New Legislative Requirements Under The Integrated Accessibility Standards (Ontario)

The new Integrated Accessibility Standards (the "IAS"), enacted under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, came into force on July 1, 2011, and is the latest regulation furthering the legislature's goal to make the province of Ontario fully accessible to disabled persons by 2025. The IAS aims to achieve this in part by requiring public and private sector employers to identify, remove and prevent barriers to the access of employment, information and communications, and transportation. However, in so doing the IAS imposes extensive new obligations on employers of which they should be aware.

Application

The IAS applies to "obligated organizations," being the government of Ontario, the legislative assembly, designated public sector organizations and every other person or organization that provides goods, services or facilities to the public or other third parties and that has at least one employee in Ontario. Designated public sector organizations