2025-2028 Tribunals Ontario
Multi-Year Accessibility Plan
(Disponible en français)
The Tribunals Ontario Multi-Year Accessibility Plan for 2025-2028 is a road map that describes how we are responding to and going beyond our legislated obligations to identify, prevent and remove barriers for persons with disabilities.
Statement of Commitment
Tribunals Ontario is committed to treating all people in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and independence. We believe in inclusion and equal opportunity. We are committed to meeting the needs of people with disabilities in a timely manner and will do so by preventing and removing barriers to accessibility, providing accommodations as necessary, and meeting accessibility requirements under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA).
Definitions and Terms
AODA: Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 is a statute enacted in 2005 by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada. Its purpose is to improve accessibility standards for Ontarians with physical and mental disabilities to all public establishments by 2025.
OPS: The Ontario Public Service provides government services to citizens and promotes an innovative, diverse, and accessible workplace.
Employees: Administrative staff who make up Tribunals Ontario workforce. Tribunals Ontario employees support fair, accessible dispute resolution to thousands of Ontarians. Tribunals Ontario employees promote an innovative, diverse, and accessible workplace.
Adjudicators: Appointees at Tribunals Ontario hold hearings, make rulings, review and analyze evidence, and make decisions in accordance with the legislation pertaining to their appointed tribunal. Adjudicators are appointed using an open, merit-based recruitment process.
Clients: A person or organization receiving services at Tribunals Ontario.
Stakeholders: A party that has an interest in Tribunals Ontario and can either affect or be affected by the policies and procedures of the organization. Stakeholders can include the Ontario public, legal groups, advocacy groups, employees, customers, and suppliers.
IASR: Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (Ontario Regulation 191/11) is a regulation that establishes the accessibility standards in the following five areas: information and communications, employment, transportation, design of public spaces, and customer service.
Internet website: Collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed relative to a common Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and is accessible to the public.
Intranet website: An organization's internal website that is used to privately and securely share any part of the organization's information or operational systems within the organization.
WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is a series of guidelines created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in order to improve website accessibility. Following these guidelines makes content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these.
Introduction
Under the AODA, Ontario organizations, including Tribunals Ontario, are required to develop multi-year accessibility plans.
Tribunals Ontario's Multi-Year Accessibility Plan (MYAP) builds on this work and reaffirms the government's commitment to accessibility. The MYAP is intended to outline how Tribunals Ontario is responding to and going beyond legislated obligations to identify, prevent and remove barriers for persons with disabilities.
Tribunals Ontario is a group of 13 adjudicative tribunals with a mandate to resolve and decide matters arising from over 60 statutes relating to safety, licensing, land, and social justice. Our tribunals are:
Tribunals Ontario delivers administrative justice in a fair, independent, effective and efficient manner. We promote public confidence through integrity and excellence, and by being accessible, accountable, and responsive.
An accessible Tribunals Ontario means:
- Persons with disabilities receive quality services in a timely manner.
- Information and communications are available in accessible formats to all Tribunals Ontario employees, adjudicators, clients and stakeholders.
- Persons with disabilities can participate fully and meaningfully in the dispute resolution process.
- There is barrier-free accessibility into and out of Tribunals Ontario facilities and other facilities that Tribunals Ontario may use from time to time to host proceedings.
- Tribunals Ontario employees and adjudicators continually identify barriers to accessibility and actively seek solutions to prevent or remove them.
Past Accomplishments
Tribunals Ontario has been working consistently towards advancing accessibility across the organization for many years.
Tribunals Ontario's previous multi-year accessibility plan covered the period of 2020–2024. Examples of progress achieved under this plan include:
Customer Service:
- Working with employees, adjudicators, clients and stakeholders to accommodate any personal support services they use to help with communication, mobility, personal care or medical needs.
- Modernizing the Tribunals Ontario contact centre with new technology that, among other new features, provides a more user friendly and plain-language Interactive Voice Response System, which is easier to understand and allows callers to navigate through pre-recorded information to address their question(s).
Access to Digital Services:
- Conducting video or telephone hearings by default and providing digital literacy and other technical supports for users to engage with tribunals digitally.
- Modernizing the Tribunals Ontario internet website to serve as one-window into all boards and tribunals and to provide a better, simpler, more intuitive online experience for users.
- Revising all website content to incorporate plain language best practices and make it easier for clients and stakeholders to understand Tribunals Ontario's processes and procedures.
- Providing a fully accessible online platform and ensuring all content is posted in HTML format by default. HTML is considered the most universally accessible online format and is required for all website postings to ensure compliance with the new requirements of the AODA.
- Improving website accessibility in order to meet standards set out in WCAG Level AA.
- Converting existing Portable Document Format (PDF) and Word documents to accessible HTML format, as much as possible, based on user and stakeholder needs. This work will continue in 2025 and going forward.
- Providing tribunal clients access to online services such as electronic filing of applications and documents or filing by email to help them file their application or appeal quickly.
- Standardizing the use of email to communicate with the public across all tribunals, as much as possible.
- Developing an online payment portal to enable clients to make payments conveniently.
- Establishing a practice to provide notice on the Tribunals Ontario website for any planned or unplanned service disruptions. Notices explain the reason and estimated duration for the disruption and include information on alternative facilities or services available.
Employment / Diversity and Inclusion:
- Continuing to build the foundation for a successful organization by promoting an inclusive work environment that is diverse, respectful, equitable and accessible, focusing on inclusive recruitment, leadership development, succession planning, coaching and mentoring, as well as expanding access to health and wellness workshops and resources.
Policies and Practices:
- Tribunals Ontario's work has aligned with the OPS digital government mandate, which moved more services online. Digital services are what Ontarians have come to expect and result in an improved customer experience. Tribunals Ontario seeks user experience feedback, with a focus on user-centered design.
- Continued to examine and address potential barriers to access at Tribunals Ontario spaces.
Accommodations:
- Individuals with an Ontario Human Rights Code need, or procedural fairness concerns were accommodated on a case-by-case basis through a variety of supports and services provided by Tribunals Ontario. This included providing access to technology and in-person hearings, or other accommodations appropriate to their situation.
- Launching an access terminals program specifically to support parties who have technology-related challenges so they can participate in their virtual proceeding. These terminals are equipped with a computer, internet access, and a telephone, and can be set up almost anywhere in the province as needed.
- Launching a free phone program to help users at all tribunals who need access to a telephone to attend a tribunal proceeding. The program provides a basic cell phone or top-up vouchers to users with a prepaid or pay-as-you-go plan with limited airtime talk minutes to enable them to take part in their hearing by telephone.
- Venues used by Tribunals Ontario in remote areas of Ontario met accessibility standards and were captured on a centralized database.
- Improving accommodations information provided to parties to make it easier to understand how to request an accommodation, and to increase awareness of the different services and options available to parties. Work included updates to the Accommodations Request Form to clearly outline, in plain language, the situations where a user can request an accommodation. An Accommodation Information Sheet was also created and is sent to parties at each tribunal early in the application or appeal process so they are aware of the different ways a tribunal can support its users.
Procurement:
- Continued to communicate to vendors their obligations to meet accessibility requirements, including issues relating to non-compliance, for example remediation and disqualification.
2025-2028 Key Initiatives
The 2025-2028 Tribunals Ontario MYAP is organized around the following five key initiatives:
- Inclusive Employment
- Equitable Customer Service
- Inclusive Digital Information and Communications
- Infrastructure – Barrier-free Tribunals Ontario Facilities
- Public Spending – Accessible Procurements
Inclusive Employment
The Employment Standards under the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR) set out accessibility requirements that the OPS must follow to support the recruitment and accommodation of employees.
Key outcome: Candidates for employment and Tribunals Ontario employees with disabilities have the necessary supports to join, work effectively, experience career growth, and have opportunities for learning, development, and career progression.
Initiatives:
- Continue to leverage best practices when implementing recruitment strategies to help increase the representation of persons with disabilities throughout Tribunals Ontario.
- Expand mental health resources and services, including for Tribunals Ontario employees with disabilities.
- Identify and address systemic employment barriers with a focus on recruitment, promotion, and career development for Tribunals Ontario employees with disabilities.
Equitable Customer Service
The Customer Service Standard under the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR) requires the OPS to provide accessible public services for persons with disabilities and to ensure that policies and procedures are in place to support this requirement.
Key outcome: Clients of all abilities receive seamless, dignified, and equitable access to barrier-free services from well-equipped front-line Tribunals Ontario employees and adjudicators.
Commitments:
- Continue to implement strategies to support front-line employees and adjudicators in providing accessible customer service.
- Ensure that all employees and adjudicators continue to complete mandatory training, such as the "May I Help You" course, and other foundational training in a variety of formats, including in-class, and e-learning, on IASR requirements and disability-related obligations under the Ontario Human Rights Code.
- Continue to promote training to support excellence in accessible customer service.
Inclusive Digital Information and Communications
The Information and Communications Standards under the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR) require the OPS to communicate and provide information in ways that are accessible to persons with disabilities.
Key outcome: Members of the public and Tribunals Ontario employees and adjudicators of all abilities are provided with equitable access to Tribunals Ontario digital information, products, and services that meet accessibility requirements.
Initiatives:
- Continue to implement the OPS Web Accessibility Plan to meet accessibility requirements.
- Continue to implement the OPS Web Accessibility Literacy Strategy to build digital accessibility expertise in Tribunals Ontario.
- Continue to post information on the Tribunals Ontario website in an accessible format.
- Continue posting notices on the website to inform the public about any planned or unplanned disruptions to services in a timely manner and consistent with prescribed service standards.
- Work with technology partners to ensure that systems being implemented are compliant with AODA guidelines.
- Continue work on making the Tribunals Ontario website easier to understand for users, by identifying web pages that are at a higher grade level using the Flesch–Kincaid readability tests and revising them to improve readability and bring down the reading grade level.
Infrastructure – Barrier-free Tribunals Ontario Facilities
The Design of Public Spaces Standards under the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR) apply to newly constructed or redeveloped public spaces covered under the standards. The initiatives below go above and beyond the standards to demonstrate the government's commitment to designing and building facilities and spaces that are accessible and inclusive for everyone.
Tribunals Ontario will continuously improve the physical accessibility to our locations by removing barriers and providing accessible alternatives, so that all users are served in a manner that respects their dignity and independence.
Key outcome: Tribunals Ontario facilities incorporate inclusive design practices and technologies to make everyone of all abilities feel welcome.
Initiatives:
- For Tribunals Ontario staff and adjudicators, continue to support the OPS workspace standards that include accessibility for new office infrastructure projects.
- For clients without access to digital resources or other accessibility needs, accommodation will be provided on a case-by-case basis.
- Tribunals Ontario to continue to work with vendors to ensure that venues used by Tribunals Ontario are accessible. Continue to expand the centralized database of available hearing venues that meet Tribunals Ontario's accessibility criteria.
Public Spending – Accessible Procurements
Under the general requirements of the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR), the OPS is required to incorporate accessibility design, criteria and features when procuring or acquiring goods, services, or facilities, except in instances where it is not feasible.
Key outcome: Accessibility is effectively integrated at each stage of Tribunals Ontario procurement processes to ensure that no barriers for persons with disabilities are created using public dollars.
Initiatives:
- Implement accessibility standards from the OPS Procurement Toolkit to build employee and vendor expertise.
- Continue to ensure that accessibility criteria are incorporated in procurement processes and platforms.
- Continue to communicate to vendors their obligations to meet accessibility requirements, including issues relating to non-compliance which may include remediation and disqualification.
Accountability and Reporting
As Tribunals Ontario continues to prevent, identify, and remove accessibility barriers, it is important for us to monitor and report on the progress and results in meeting our commitments.
2025-2028 Commitments:
- Maintain, document and post on its website its multi-year accessibility plan. Tribunals Ontario will provide its plan in an alternate accessible format, upon request.
- The Tribunals Ontario annual report will include details of progress in achieving the commitments outlined in the 2025-2028 Multi-Year Accessibility Plan, progress complying with the AODA requirements and plan for future compliance. The annual report will be provided in an alternate accessible format, upon request.
- Tribunals Ontario will file an accessibility report, detailing its compliance with all requirements. The OPS compliance reports will also be submitted to the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario.
For more information on this accessibility plan or to request a copy of this document in an alternate accessible format please contact Tribunals Ontario at:
Email: TO-TDO.Feedback@ontario.ca
Tel: (416) 212-6349 or toll free (866) 448-2248
TTY: (800) 855-1155 via Bell relay
See also: The Tribunals Ontario Accessibility and Accommodation Policy.
If you would like to request an accommodation, please visit: https://tribunalsontario.ca/en/supports-and-services/request-an-accommodation/
