Author: Stacey Staios - Articling Student
Edited By: Ryan Carson

Employers in Ontario have a duty to accommodate employees in regards to any protected grounds covered under human rights legislation. Accommodation is a term used to describe the duties of an employer to give equal access and opportunity to individuals who are protected under the Ontario Human Rights Code. Although there are many protected grounds, disability will specifically be addressed in this article.

Disability covers quite a broad range of conditions, which include but are not limited to, physical, mental, developmental, hearing or vision impairments and learning disabilities. These may be visible or invisible and may have been present from birth, caused by an accident or developed over time.¹

According to the Government of Ontario, roughly 15.5% of Ontario’s population has a disability.² The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) was introduced in 2005 to improve accessibility standards for Ontarians with physical and mental disabilities while making accessibility a regular part of finding, hiring and supporting employees with disabilities. The AODA is made up of five standards, and includes requirements that organizations must meet, which are specific to the organization’s type and size. These five standards include information and communications, employment, transportation, design of public spaces and customer service.³ These standards require organizations to create and implement policies and practices that identify and remove barriers that people with disabilities may face, specifically in the workplace.

Employers have a duty to accommodate the needs of individuals with disabilities to the point of undue hardship to ensure that an employee has equal access to any opportunities and benefits available. This duty to accommodate places puts onus on the employer to remove any barriers an employee may face when trying to access such opportunities and benefits. This standard requires an employer to take every measure to provide the accommodation without causing undue hardship to the business. Otherwise, the employer must demonstrate that they are unable to reasonably accommodate the employee without causing such undue hardship, which means they must provide an employee with the requested accommodation unless it would cause serious hardship to the company. The Ontario Human Rights Code sets out three considerations when assessing whether an accommodation would cause undue hardship, which include cost, outside sources of funding and health and safety requirements.⁴ No other consideration may be considered when assessing undue hardship, such as business inconvenience, employee morale or third-party preference.⁵

For example, if an employee requests an accessible washroom, it is not enough for the employer to claim undue hardship just because it will add additional costs. For an employer to claim undue hardship in this case, they would have to prove that providing the accommodation would be so extreme that it would interfere with the operations of the business. In certain cases, providing an accommodation will not add any additional costs. Often, the accommodation only requires policy changes and flexible rules, which may cause an inconvenience but will not be a factor in considering undue hardship.

By removing the barriers that individuals with disabilities face in the workforce, the AODA intends to maximize both the inclusivity of our society and the value that each employee contributes to the economy. An inclusive workplace is one where everyone is treated with respect and becomes a place of equal opportunity.

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References

¹ Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act 2005
² Government of Ontario Handbook for Accessible Employment
³ Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act 2005
⁴ Ontario Human Rights Commission
⁵ Ontario Human Rights Commission