Fulfilling the Duty to Consult in the Accessible Canada Act

Why this matters

The Accessible Canada Act states that a “regulated entity must consult persons with disabilities in the preparation of its accessibility plan and every updated version of its accessibility plan.”

Updated plans are due within 3 years of an initial plan’s release. For larger organizations, this means their next plan needs to be published this year.

It’s time to think about consultation and plan development.

Background

2026 is a big year for  many organizations regulated under the Accessible Canada Act. They must consult with the disability community to inform the development and release of their  next accessibility plan.

Some organizations may be assessing what they need to do differently this time around.

Potential challenges with consultation

With their first plans, federally regulated entities satisfied their consultation obligations in a few ways:

Consulting disability-serving organizations

Some organizations developed relationships with local or national nonprofits that serve the disability community.  

While staff at these nonprofits offer great insight into accessibility barriers, their feedback is usually based on their own professional experiences working with disabled people.. This approach doesn’t allow the organization to hear directly from people with disabilities.

Additionally, these nonprofits may have limited insight. For example, they may have little feedback about the procurement of goods, services, and facilities. This could mean the organization is still struggling to note barriers and solutions in all areas mentioned in the Act.

Consulting employees with disabilities

Other organizations chose to engage their employes with disabilities. Some conducted staff focus groups while others established  accessibility committees.

This approach offered the possibility of improving engagement for disabled employees, who likely had a good amount of feedback about barriers.

However, the depth of this feedback may have been stunted by a low trust culture or past negative experiences with disclosure. Even with a genuine invitation for feedback from the organization, disabled employees may have struggled with calling out barriers because they’ve been penalized for sharing feedback or requesting accommodation in the past. Unless the process allowed for an anonymous option, employees may have been overly kind or quiet.

Relying on feedback forms

Other organizations relied on their public accessibility feedback forms.

Although Accessibility Standards Canada has a great example of a form that includes anonymous reporting options, the Act doesn’t require organizations to allow for anonymous feedback. This may have prevented or dampened barrier reports from employees and the people receiving services.

How will you gather feedback this time?

Some organizations used a mix of these methods and collected quality feedback that they could act on. These organizations likely feel confident moving into their next accessibility plan process.

But many organizations struggled with their engagement and didn’t get deep insight from the disability community. These organizations may feel less confident approaching the next phase of engagement and plan development. 

Did your previous approach provide helpful feedback?

If you didn’t get the feedback you expected, do you know why? What learnings can you apply this time? You may need to reframe questions, offer different ways for people to provide their feedback, or try something entirely new.

Have relationships been maintained?

If you developed advisory groups or consulted employees, how are those relationships now? Were you able to maintain contact with the people you originally engaged? Were you able to share your progress in ways that ensured those you consulted felt their feedback mattered and had an impact?

If not, you may need to consider whether the relationships are salvageable, or if recruiting new people will be necessary.

Can this group give relevant feedback on the areas that still need lived experience perspective?

In some cases, the initial group you consulted may not have the right knowledge to contribute relevant feedback now. For example, an employee resource group may have had excellent feedback on employment barriers. But now that you have a clear plan for addressing the employee experience, are they the right group to consult about barriers in service delivery or digital products?

You may need to draft your consultation questions and then work back from there to determine who to  consult this time.

Does the internal team have the capacity to host accessible engagement in a good way?

A lot has happened for the public sector since initial accessibility plans were published. Employee turnover, budget cuts, and new priorities from the government may mean that your internal capacity is not where it used to be. You may need to consider different types of engagement that require less of your staff team.

How we can help

If you’re struggling to imagine meaningful and accessible consultation this time around, we can help.

Untapped can advise federally regulated entities on an hourly basis to help you decide on the right approach. If you need more hands-on support, we can provide project management for consultation processes, facilitate advisory committee meetings, or convene our expert Accessibility Think Tank to provide pointed feedback from professionals with disabilities.

Reach out and book a meeting to discuss your approach.