The first review of the AODA’s Information and communications Standards became public in 2020. In this review, the AODA Information and Communications Standards Development Committee outlines improvements to make information and communications accessible for people with disabilities by 2025. The Committee recommends changes to the Information and Communications Standards, to identify, remove, and prevent accessibility barriers in information. In addition, the Committee recommends an alternative system for developing, updating, and enforcing AODA standards. This new system would affect the Information and Communications Standards, as well as other existing and future standards. This article will discuss the Committee’s recommendations for clear accessible feedback requirements throughout the AODA Standards.
Clear Accessible Feedback Requirements Throughout the AODA Standards
Under the Information and Communications Standards, organizations with processes for receiving and responding to feedback must ensure that those processes are accessible to people with disabilities. Organizations can comply with this requirement by providing accessible formats and communication supports, upon request. Alternatively, organizations can arrange for a third party to provide these formats or supports. For instance, organizations could:
- Create a feedback form in Microsoft Word
- Photo-copy large-print forms
- Provide contact information by phone and email, in addition to handwritten forms
- Arrange Sign Language interpretation or Real-Time Captioning for in-person feedback
Each person could choose the feedback method which would work best for them.
Organizations must also notify the public that these accessible formats and communication supports are available for anyone who needs them. However, organizations that do not yet have a feedback process do not need to create one.
Similarly, the Customer Service Standards require organizations to create and implement accessible customer service feedback processes. A process must detail how the organization will receive and respond to feedback about the accessibility of their customer service, including complaints. Customers should be able to offer feedback in accessible formats or with communication supports, upon request. Moreover, organizations must receive and respond to any feedback they receive about the accessibility of their feedback processes.
Clarifying Feedback Requirements
The Committee reports that these two (2) separate accessible feedback requirements confuse staff of organizations trying to comply with them. For instance, staff of an organization providing customer service may not have a general feedback process. In other words, this organization does not need to comply with the Information and Communications Standards’ requirement for accessible feedback. As a result, staff may believe that they likewise need not comply with the Customer Service Standards’ feedback requirements. This misunderstanding leads organizations to be non-compliant with the AODA.
Therefore, the Committee recommends that all accessible feedback requirements in the AODA Standards should appear together in one place. For instance, all requirements about feedback could appear in the General Requirements of the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR). As a result, organizations could easily reference all feedback requirements and establish which components they need to comply with.