful of questions about what is a good score?
How do I know if I passed? Is this a good tool for starting out? Maybe we could talk a little bit about the scoring system and what represents not necessarily a good score, or maybe how this starts off as a good tool for starting and self-assessing as you guys start the journey.
[Erick Nettel]
I can start just mentioning that when it comes, I would say to people more than focusing on, I mean, the number definitely tells you where you are, but I think most importantly is to really look at those snapshots from the graphics that tell you where you are. Because at the end of the day, when it comes to the percentages, keep in mind that, especially in the case of the full assessment as we mentioned, one component, you might low, but the other one you might be high.
So, that balances the percentage. But if you really look at where you are, the main thing is really looking at what steps you need to take.
I would say focus on that, like the score is a snapshot to say, okay, this is where I am. But I think the most important part is to really look at what are the steps that I need to implement or that I am already kind of implementing, but need to improve on in order for my score to get better.
So, that would be the first thing I would mention. I don't know, Michael, Kathleen, if you wanna add a little bit more to it or Renee?
[Kathleen Macmillan]
Yeah, for me, I think it's just important to start, so I wouldn't focus too much on the scoring. It would give you a good indication on as to where you may wanna hone in on some of your efforts. But the important thing is to start to listen to employees at your organization to see where improvements are needed, that can be very telling of where an organization may wanna focus in on their efforts.
The tool can definitely assist with where you're at. But I think the important thing is really to start on a journey, figure out where it'll make the most impact, what you're able to do with the resources and the budget that you do have, and to just continually make some effort towards being more inclusive and accessible.
We're not saying that you need to answer all of these questions and that you're already doing this already. We understand that it's a journey. And then, yeah, I know I've said it already, but the important thing is to start on the journey. Michael, if you have anything to add.
[Micheal Bach]
Sure, just to add aybe along these lines, there's, again, this isn't a tool that will demonstrate, by a score that you get that you're compliant under the Accessible Canada Act or the Federal Contractors program. So, it's not about achieving a certain score proves that you're compliant.
It's more that compliance under those obligations is about really and the Employment Equity Act is about identifying barriers and taking steps to address those barriers. And that's really, this is intended as a tool to assist you, as Kathleen says on that journey.
So, it's a way of making the intentions under federal, these federal instruments really practical. And if we're gonna achieve the goals of both the Employment Equity Act and the Accessible Canada Act for a barrier free Canada by 2040, I guess under the a CA, this is a tool that entities can use to take additional steps along that path that can be used on the regular review process related to the Employment Standard for example.
[Brandon Bignell]
Okay, excellent. So, one of the other questions we got is, obviously, you know, the rules and regulations and requirements are gonna continue to evolve over time, both federally and provincially. Is there gonna be an opportunity for this tool to be updated down the line to kind of reflect any changes? Are there any immediate plans right now to make changes as new requirements are released?
[Micheal Bach]
Kathleen, do you wanna address that or maybe Renee as well in terms of the capability or both as the terms-
[Kathleen Macmillan]
Yeah.
[Micheal Bach]
Of the capability to adapt as the environment changes?
[Kathleen Macmillan]
Yeah, I mean we had to adapt during this tool development. The original Employment Standard came out and then they made some changes to that.
So, I can say that this tool definitely does reflect the most recent Employment Standard that Accessibility Standards Canada has published, which is great. I hope that there's gonna be the opportunity to make the updates as standards and accessibility legislation evolves.
That would be my hope. I'm not sure from that standpoint. Michael, what is your thoughts on, as it kind of sits with the accessibility exchange at this point? I'd love to be involved further.
[Micheal Bach]
Yeah, that, I mean, I'm wondering if it's possible for Renee to step in here. Certainly the tool was designed
(Michael clears throat)
in the Microsoft environment. The challenge is as a new tool comes on, if it new or as new questions come on, if you are comparing your progress in relation to where you got on an earlier iteration of the tool, then you've got, you don't have that comparative basis, but I think the tool is fairly easy to update. But I'm wondering, Renee, are you available just to respond on this question?
[Rene Doucet]
Okay, can you hear me now?
[Micheal Bach] Yes.
[Kathleen Macmillan]
We can, thank you.
[Rene Doucet]
Okay, hi, everybody.
Yeah, the tool was built to accommodate different versions. So we can certainly add or change or remove questions in later versions. The trade off is that, and Michael, this is a bigger discussion about the reporting. So, if we're trying to do reporting and compare over time or compare different sectors, things we've talked about in the past, it's, you know, there's gonna be a partition, if you will, between the versions. 'Cause you're not gonna be necessarily comparing apples to apples anymore. But putting that aside in terms of being able to update the tool and republish it on the accessibility exchange, yes, it was built to support that. So, it's future proofed as it will, as it were.
[Micheal Bach]
Thanks Renee. And also I do just want to, well, everybody on the calls contributed in their own way and Renee was the mastermind behind the technical design of this. So, and I guess that just speaks to, and Erick pointed to this, we certainly encourage users to share their emails so that we can follow up and create a database of assessments that help us look at ideally on a sector by sector basis where we're getting in terms of addressing barriers where there seem to be consistent gaps within a sector or cross sector.
It could provide a really rich source for trend information as we go forward, but that would really depend on participants sharing their assessments into a database. Renee, can you just speak to that, how we've done some thinking on this, but ultimately decided that in order to ensure the widest use of this tool, we didn't wanna build that in as an obligation.
[Rene Doucet]
Right.
[Micheal Bach]
Yeah.
[Rene Doucet]
Yeah. I mean, so Erick mentioned this at the beginning of his slides, but the anonymity was core how we architected this, which is why it's not an online tool, it's an offline Excel spreadsheet. So, if you so choose, you can fill it out you don't have to share it with anybody.
It stays within your organization, on your desktop. And you can also fill it out as many times as you want. You can make a copy and then fill it out in six months and in 18 months so that you could, you know, you yourself could track your progress. That said, like Michael was mentioning, if you do want to, you know, if you're up for sharing it, we will store it and we can store it
without any identifier or a anonymous identifier, like just a number or if you don't mind, we will also, you know, store it with the actual name of your organization. So, we're flexible in how we store it. But if you do do that, you could send us every, like let's say you were going to fill out the assessment once every six months or once every year. If you send that to us, then we can send back to you sort of an official progress report.
So, it's comparing the different, you know, let's say you filled out you know, the assessment four different times, it's gonna show you the trends as Michael mentioned, across the stages and the associated components. So, there's a benefit to sharing the information with us. You'll get access to more advanced reporting, longitudinal reporting essentially.
[Micheal Bach]
Yeah, both, I guess Renee both for your organization, but then also being contributing to an aggregate database.
[Rene Doucet]
That too.
[Micheal Bach]
Yeah.
To give us a picture of of how we're progressing based on those who are sharing their data.
[Rene Doucet]
Correct, and if Michael, if we have enough submissions for a given sector, then we can also show how an organization is doing comparatively to the rest of the sector.
[Micheal Bach]
Right, exactly. Yeah.
[Rene Doucet]
So, yeah, so if we have a yeah, enough data we can do lots of
different kinds of reporting.
[Rene Doucet]
Yeah.
[Micheal Bach]
I do. If I can just, I do wanna make one acknowledgement, I mean, as I said, so many people contributed. I also wanna acknowledge Kathleen Macmillan, who I spent countless, countless, countless hours, researching standards, assessment tools, crafting questions, revising those questions, being part of the testing process. And so, yeah, I just want to acknowledge that really extraordinary work and such a productive partnership with BDO.
[Brandon Bignell]
Yeah, we definitely appreciate that Michael, and the feelings mutual. So, knowing we just got two minutes left, maybe I can just throw one last question to both. Maybe Kathleen, if you can start and then Michael, you can take us out to the end maybe, what advice do you give to organizations that are completing this and then have more questions, what do we do next? Where do we go from here? So, maybe Kathleen, you could start off with maybe a piece of advice you might have, and I'd love to hear maybe from Michael and Gert to wrap us up.
[Kathleen Macmillan]
Yeah, there may be lots of questions and that's okay. Questions can lead to further support and further, I think like this is something that we can't do by ourselves. Moving accessibility and inclusivity forward and being barrier free by 2040 is something that everyone has to be involved in. We're just talking today about employment. There's six other priority areas within the Accessible Canada Act that we need to focus on as well. So, if there are questions, I'm here.
This is work that is both personal and professionally. It's something I found late in life and it's something I love to do. And so the BDO accessibility consulting team, we may be mighty, but we are here for support. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out. And working with the folks at NSI, it's been an incredible journey over the last three years to have this put forward and hopefully it can help organizations make a real difference with being more inclusive and accessible for persons with disabilities, the deaf community, and people with intersecting identities. I know we're running outta time, Michael, do you have anything else to add from that perspective?
[Micheal Bach]
Yes, just in terms of practical support, you'll see on the accessibility exchange platform that there is a support number and people can access that VRS telephone text, Erick, you can speak to the accessibility of that. And we have a support person who can assist on the technical side.
The accessibility exchange also is a marketplace, if you will, of accessibility consultants who can also assist in, or organizations and entities in furthering their work on that. But you can certainly start with following up, as Kathleen said, with through BDO or through the support line at the accessibility exchange. And we'll be able to access, help you access whatever expertise is needed. And I guess, just to echo, Kathleen and the team at BDO, we're committed to continuing to develop practical tools to advance accessibility under the various areas in the Accessible Canada Act. And given the goals of the Employment Equity Act and really appreciate the partnership with BDO, but in addition, all of those who contributed to the design of this, and those who joined us today to learn more about it, we would really welcome the opportunity to work with you going forward.
[Brandon Bignell]
Awesome, and thank you Michael, and maybe again, special thanks to our colleagues from ESDC who helped make this all possible. So, really huge thank you to you guys. Gert, as we are about to log off, any maybe final words you'd like to share with our participants today?
[Gert Zagler]
Well, I wanna first start by thanking this team that has put together this amazing product and you can tell there's so much dedication and heart in this. It truly shows and all the thinking and work that's gone into it.
Certainly from our standpoint from Labor Program ESDC, our officers remain available to work with those employers that are under the LEAP or federal contractors program. And we also have a number of tools available to everybody, which are now linked from our site, the Equi'Vision, which provides employment equity information, but also has tools and just as this tool's available to anybody who wants to further their journey in this area, similarly, the tools that the federal government's created, on Equi'Vision are also available to everyone. So, I just wanna, you know, applaud the entire team that did all this great work and so happy that it's being shared here today. This is really wonderful stuff. So, thank you.
[Micheal Bach]
Great, thank you.
[Brandon Bignell]
All right, well thank you guys and please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions and we'll be sharing the link with you guys shortly. So, again, thank you to all our participants, the new society, ESDC, my colleague Kathleen. Thank you guys so much and please don't be shy. Reach out anytime. Thank you and have a great day.