Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation, customer service standards for providers of goods, services or facilities
O. Reg. 191/11, Part IV.2, ss. 80.45-80.51 (customer service standards)
In force since .
An accessibility requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
- Instrument type
- a regulation made under an act
- Obligation class
- Governance, Disclosure
As of .
What it requires
- Develop, implement and maintain policies governing how you provide goods, services or facilities to persons with disabilities, and use reasonable efforts to keep them consistent with the principles of dignity and independence, integration, equal opportunity, and communication that takes the person's disability into account (s. 80.46 (1) and (2)).
- Establish a process for receiving and responding to feedback about the way you provide goods, services or facilities to persons with disabilities, specify the actions you will take on a complaint, make the process accessible through accessible formats and communication supports on request, and make information about it readily available to the public (s. 80.50 (1) to (4)).
- If persons with disabilities usually use other facilities or services of yours to obtain, use or benefit from your goods, services or facilities and those are temporarily disrupted, give the public notice of the disruption with its reason, anticipated duration and any alternative facilities or services (s. 80.48 (1) and (2)).
- Permit a person with a disability accompanied by a guide dog or other service animal, or by a support person, to enter premises you own or operate and to which the public has access, together with the animal or the support person, unless the animal is otherwise excluded by law from the premises (s. 80.47 (1), (2) and (4)).
- Ensure that every employee and volunteer, every person who participates in developing your policies and every other person who provides goods, services or facilities on your behalf is trained as soon as practicable on providing them to persons with disabilities, and train on changes to your policies (s. 80.49 (1) to (4)).
- Unless you are a small organization, keep records of the training, and prepare documents describing your policies, feedback process, temporary-disruption steps and training policy, give a copy to any person on request and notify people that the documents are available (ss. 80.46 (4) and (5), 80.48 (3) and (4), 80.49 (5) to (7), 80.50 (5) and (6)).
- When you must give a document to a person with a disability, provide it or its information on request in an accessible format or with communication support, in a timely manner and at no more than the regular cost charged to other persons (s. 80.51).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
A director sets the administrative penalty from Schedule 3 for a corporation ($500 to $15,000) or Schedule 2 for an individual or unincorporated organization ($200 to $2,000), by the impact of the contravention and the contravention history (s. 83 (1)). Only where both are major may the director treat that penalty as a daily penalty, so $15,000 a day for a corporation to a maximum of $100,000, and $2,000 a day for an individual or unincorporated organization to a maximum of $50,000.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- CAD
- Fixed cap
- 100,000
- Per violation unit
- Day
- Per violation amount
- 15,000
Over one month, CAD 100,000, which is the instrument's own cap: the penalty stops accruing on day 7.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
A director appointed under section 30 of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005
What this law does
Part IV.2 applies to obligated organizations that are providers of goods, services or facilities. Section 80.46 requires every provider to develop, implement and maintain policies governing its provision of goods, services or facilities to persons with disabilities. Section 80.50 requires every provider to establish a process for receiving and responding to feedback about the manner in which it provides goods, services or facilities to persons with disabilities.
Section 80.50 also requires the feedback process to be accessible to persons with disabilities through accessible formats and communication supports on request. Section 80.47 requires a provider to permit a person with a disability accompanied by a guide dog or other service animal to enter its premises with the animal, unless the animal is otherwise excluded by law from the premises.
Section 80.48 requires a provider to give notice to the public of a temporary disruption in the facilities or services that persons with disabilities usually use. Section 80.49 requires every provider to ensure that its employees, volunteers and the other persons who provide its goods, services or facilities receive training about providing them to persons with disabilities. Several documentation and notice duties in Part IV.2 apply to a provider other than a small organization.
Section 80.51 requires a provider to give a document to a person with a disability in an accessible format or with communication support on request. Ontario Regulation 165/16 added Part IV.2 to the Regulation. Ontario Regulation 165/16 came into force on and revoked Ontario Regulation 429/07, the earlier accessibility standards for customer service.
Under Ontario Regulation 429/07 those standards had applied to providers of goods or services other than designated public sector organizations on and after .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app ships a consumer interface.