Its soon to be 2016! Remember when we were celebrating the year 2000? Much has ha235e6a8e-eaa8-4500-83d7-17efa65e48e4ppened in the area of making provinces accessible for all business, retail, homes/condos mostly in Ontario and now in Manitoba and BC since 2000.

So, how many of you feel confident that your business is complying with the AODA? AMDA? Accessible BC 2024?

If you are not confident in your answer and if you are not even certain if you have taken all of the training required to be compliant it is time to bring together your entire committee or accessibility project team? If you do not have these in place then it may be time to hire qualified, certified and experienced accessibility experts to get the programs and compliance started.

If your response to these questions has been “Human Resources is in charge of ‘that’ and they would no doubt have this all under control”  look again.  Much of the AODA and AMDA is now about not just HR related policies and training but has shifted to be about websites, accessible marketing and communications, and having accessible design in your built environments & public space plus the management of facilities and maintenance.

Based on these facts above you should now realize that Compliance with AODA, AMDA and Accessible BC 2014 should not be solely in the hands of your HR department or HR practitioner. This should be including IT, Facility Managers, Maintenance and your external maintenance contractors, architectural and design firms including Landscape Architects, your web designers and hosts, your communications and marketing team or contractors, ergonomists/human factors specialists who are experts in both ergonomic design but also in the auditing of your built environments.

Welcome to 2016. The challenges associated with complying with and hopefully using best practice to accommodate your employees, customers, clients and potential clients are heating up this year.

If you require strategic guidance in each of these key areas of accessibility feel free to contact one of our experts in each of these areas at Optimal Performance Consultants at AODA@optimalperformance.ca  We are here to help at any level and with all aspects of accessibility and universal design and program development.

If you need to learn more right away about the AODA and the 2016 requirements for the IASR plan on attending our joint event with OPC Inc and Steelcase Canada January 27 2016. Our expert team will answer all of your questions to get you started whether you are an architect, Interior Designer, FM, Space Planner, IT, HR, Manager etc. Sign up at AODA@optimalperformance.ca or 1888 768-2106.

OPC Inc since 1991