Understanding the
Accessibility for Ontarians
with Disabilities Act
The “New” Customer Service
Standard
Serve-Ability: Transforming Ontario’s Customer Service
Introducing the AODA - Purposes of AODA
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005
AODA (“the act”)
In this training we will discuss:
•Regulations
•Standards to be met in key areas of:
•Goods
•Services
•Facilities
•Accommodations
•Employment
•Buildings
•Structures
•Premises
Accessibility Standards for Customer Service
The standard : Making customer service accessible for people with disabilities
What else is covered in the training?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Purpose of the act
Requirements of the customer service standard
Serving customers with disabilities
Service animals
Support persons
Assistive devices
If there are difficulties accessing your services
Serve-Ability: Transforming Ontario’s Customer Service
Purposes of AODA
•
•
•
•
•
Customer service – For All!
Transportation
Information and communications
Employment
Built environment to meet all
requirements/needs
What does this change mean?
•More opportunities for all Ontarians
•Greater contributions from and involvement of
people with disabilities
•Preparing for the future……moving forward!!
Serve-Ability: Transforming Ontario’s Customer Service
Remember :
•
The Act: it’s all about Setting Accessibility Standards
•
Achieve accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities by 2025
•
More standards and changes to come as we move forward
Serve-Ability: Transforming Ontario’s Customer Service
Overview
(1) The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act was passed in what year?
2000
2003
2005
2007
(2) The vision behind the AODA is to achieve accessibility for Ontarians with
disabilities by 2025.
True
False
Serve-Ability: Transforming Ontario’s Customer Service
Who Must Comply
Accessibility Standards for Customer Service is
also known as Ontario Regulation 429/07
If you or your organization have one or more
employees and provide goods or services, you
must comply with the standard.
Summary of Requirements
•Policies, practices, and procedures
•Key principles:
* Independence
* Dignity
* Integration
* Equality of opportunity
•Assistive devices
•Communication
•Service animals
•Support persons
•Admission for support persons
•Service disruptions
•Train staff
•Feedback
Interacting with Persons with Disabilities - General Tips for Serving
Customers with Disabilities
•"May I help you?" Your customers with disabilities know if they need help and how you can provide it.
•Speak directly to your customer.
•Not everybody with the same disability experiences the same things. Don’t make assumptions. Your
customers are not required to tell you about their disabilities.
•Take the time to get to know your customer’s needs and focus on meeting those needs just like you
would with any other customer. Some disabilities are not visible.
•All customers have a range of needs and preferences and so do your customers with disabilities.
If you can’t understand what your customer is saying, politely ask him or her to repeat it.
•You may want to ask if the information you are conveying needs to be repeated. Ask: “Do you
understand this?”
•Exercise patience.
Here’s how……………………………………….
RESPECT……. The key to Customer Service
Take the time to ask, “May I Help you?”
Ask, don’t assume. Never assist unless
asked
Listen attentively and speak directly to the customer
Know the accommodations and special services
that are available
Language and Terminology
The language we use in relation to persons with disabilities can be a
delicate issue. The table below provides some do’s and don'ts to
assist us with vocabulary that may be used as an alternative
DO NOT USE
USE INSTEAD
Crippled
Lame
Disability
Handicapped
Physically Challenged
Differently able
Invalid
Individual or person with a disability
Restricted to
Confined to
Individual or person with a disability
“Suffers from”
Afflicted by”
“stricken with”
Person with a disability, a person who has cerebral palsy, etc
“Victim” of cerebral palsy or someone who “suffers
from” multiple sclerosis, etc.
Person who has cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, etc. A person
with a disability is not a victim, and having a disability should not
be equated with suffering.
Wheelchair user
Wheelchair-bound
Person with a disability or where operationally appropriate
reference to “wheelchair user” i.e. cultural event seating locations
Language and Terminology continued…..
Confined to a wheelchair
For individuals with a mobility disability a wheelchair is a
means of transportation and inclusion
Birth defect or congenital defect
Person with a disability since birth
Blind (The)
Person who is blind
Visually Impaired (The)
Person with a visual disability
Deaf (The)
Person who is deaf
Hearing Impaired (The)
Person who is hard of hearing
Epileptic (The)
Person who has epilepsy
Fit (attack/spell)
seizure
Spastic
Person who has spasms.
Insane, mad, crazy, lunatic, neurotic, unsound mind
Person with a mental health disability or psychiatric
disability, person with depression
Aged, elderly
seniors
schizophrenic
Person who has schizophrenia
(Mentally) Retarded
Moron
Idiot
Simple
Person with an intellectual disability or cognitive disability
Mongoloid
Person with down’s Syndrome
Serve-Ability: Transforming Ontario’s Customer Service
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Introduction
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Deaf, oral deaf, deafened, and hard of hearing
•Attract the customer’s attention before speaking. For example, a wave of your hand.
•Don’t shout….this may distort what you are trying to say or make the person feel uncomfortable
•Make sure you are in a well-lit area where your customer can see your face.
•If the person uses a hearing aid, reduce background noise or move to a quieter area.
• Maintain eye contact with the client. Speak directly to him/her ensuring you are at eye level
wherever possible
• Do not assume that raising your voice is the way to be heard! This may bring embarrassing and
unnecessary attention to the client and yourself.
• It is important to remember that people who do not hear are not mute
• if all else fails, draw clearly using stick figures
Above all. Remember, your efforts are truly appreciated!
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Deaf blind
•Speak directly to your customer, not to the intervener.
• Do not raise your voice
• look directly at the client and maintain eye-level contact
• Identify yourself to the intervener when you approach your customer who is deaf blind.
• A customer who is deaf blind is likely to explain to you how to communicate with them.
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Intellectual/ Developmental Disabilities
• Don’t assume what a person can or cannot do.
• Speak evenly, clearly and in short phrases
• Use plain language.
• Do not hesitate to patiently ask the person to repeat what was said.
• Listen carefully for keywords.
• Make sure your customer understands what you’ve said. You can be direct and ask: “Have I
explained this clearly?”
• Provide one piece of information at a time. You can break down the information into simpler
concepts, without exaggerating speech or gestures or being patronizing.
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Mental Health Disabilities
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Learning Disabilities
• Take some time — people with some kinds of learning disabilities may take a little longer to
process, understand and respond.
• Provide information in a way that works for your customer. For example, keep a pen and paper
handy. That way, you can explain, and then review and repeat the information using any additional
notes.
• Be prepared to explain any materials you provide for your customers.
Mental Health Disabilities
•
•
•
Be confident and reassuring. As with all customers, listen carefully and focus on
meeting the customer’s needs.
If the person appears to be in a crisis, ask them to tell you the best way to help.
If a customer appears to show signs of a mental health disability, it may be helpful to
keep in mind that the customer’s reactions are not connected to you personally as a
service provider or service agent. The customer may simply be showing symptoms of
mental illness.
Customers with physical disabilities or
disabilities affecting mobility
•
•
•
•
•
Ask before you help. People with physical
disabilities often have their own ways of doing
things.
Respect your customer’s personal space. Don’t
lean over them or on an assistive device.
Don’t move items, such as canes and walkers,
out of the person’s reach.
If you have permission to move a person in a
wheelchair remember to make sure your
customer is ready to be moved and that you
describe what you’re going to do beforehand.
Don’t leave the individual in an awkward,
dangerous or undignified position such as
facing a wall or in the path of opening doors.
In some situations, inform your customer about
accessible features in the immediate
environment (automatic doors, accessible
washrooms, elevators, ramps, etc.).
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Speech or Language Impairments
Customers with speech or language impairments
• Don’t assume that just because a person has this disability, they also have
another.
• Give your customer whatever time they need to get their point across.
• Ask questions that can be answered “yes” or “no,” if possible.
• Don’t interrupt or finish your customer’s sentences. Wait for them to finish.
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Customers with Vision loss
Customers with vision disabilities
•
Nine out of ten people who come to CNIB
have some degree of vision
Serving Customers with Vision Loss
• Don't assume the individual can't see you.
• Identify yourself when you approach your customer and speak directly to him or her.
• Offer your elbow to guide the person. If they accept, walk slowly, but wait for permission before
doing so.
• Identify landmarks or other details to orient your customer to the environment around them.
• If you’re giving directions or providing any information, be precise and descriptive. For example,
if you’re approaching a door or an obstacle, say so.
• Don't leave your customer in the middle of a room. Guide them to a chair or a comfortable
location. Don't walk away without saying good-bye.
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Customers with Service Animals
• Vision loss
• Hearing alert animals
• To alert an individual to an oncoming seizure
• Helping people with:
autism
mental health disabilities
physical disabilities
Other disabilities
• These service animals are allowed anywhere customers normally
have access.
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Customers with Support Persons
•Personal support worker
•Volunteer
•Family member
•Friend
•“important”, always speak to the person with the disability unless otherwise noted by that person
•Remember to keep all questions related to the situation not their disability
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Personal Assistive Devices
•Assistive devices are part of people’s personal space
•Respect personal space
•Know how to operate any assistive devices your organization provides
Serving Customers with Disabilities - Devices that Help People with
Disabilities Access Your Services
Other Assistive Devices
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Keyboard
Pen and paper
Pointing device
Information in Braille
Automatic door opener
Hearing and amplification
devices
Reach assistance sticks
Summary and Review - Review Questions
(1) When you are dealing with a customer with a disability and are unsure if they need help,
you should:
Go ahead and help them – if they don’t like it, they’ll say so.
Ignore them until you have time for them – serve the easiest customers first.
Always serve your customers with disabilities away from other customers.
Wait and see if they really are customers – maybe they’ll change their minds and go
someplace else.
Ask “May I help you?”
Summary and Review - Review Questions
(2) Which of the following statements is always true?
Older people are all hard of hearing.
Avoid touching a service animal without permission.
Support people are paid employees of customers with disabilities.
People who are blind cannot see anything.
Summary and Review - Review Questions
(3) Which statement about customers with disabilities is true?
Their disability might affect how they interact with you and it might not.
They all use assistive devices like a wheelchair or a hearing aid.
Their disability affects them with the same severity at all times.
All people with the same disability are affected in the same way.
Summary and Review - Review Questions
4) If you need to communicate by telephone with a customer who is Deaf, orally deaf,
deafened or hard of hearing, you can use the Relay Service. The number for the Relay
Service is:
911.
411.
1-800-855-0511.
A number that has a 416 area code.
Summary and Review - Review Questions
(5) True or False : Canada ’s population is aging, so the number of people with disabilities is
likely to increase in the next 20 years.
True.
False.
For more information on Customer
Service Training
Serve Ability e-learning training is offered through the AccessON website @
http://www.accesson.ca/ado/english/
Serve-Ability: Transforming Ontario’s Customer Service
Congratulations……………..you have completed the Quinte West
Serve-Ability Training on Understanding the Accessibility for
Ontarians with Disabilities Act
The “New” Customer Service Standard
A Certificate of Completion will be issued to you.
Your time, effort and commitment is appreciated