Under the Ontario Human Rights Code (the Code), employers, landlords, and service providers must accommodate people with disabilities. In other words, organizations have a duty to make changes in order to meet the needs of workers, tenants, customers, or clients with disabilities. However, the accommodations that people need may sometimes conflict with each other. Accommodation providers must find ways to meet the needs of people with competing rights to accommodation.
Competing Rights to Accommodation
For instance, an employer may hesitate to hire an applicant who is deaf, because the department manager is blind. The employer may be unsure that these two professionals would be able to work together easily. However, the employer, department manager, and applicant could work together to find solutions. For instance, the applicant would likely use accommodations to communicate with other colleagues, including:
- Sign Language interpretation
- Speechreading
- Text or email
All these accommodations would promote communication with the department manager, as well as other colleagues. For example, the applicant and manager could communicate through text or email, if the department manager uses a screen reader or Braille display. In contrast, other methods of communication, such as pen-and-paper notes, would not work for these colleagues. Nonetheless, they have many ways to communicate and form a strong collegial relationship.
In this situation, though the employer fears that rights may conflict, both workers can easily become strong colleagues.
Finding Solutions for Competing Rights Claims
Alternatively, other situations may create conflicts of competing rights. For example, someone with a service animal, and someone with a severe allergy to dogs could register to take the same class. Both potential students have the same right to take the class. On one hand, the service-animal handler has the right to have their service dog with them anywhere the public is allowed to go. On the other hand, the person with the allergy has the right to a safe environment. As a result, these two people may not be able to take the class at the same time. In other words, these two people’s rights compete with each other. Therefore, the organization running the class must find ways to allow both potential students access to the class.
For instance, if the same class is offered at different times, one student could register at another time. In contrast, if there is only one class, the organization could hold the class in a large room. This location change would allow the two students to stay as far from each other as possible.
In cases of competing rights to accommodation, the accommodation provider and the people needing accommodation must do their best to find a solution that meets everyone’s needs and respects everyone’s dignity.