CAN-ASC-1.1 Standard on employment: Public Review Draft – 4. Definitions

Ableism - individual and societal discrimination and exclusion in the form of attitudes, prejudices, and actions that devalue and limit the potential of persons with disabilities.

Note: Ableism, like other forms of discrimination, may be conscious or unconscious, intentional, or unintentional, and may be embedded in institutions, systems, or the broader culture of a society.

Source: Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Policy on ableism and discrimination based on disability.

Accessibility - to enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life.

Note: Ensures persons with disabilities have access to all aspects of society on an equal and equitable basis with others. This includes but is not limited to employment, physical environment, transportation, information, communications (including information and communications technologies and systems), financial security, social services, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public.

Source: United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Article 9 – Accessibility.

Accessible Format - documentation presented and provided in a way that meets a worker’s accessibility needs.

Accessibility Policies - policies which support systemic and environmental approaches (including technical and human supports) to identifying, preventing, and removing barriers in the work environment.

Note: Accessibility policies can include existing policies, stand-alone policies or language integrated into existing policies (Refer to Clause 5.4.2).

Accessibility strategy – a framework of policies and practices that establishes a vision for, and a roadmap towards, a workplace that is accessible and inclusive by design.

Note: An accessibility strategy is not limited to only accessibility-specific policies and practices, but also ensuring that all policies and practices are inclusive and barrier-free.

Accommodation - making adjustments to rules, policies, workplace cultures, and physical environments to ensure that they do not have a negative effect on a person with a disability within the employment life cycle.

Allyship - status of being an advocate that actively works for the inclusion of persons with disabilities when the advocate is not a person with a disability.

Anti-Ableism – an active approach that includes strategies, theories, actions, and practices that challenge and counter ableism, inequalities, prejudices, and discrimination of people with disabilities.

Note: Discrimination against people with disabilities is often linked to prejudicial attitudes, negative stereotyping, and the overall stigma surrounding disability.

Attitudinal barriers – lack of understanding, awareness, and knowledge that reinforces stereotypes, dehumanizing behaviours, and discriminatory practices.

Barriers - anything that hinders the full and equal participation in society of persons with disabilities. This includes a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication, sensory disability, or functional limitation.

Source: Accessible Canada Act.

Communications - information that an organization shares with its workers, including but not limited to:

1. information on policies;
2. organizational updates;
3. health and safety information;
4. job aides or training materials;
5. multimedia presentations; and
6. information about workplace activities.

Consultation - process by which an organization, in a planned and coordinated manner, seeks the input and feedback of workers before it makes decisions.

Continual improvement - recurring activity to enhance performance.

Note: Continual does not mean continuous, so the activity does not need to take place in all areas simultaneously.

Differential Treatments - when an employer treats a worker, or group of workers, differently because of specific characteristics that they are unable to change.

Note: Differential treatment is an acceptable practice when adopting or carrying out a special program, plan or arrangement designed to prevent disadvantages or to eliminate or reduce disadvantages by improving opportunities respecting services, facilities, or employment for people with disabilities.

Disability - any physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication, sensory, or functional limitation, whether permanent, temporary, or episodic in nature, evident or not that in interaction with a barrier, that hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society.

Source: Adapted from the Accessible Canada Act.

Disability Management — functions within the organization that focus on stay-at-work and return-to-work processes.

Discrimination - an action or a decision that results in the unfair or negative treatment of a person or group because of their disability, race, age, religion, sex, etc.

Note: Some types of discrimination are illegal under federal human rights legislation (see prohibited grounds in the Canadian Human Rights Act).

Diversity - variations of characteristics within a group of people.

Note: These characteristics include those things that make us unique along with the things that shape our identity (e.g. race, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, cultural background, disability group, etc.). It means understanding that each individual is unique, recognizing individual differences, and doing so with acceptance and respect.

Duty to accommodate – the employer and service provider's legal obligation to adjust rules, policies, or practices for all workers who fall under the prohibited grounds within the Canadian Human Rights Act, to participate fully.

Note: The duty to accommodate means that persons with disabilities are provided adequate supports to perform their job effectively.

Education - any type of formal and informal learning related to employment processes, including:

1. training online;
2. training in-person;
3. self-directed training; and,
4. external conferences, events, initiatives, resources, and workshops.

Employer – a person or organization that employs/engages workers/people to perform work arising in and out of the course of employment.

Employment life cycle - an organizational method which outlines worker engagement through the following stages of the work life cycle: Recruitment, hiring, onboarding, development, retention, and separation.

Equality – when workers are provided with sameness in treatment, access to resources and workplace opportunities.

Equity - when workers receive a unique treatment that is fair, just, and necessary to achieve an equal outcome in the workplace. Individual workers are provided with what they need to access resources, equal treatment, and workplace opportunities.

External Experts - individuals outside the organization who can be consulted or contracted at any stage of the work life cycle to address third – party (or insurance) provisions, medical, accommodation, accessibility, or any other employment-related needs.

Gig work - employment that includes non-standard work arrangements, which are often temporary and involve a pay-per-service relationship that is often mediated through a digital platform.

Harassment - a form of discrimination which includes unwanted physical or verbal behaviour done over time or on a one-time basis. It includes threats or intimidation based on any Human rights grounds as defined by the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Inclusive and accessible employment system – a work environment that is accessible and inclusive by design, encompassing all stages of a worker’s employment journey as well as all aspects of the workplace environment.

Individualized accommodation policies - policies that speak to and provide guidance on accessibility supports for job candidates and workers with lived experience of disabilities, where these individuals choose to self-identify, and where accessibility needs are beyond the level of accessibility established through the systemic accessibility policy approaches.

Notes:

1. These policies can be categorized into policies applicable to job candidates (internal to and external to the organization) and policies applicable to workers.
2. Policies applicable to job candidates address accessibility and individualized accommodation in the context of the job application process, the interview, hiring, and onboarding.
3. Policies applicable to workers address accessibility and individualized accommodation in the context of the work environment, including the performance of work tasks, meetings and events, work-related travel, social, and informal settings.

Interested parties - persons or organizations that can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision or activity.

Internal experts - individuals inside the organization who are involved in informing or managing components of the disability management system within the work life cycle.

Intersectional Accessibility Lens - the analytical framework that starts with/ centres experiences of people with (a) disability(ies) that examines the complex, cumulative ways multiple forms of discrimination and oppression overlap, interact, or intersect with people with (single or multiple) disabilities’ experiences of ableism at the same time.

Intersectional Disability Based Analysis - the process of bringing into view the sources of disadvantaged identity factors that result in unequal opportunities and outcomes for people with disabilities and of using the tools of public policy to overcome these disadvantages.

Intersectionality - a framework that explains the cumulative way in which a person or group of people are affected by multiple forms of discrimination and disadvantages.

Notes:

1. The effect of multiple characteristics of diverse groups can exist within a single person.
2. Systems of oppression such as ableism, racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, and transphobia combine, overlap, or intersect especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups.

Source: Adapted from Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams. 1994. “Mapping the Margins”. In The Public Nature of Private Violence, ed. Fineman, M. and Mykitiuk, R. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar.

Lived experience – persons with lived experience can include persons with disabilities; and family members and/or caregivers of persons with disabilities.

Source: ASC

Management — the persons in an organization that are responsible for leading, overseeing, or directing the work of others. (Adapted from the definition of Senior Management in CSA Z1011:20)

Management by intimidation (MBI) or fear - managing or governing people based on fear and intimidation. MBI can also be viewed as a form of harassment because it is a conscious behaviour exhibited by an individual. It is counterproductive for the organization, departments, and workers.

Source: adapted from Canadian Human Rights Commission

Note: Psychological harassment, fear-based management, and fear-based leadership, could cause workers to resign or avoid any critical thinking to prevent getting in trouble with that manager.

Message equivalency – meaning of the same message or content information conveyed when translating from one language to another language (i.e., avoiding being lost in translation or creating missing key information because of interpreting inaccurately or misinterpreting when translating occurs).

Microaggression - a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group, for example, persons with disabilities.

Source: adapted from Merriam-Webster

Negative attitudes - inappropriate comments, behaviours, and actions related to prejudicial attitudes, negative stereotypes, and the overall stigma surrounding these disabilities (i.e., stereotypes and generalizations about people with disabilities based on assumptions about the qualities and characteristics of the group they belong to).

Source: adapted from Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Organization - a company, employer, operation, undertaking, establishment, enterprise, institution, or association, or a part or combination thereof, that has its own management.

Note: This includes the private and public sectors, as well as for-profit and not-for-profit.

Source: Adapted from Work Disability Management System, CSA Z1011:20

Performance management - encompasses all activities related to assessing and improving worker performance, productivity, and effectiveness with the goal of facilitating worker success.

Person-first language - language and expressions that emphasize the individual first, rather than the disability.

Note: Not every disability group uses person-first language.

Plain Language - wording, structure, and design that are so clear that the intended audience can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information.

Source: Plain Language Association International

Policy - documentation that sets out the strategic direction of an organization.

Source: CSA Z1011:20

Note: This term refers to the organization’s statement of strategic direction. It describes the “what”.

Practice - a commonly accepted method, formal or informal, of completing a procedure or an action within a work environment.

Presenteeism - the lost productivity in a workplace that occurs when workers are not fully functional while ill.

Note: This definition, originally developed in the context of illness or contagious diseases, has also been extended by researchers to include disability, which embeds the assumption from the medical and economic models of disability, of "disability" equating to "lost productivity".

Prevention (primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention) - primary prevention refers to the removal of exposure that produces ill health. In the context of disability management, secondary prevention refers to addressing workers’ accessibility needs on a timely basis to ensure optimal workplace accommodations and, in case of an absence, a return to work. Tertiary prevention refers to minimizing the impact of disability on functioning, work engagement, and work productivity, as well as preventing further barriers.

Source: Adapted from Work Disability Management System, CSA Z1011:20, Preface

Procedure - a documented method to carry out an activity.

Source: Work Disability Management System, CSA Z1011:20

Process - a set of interrelated or interacting activities that transforms inputs into outputs.

Source: Work Disability Management System, CSA Z1011:20

Promotion - the movement of a worker from one job to another that may be higher in pay, responsibility, and/or organizational level, usually based on merit, seniority, or a combination of both.

Note: Career Development may include elements of promotion but also includes training, education, leadership, speaking, and other opportunities generally offered to workers to advance their skills and experience or gain recognition for their expertise and skills within their organization.

Redeployment - the reassignment of workers to other departments or functions as an alternative to laying them off.

Retention – organizational policies and practices designed to meet the diverse needs of workers and create an environment that incentivizes workers to remain with the organization.

Senior management - the person(s) at the highest level of an organization responsible for leading, managing, and/or directing it.

Source: Adapted from Work disability Management System, CSA Z1011:20

Universal design (for workplaces) - the process of designing an environment that can be accessed, understood, and whose use can be maximized by all workers regardless of age size, ability, or disability.

Work-integrated learning – practical learning opportunities in a work environment which may be part of formal or informal education.

Workers - the persons who perform work or work-related activities that are under the control of the organization.

Note: Includes paid or unpaid workers, supervisors, managers, leaders, contractors, service providers, volunteers, students, and others engaged in performing activities for the benefit of the organization.

Source: Adapted from Work Disability Management System, CSA Z1011:20.