The federal Office of Public Service Accessibility is in limbo months after it produced a document accusing the government of falling behind on supports for public servants with disabilities.
The document, obtained by The Canadian Press through information access law, says the government is lagging on plans to accommodate employees with disabilities.
Prepared by the Office of Public Service Accessibility for the Treasury Board president in June, the report says the government has achieved its goal of hiring 5,000 new employees with disabilities by 2025. It also said the government has made progress on offering anti-bias training and developing centralized workplace accommodations processes.
But the government has fallen behind in "several important areas," the report says, citing the fact that government departments have different ways of assessing their progress on accessibility.
"Some use clear and measurable indicators, while others rely on general descriptions," said Rola Salem, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
The document also cited what it called a "lack" of external consultations with people with disabilities. It said such consultations would provide "essential feedback" from the public to help government departments and agencies design and deliver better services.
"The recommendation was for broader, deeper consultation to ensure barriers are fully identified and removed," Salem said, noting that departments are encouraged to consult before designing services. "This applies to both workplace accessibility for public servants and, where relevant, improving services for Canadians with disabilities."
The document also says accommodating employees with disabilities remains "a challenge" in the public service, especially when barriers are complex or hard to identify, such as those that are "mental health and neurodiversity related."
"Collectively, more progress is required to fully embed accessibility into the culture and the operations of the public service," the document says.
Salem said accommodation processes vary across government and employees "may face delays if tools, technologies or expertise aren’t immediately available in their organization."
Salem said some of the most common barriers identified by employees relate to noise in the workplace and problems with workstation equipment. She said recent data shows that barriers related to IT requests and changes to the built environment "may be among those that take the longest to implement."
Salem said there are initiatives underway to reduce delays and make access to accommodations more consistent by "streamlining procurement processes for adaptive technologies."
The Office of Public Service Accessibility, which was created in 2018, has a mandate to prepare the public service to meet or exceed the requirements of the Accessible Canada Act.
The office provides guidance to departments and agencies on how to improve the hiring, retention and promotion of people with disabilities. It also gives them advice on how to support employees with disabilities.
Salem said Budget 2024 renewed the Office of Public Service Accessibility funding until March 31, 2026, but provided no details about its longer-term fate. She said "further details regarding its mandate after that date will be shared once available."
The document says the Office of Public Service Accessibility is working to build "an inclusive and productive digitally enabled public service" by hosting government-wide workshops and providing guidance and worksheets to tell departments how to track and report on accessibility.
The federal auditor general is planning to release a report next year that examines the recruitment, retention and promotion of people with disabilities in the federal public service.
The most recent employment equity report for the public service said since March 2020, the number of people with disabilities had increased steadily in the core public service — the federal government departments and agencies that fall under Treasury Board.
As of 2024, 21,089 people with disabilities were working in the core federal public service, up from 12,893 in 2021.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
