Since the adoption of the Accessibility of Ontarians with
Disabilities Act, 2005 ("AODA"), many employers have
raised questions of whether compliance with AODA also satisfies its
duty to accommodate employees to the point of undue hardship under
the Human Rights Code ("Code"). The short
answer to this question is "No". While the
Human Rights Tribunal ("Tribunal") has determined that it
does not oversee compliance with AODA, the Human Rights Commission
has confirmed on its website that AODA does not supplant the Code,
and compliance with one does not necessarily mean compliance with
the other.
Four recent decisions from the Tribunal have confirmed that
employers and service-providers who fail to accommodate the needs
of its customers and employers will still be subject to human
rights liability if they fail to accommodate the accessibility
needs of persons with a disability to the point of undue
hardship. In the cases outlined below,
service-providers and
