CAN-ASC-1.1 Standard on employment: Public Review Draft – 6. Culture, engagement, and education

Table of contents for section 6

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6.1 Overview

The principle that all workers deserve to be treated with respect and dignity is supported by an organization’s healthy and disability inclusive:

  1. workplace culture;
  2. leadership;
  3. communication;
  4. worker participation;
  5. training; and
  6. education.

This principle is important in that it acknowledges lived experience of disability. It is important that an organization encourage the active participation of workplace stakeholders, especially workers, and other interested parties in the establishment, implementation, and maintenance of employment best practices.

Improving the workplace for workers with disabilities requires cultural and systemic change. When workplaces operate within a culture of silence, intimidation, fear, and bystander apathy, any actions to support worker rights will remain reactive and retaliatory instead of prevention-focused. A disability-inclusive culture requires a shift to a proactive, anti-ableist, innately barrier-free, and discrimination-free workplace for all.

To achieve a workplace culture which prioritizes the elimination of workplace barriers including systemic, structural, environmental, and attitudinal barriers, it is important that workplace culture be anchored in an intersectional accessibility lens which involves top-down leadership commitment and enforcement and bottom-up commitment and participation from workplace parties.

6.2 Workplace culture

To establish a healthy disability-inclusive workplace culture, the organization shall:

  1. adopt a proactive and systemic approach to identify, prevent and remove structural, environmental, and attitudinal barriers that result in discrimination on the job to improve the workplace for workers with disabilities;
  2. provide a proactive focus on the prevention of barriers that supports worker rights by implementing workplace protections against a culture of silence, intimidation, fear, and bystander apathy, and reactive and retaliatory actions;
  3. implement an intersectional accessibility lens approach (see Annex D) to identify how individual oppression and systemic ableism may be experienced at work; and
  4. provide for worker-centred, barrier-free, and discrimination-free access to the workplace in all aspects of the employment life cycle. 

6.2.1 Comprehensive communication strategies and efforts

The organization shall:

  1. make all workplace communication in verbal, non-verbal, signed language(s), and written formats, accessible to all workers;
  2. ensure that all workplace communications are communicated in diverse ways, regardless of self-disclosure;
  3. provide visual aids, signed language(s) (American Sign Language (ASL), Langue des signes Québecoise (LSQ), Indigenous Sign Language(s), Protactile Sign Language(s)), described video and captions for worker-directed communication based on worker needs (refer to Clause 5.6 d);    Note: Employer proactivity includes the importance of communication being streamlined throughout the employment life cycle.
  4. prioritize the digital accessibility of all forms of communication;
  5. incorporate the use of inclusive language with a focus on eliminating ableist, racist, colonialist, and gendered terminology; and
  6. practice message equivalency across departments and formats to ensure accuracy in the message.

6.2.2 Worker-centred actions

Worker-centred actions involve workplace environmental solutions that include, but are not limited to interpersonal social interactions, impromptu meetings, hallway discussions, lunchroom discussions, and any formal or informal interactions among stakeholders and parties. These environmental solutions are equally important in identifying the barriers to achieving a healthy workplace culture and in fostering anti-ableist attitudes in the workplace.

The organization shall:

  1. focus workplace actions on acceptance and collaboration instead of tolerance, as inclusion is critical to the creation of a healthy workplace culture;
  2. take steps to eliminate discrimination, microaggressions, violence, and harassment in the workplace and informal work-related settings;
  3. use timely and effective processes in response to infractions to reinforce its commitment to this goal to all workplace stakeholders and interested parties; and
  4. design leadership approaches, communication, training, and education that drive disability inclusion efforts to achieve a healthy and safe workplace culture for workers to engage with intersectional accessibility actions.

6.3 Leadership and communication

Leadership within an organization can exist at any level. Effective leadership is prevention-focused and involves top-down leadership commitment and enforcement. This also includes bottom-up commitment and participation from workplace stakeholders and interested parties to training and education. Leadership at all levels shall provide a clear commitment to disability inclusion, accountability, transparency in prevention and performance measures, role modelling, and leading by example.

The organization shall create and maintain a strong disability-inclusive workplace culture by:

  1. applying an intersectional accessibility lens at all levels of management, including upper management, Human Resources, and others who are accountable, responsible, or have influence within the organization;
  2. creating a responsive environment that encourages workers with disabilities to identify concerns and issues without fear of reprisal;
  3. addressing issues in a timely and effective manner;
  4. ensuring that there is no reprisal when workers with disabilities identify concerns and issues;
  5. providing worker access to all resources required to do their jobs (including but not limited to tools, technologies, and training);
  6. eliminating formal, informal and attitudinal workplace barriers through inclusive, clear, and consistent communication to all workplace parties; and
  7. providing workplace training opportunities on disability-related issues for all workplace parties.

6.3.1 A commitment to inclusion and training from all levels of leadership

Commitment to applying an intersectional accessibility lens starts with senior management, Human Resources, anyone responsible for hiring or termination, and all parties with professional influence over anyone in the workplace.

To eliminate formal, informal, and attitudinal workplace barriers using clear, consistent, and inclusive communication, the organization shall:

  1. require management to identify the workforce availability of persons with disabilities within job classifications;
  2. establish representation targets for its workplace against workforce availability; and
  3. provide workplace training opportunities on disability-related issues for all workplace parties.

6.3.2 Accountability

The organization shall demonstrate its commitment to inclusion, accountability, and evaluation by:

  1. supporting a leadership team that demonstrates effective knowledge and experience about barriers and discrimination faced by workers with disabilities and other equity groups;
  2. assigning the financial resources for the development of an inclusive and accessible workplace so that budgets do not create a barrier;
  3. establishing leadership criteria for appointments to agency, board, commission, or senior management positions that promotes equitable representation, including the appointment of persons with disabilities;
  4. providing opportunities for workers to identify accommodations or raise accessibility issues and concerns anonymously without prejudice or repercussions;
  5. creating mechanisms incorporated into employer-led prevention efforts to resolve issues to the satisfaction of the workplace parties;
  6. supporting persons with disabilities throughout the course of their careers, profession, or work relationship by implementing and maintaining inclusive accessibility and measurement plans that are collaboratively developed;
  7. conducting independent review(s) to assess whether targets and objectives have been met and where gaps continue to exist; and
  8. creating accessibility strategies that shall include Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely (SMART) goals and targets.

6.4 Worker engagement

Worker engagement is a touchstone which ensures that workplace parties operate within an inclusive workplace culture and incorporate mechanisms designed to support workers with disabilities on the job. Workers hold information with respect to existing and potential barriers and unique perspectives on how to strengthen inclusion in the work environment.

The following processes work to advance these goals.

6.4.1 Needs assessments

The organization shall:

  1. engage workers and their representatives (interested parties) in a needs assessment to identify existing and potential gaps that impede the creation of an inclusive and discrimination-free workplace culture; and
  2. regularly conduct a needs assessment not less than every two years to support the existing disability management system, inform prevention efforts, and eliminate barriers including attitudinal barriers.

6.4.2 Accessibility strategy

The organization shall:

  1. engage workers and their representatives in the development of accessibility or disability management strategies to provide a comprehensive approach to measuring yearly inclusion targets for hiring, promotions, training, and retention;
  2. incorporate in multi-year accessibility strategies a section on worker engagement efforts and anti-ableism training; and
  3. harmonize accessibility strategies with employment equity plans and evacuation plans if applicable.

See Clause 5.2

6.4.3 Championing inclusion

Workers can take on the most important role in championing an inclusive workplace culture. To achieve this, workers shall be provided with opportunities within the course of their employment to support and raise awareness of disability inclusion efforts.

The organization shall:

  1. establish a senior position of an accessibility lead or an accessibility officer position;
  2. support worker networks (e.g. self-organized, employer-supported, union-supported);
  3. provide workers with opportunities to raise awareness of disability inclusion and to champion an inclusive workplace culture and efforts;
  4. support worker-led and disability-led initiatives to identify, remove and prevent barriers for workers with disabilities;
  5. raise awareness of how conscious and unconscious bias challenges inclusive practices; and
  6. participate in company-funded activities recognizing disability-specific days of observances (e.g., National Disability Employment Awareness Month, National Accessibility Week, and International Day of Persons with Disabilities).

6.5 Training and education

6.5.1 Leadership training

The organization shall provide training for leadership. The training shall be created and delivered on an ongoing basis to address attitudinal bias, conscious and unconscious bias, ableist attitudes, and prejudices.

The training shall include the following topics:

  1. anti-ableism, accessibility, duty to accommodate, anti-discrimination, and anti-harassment;
  2. literacy on disability issues, accessibility measures and ways to create a barrier-free work environment (e.g. accessibility confident employer program(s));
  3. applicable disability-related legislation and collective bargaining processes (including the Employment Equity Act, the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Accessible Canada Act, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities); and
  4. how to strengthen accessibility measures by creating barrier-free work environments.

6.5.2 Organizational training

The organization shall advance workplace inclusion targets and raise awareness of barriers in the workplace by:

  1. providing mandatory, formal, proactive and strategic training, and education opportunities for all workplace stakeholders, interested parties, and workplace parties;
  2. at minimum, undertaking training on disability issues which impact the work environment including:
    1. anti-ableism, accessibility, anti-discrimination, and anti-harassment,
    2. duty to accommodate,
    3. elimination of barriers in the workplace,
    4. accessible information and communication,
    5. early intervention, policy, and system reviews,
    6. allyship and bystander intervention, and
    7. training on roles and responsibilities for specific departments and teams, such as but not limited to:
      1. persons responsible for administrating functions related to disability management to ensure comprehensive accessibility. This includes human resources, payroll and benefits, and third-party contractors responsible for Employee Assistance Programs.
      2. persons responsible for procurement contracts or for communicating the organization’s expectations for third-party contractors to provide services such as Employee Assistance Programs in an accessible format.
      3. other departments and teams such as IT, communications, policy, etc.;
  3. conducting ongoing training on a timely basis;
  4. making training content accessible in multiple formats to accommodate diverse participant learning needs (e.g. online, in-person, conferences, etc.); and
  5. incorporating inclusive language that emphasizes an equity, anti-oppression and intersectional accessibility lens, centring persons with disabilities and recognizing different disabilities. (See Annex D).

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