Accessible Customer Service
Posted Dec 14, 2011 02:17:13 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) comes into effect in stages. The first main stage being January 1st, 2012.
At that point, accessibility standards for customer service apply to private companies who provide goods or services.
There are a number of requirements that business operators must adhere to, all aimed at making Ontario a more accessible and barrier-free province. These include communicating with customers with disabilities in a way that takes their disability into account and letting people with disabilities bring their service animal, or “seeing-eye” dog onto the premises open to the public, except where the animal is otherwise excluded by law.
Those are two examples and there is much more information available on the Government of Ontario website.
Accessibility advocate Taposhi Batabyal spent some time with 570 News reporter Mike McCulloch talking about what changes businesses will be legislated to have in place in the new year. Batabyal also spoke about some of the specific challenges she has faced as a customer with a disability.
