Legislation
Making Ontario More Accessible: Customer Service
Standards in force in 2012
As of January 1, 2012, franchisors and franchisees with employees in
Ontario must comply with the Accessibility Standards for Customer Service (the
Customer Service Standards) issued under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (the AODA).
Requirements
The Customer Service Standards will impose a new duty upon
organizations to provide accessible customer service to customers with
disabilities. In particular, those franchisors and franchisees to which the
Customer Service Standards apply will be required to:
- Establish policies, practices
and procedures governing the provision of goods and services to persons with
disabilities consistent with the core principles of independence, dignity,
integration and equality of opportunity;
- Provide training to all people
(i.e., employees, agents, volunteers or otherwise) who interact with the public
or other third parties on the organization’s behalf, as well as to those who
participate in developing the organization’s policies and procedures governing
the provision of goods or services to members of the public or other third
parties.
- Allow persons with disabilities
who use personal assistive devices, service animals (to the extent permitted by
law) or support persons, to enter areas that are open to the public or that are
open to other third parties where the organization is providing goods or
services;
-
Notify the public regarding
temporary planned or unexpected disruptions to facilities or services that
persons with disabilities use to access the organization’s goods or services;
-
Establish a feedback process on
how the organization provides goods or services to persons with disabilities
and disclose how the organization will respond to the feedback;
-
If the franchisor or franchisee
has more than 20 employees, there is an additional requirement to maintain documents containing the general policies,
feedback processes and training materials developed pursuant to the above
requirements, provide such documents to any person upon request, and file
accessibility compliance reports through the Service Ontario website.
The AODA allows for enforcement of the Customer Service standards
through inspections, compliance orders and administrative penalties of up to
$100,000 per day for corporations found in contravention of the
legislation. Individuals who believe
they have been discriminated against must go to the Human Rights Commission as
there is currently no process for filing individual complaints under the AODA.
Next Steps
Franchisors and franchisees to which the Customer Service Standards
apply must review the Standards and develop a compliance strategy in advance
of January 1, 2012. Suggestions include reviewing consumer-facing material and
customer communication methods to ensure that they take into account potential
customer disabilities (i.e., written materials should be available in Braille
or by audio) and redesigning web sites if necessary to ensure accessibility for
the visually impaired. While franchisors who are not subject to the legislation
could leave compliance issues up to their franchisees in Ontario, such
franchisors should nonetheless consider assisting with a compliance program for
all franchisees in the province to help ensure compliance and to ensure a
consistent customer service experience. Such standards will apply not only to
the franchisees in the course of their dealing with their customers, but also
to the franchisor in the course of its dealing with its customers, which may
also include franchisees.
Useful guidance materials have been developed by various
stakeholders, including policy and procedures templates and a franchise
compliance manual created by the Canadian Franchise Association, and an online module to facilitate staff training
designed by the Retail Council of Canada.
For more information and suggestions for what to include in a
compliance strategy, please contact Osler’s Franchise & Distribution Group.