2024 Progress Report – Accessibility Plan for the Copyright Board of Canada

For Feedback on this Report

Feedback on the Copyright Board of Canada’s (the Board) Accessibility plan and this progress report can be submitted to the Secretary General or the Accessibility Champion in the following ways:

The Board acknowledges feedback using the same method by which it was received. While the Board cannot acknowledge receipt of anonymous feedback, it will consider the feedback appropriately.

The Board is dedicated to continuous improvement and aims to deliver accessible services to its employees, collaborators and stakeholders. The Secretary General and the Board’s Accessibility Champion are responsible for regularly monitoring and evaluating the feedback, raising it with their interdepartmental communities of practice, and reporting any relevant feedback quarterly to the Board management table to ensure its consideration in Board future plans. 

Message from Copyright Board of Canada Accessibility Champion

I am proud to be the Accessibility Champion at the Board, especially since there is lots of work still to be done. The Board remains responsive and interested in becoming a more accessible place to work and visit. A lot of the initial work in making the Board an accessible place is identifying and addressing barriers. And there are a number of physical and non-physical barriers which remain. 

I liaise regularly and trade lessons learned with various groups that promote the rights of persons with disabilities, including with my colleagues at Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED), the department through whose Minister the Board reports to Parliament. As a small department, the Board is able to be nimble in responding to requests for accommodation. That said, because the Board is so small, it cannot acquire expertise in every area of accessibility. This is why I truly appreciate our connections with those in other departments, which have proven very useful to date, and I hope will grow even stronger in the coming year. 

Introduction

As the Board continues the journey to becoming an accessible workplace, we are happy to share our Accessibility Progress Report. It demonstrates our commitment to removing barriers to accessibility for our employees and our stakeholders. 

In 2023, the Board made its first efforts in implementing its 2023-2025 Accessibility plan, which was originally developed in partnership with a small group of employees who self-identified as persons with a disability, with managers responsible for key actions in its implementation, with the Board’s first Accessibility Champion, and the Senior Official responsible for Diversity and Inclusion. Those early efforts continued and were strengthened in 2024.

The purpose of this report is to share the progress made in the following areas of focus under the Accessibility Act:

  • Employment
  • The Built Environment
  • Information and Communication Technologies
  • Communication (other than Information and Communication Technologies)
  • The Procurement of Goods, Services, and Facilities
  • The Design and Delivery of Programs and Services
  • Transportation

Culture Change

The report also includes progress in the area of culture change as a core element of the Board’s workplace, highlighted as an important priority area in its 2023-2025 Accessibility plan. One of the biggest lessons confirmed this year is that, given its small size, the Board must often re-prioritize its commitments due to unexpected pressures. This has had an affect on the timing in its delivery of certain accessibility initiatives. Even so,the Board has maintained a solid representation of persons who self-identify as having a disability, well over 10% of its total workforce. 

However, it underscores the need for the Board, as a micro-organization of about 25 employees, to participate in a broader robust network for information, idea and experience exchange, to sustain its momentum and adopt successful tools and practices created by others. This year, the Board emphasized increasing employee awareness and connection with these networks, to identify and address accessibility challenges and opportunities in the workplace, and to prepare for the needs of our existing and future staff.

Progress

Employment

In its Accessibility Plan 2023-2025, the Board recognized that recruitment and retention of persons with disabilities depended on removing and preventing barriers, as well as promoting accessibility in the workplace. The Board committed to building accessibility awareness and confidence within the organization and rolling out new tools and resources to recognize and value persons with disabilities in the workplace.

Progress 

  • Governance structure adopted in November 2023 provides for systematic accessibility updates and discussion, led by the Accessibility Champion at regularly scheduled in-person all-staff meetings.
  • Accessibility issues integrated into the Board’s 2024-2027 Human Resources Strategy by managers. 
  • Mandatory training on accessibility in the Public Service for all employees scheduled in fiscal year 2024-2025 and planned for fiscal year 2025-2026. 
  • Managers provided with tools and templates to incorporate practice of mitigating biases and barriers in formal assessment for all staffing processes, in line with recent amendments to the Public Service Employment Act.
  • The Board continues to share information with its employees on the Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport, following its launch on the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) Portal in 2024. 
  • Conducted an accessibility survey of the Board’s employees in May 2024. The survey was open to all employees of the Board (not including Governor-in-Council appointees) for more than two weeks. The survey received 11 responses. 
  • The survey found that staff are generally aware of the programs offered by the Board and the Public Service overall with respect to accessibility. They are also generally aware of the GC Passport Program, but many respondents would prefer to know more specifics about the program.

Built Environment

Building on its previous actions to increase the accessibility of its hybrid work arrangements, and to redesign offices to meet different ergonomic needs, the Board committed to review its safety and resource plans with the mindset of “inclusive by design” and “accessible by default’’. 

Progress

  • Lockers were made available to all employees, for use and storage of their accessible equipment at the office.
  • Follow-up plan following accessibility assessment by Public Service and Procurement Canada (PSPC) in progress.
  • Equipment and any other accessibility requirements systematically discussed as part of onboarding new employees.
  • Survey of the Board’s employees in May 2024 asked about accommodation for accessibility.
  • To the extent that respondents had requested an accommodation for accessibility, these requests have been addressed. However, the respondents noted that there are possibly some barriers remaining in respect of responding to an emergency. While the respondents did not identify barriers associated with the daily use of technology, some respondents identified barriers to the conduct of hybrid meetings, and barriers to sharing documents. The Board is committed to responding to the concerns raised in the survey. 

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

The Board’s ICT services are primarily delivered by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and Shared Services Canada (SSC). It remains challenging for our very small corporate team to research potential IT solutions to accessibility issues. This year, no requests from staff for IT-related accommodation were received. 

Progress

  • Signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ISED and Public Service and Procurement Canada to implement Vocalls, a more modern and accessible system to support individuals with hearing impairments and/or communication disabilities calling the Board. Vocalls provides users with better support than the Board’s previous TTY system.
  • The Board continues to consider its IT-related service agreements with both ISED and SSC to proactively identify other tools and supports for accessible ICT that are or could be employed by Board staff and Board Members. 
  • Maintaining regular contact with the Accessibility, Accommodations and Adaptive Computer Technology initiative at SSC, and the Lending Library Services Pilot Project to eventually facilitate quick access to short-term accommodations adaptive technology, services, and tools for Board employees. 

Communications other than ICT

For the past four years, the Board has prioritized the delivery of its communications and products to the public in plain language, and in line with accessibility standards, to meet its access to justice goals. 

Progress

  • Following plain language training, led by the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice (CIAJ), for all Board members and employees, in both official languages last year, the Board began revising and reviewing its communications, practices and procedures by applying a plain-language lens to its documents.
  • Ensured that external contracts with its online services are compliant with current accessibility standards and obligations.

Procurement of goods, services, and facilities

With a total operating budget of approximately $800,000 per year, the Board does relatively little procurement of goods and services. That said, the Board will contribute, to the greatest extent possible, to ensuring procured goods and services are accessible by design so that Canadians with disabilities can use them without adaptation.

Progress

  • Leveraged a service agreement with the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) for procurement services, and actively negotiated procurement planning and tracking to include measures for accessibility.
  • Providing specialized procurement training to Board staff is in progress with more training planned for the Spring 2025. 

The design and delivery of programs and services

Since implementing Its Accessibility Plan 2023-2025, the Board has paid greater attention to accessibility in its internal and external policies and practices. More formal efforts in this area will take place in the coming years, internally as managers implement the Board’s new Human Resources Strategy, and externally as the Board hosts its next in person or hybrid hearings, and its next broad consultation efforts.

Progress

  • Accessibility issues integrated into the Board’s 2024-2027 Human Resources Strategy by managers.
  • Continued working in collaboration with Canadian Digital Service (CDS), to update online forms for external stakeholder information filing, respecting Treasury Board accessibility standards for digital forms. 

Transportation

This priority area under the Accessible Canada Act does not apply to the Board.

Consultations

The Accessibility Champion and the Secretary General initiated direct one-on-one consultations in November 2023 with a view to better understanding the challenges and interests of its employees who identify as persons with disabilities and completed the short online survey in May 2024.

Feedback

Since the publication of its Accessibility Plan, the Board has not received relevant feedback related to accessibility through any of its established feedback processes - telephone, mail, email, or the online anonymous feedback form.