AODA standards mandate how organizations must make themselves accessible to people with disabilities. Moreover, the standards outline organizations’ responsibilities, and the deadlines they must meet. AODA Standards development committees are responsible for creating and maintaining the standards. For example, each committee consults extensively with the public to make recommendations to include in its proposed standards. The committee then submits its final recommendations to the minister in charge of the AODA. Finally, the minister must recommend to the Lieutenant Governor that the standard be accepted in whole, in part, or with modifications. The AODA Healthcare Standards Development Committee submitted its final recommendations to the government in 2022. However, the government has taken no more steps toward enacting AODA healthcare standards.
Enacting AODA Healthcare Standards
The committee’s mandate from the Ontario government requires recommendations focused on the hospital setting. However, patients and healthcare workers with disabilities also face barriers in other parts of the healthcare system, including:
- Doctors’ offices
- Walk-in clinics
- Wellness centres
- Pharmacies
- Labs
- Nursing homes
- Outpatient rehabilitation centres
- Health regulatory colleges
Therefore, the AODA healthcare standards should affect all these settings in addition to hospitals.
Recommendations for the AODA Healthcare Standards
For instance, some of the Committee’s recommendations are:
- Involving people with disabilities in healthcare service planning
- Coordinating accessibility accommodations in healthcare
- Promoting a culture of respect for accessibility in healthcare
- Improving communication between healthcare workers and patients with disabilities
- Ensuring access to support persons in healthcare
- Improving AODA training for healthcare providers, including recommended training content
- Accessible complaint processes in healthcare
- Accreditation processes for accessibility in healthcare
- A campaign to raise awareness about accessible services in hospitals
- An enforcement framework for accessibility in healthcare
- Maintaining healthcare accessibility during states of emergency
- Reviewing the accessibility of healthcare after states of emergency
Currently, there are only five (5) AODA standards. Consequently, the government must enact standards in many more sectors, including healthcare. In other words, enacting AODA healthcare standards is a crucial step toward meeting the AODA’s goal of an accessible province by 2025. In contrast, if the government does not implement these recommendations, it will not meet the deadline mandated in its own law.