Public Service Commission Accessibility Plan

for April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2025

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Accessible Canada Act, which came into force in 2019, aims to make Canada barrier-free by 2040. This act benefits all Canadians, especially persons with disabilities, by proactively identifying, removing and preventing barriers to accessibility in 7 priority areas:

In 2021, the Accessible Canada Regulations came into effect, establishing the rules that federally regulated entities must follow when publishing accessibility plans, setting up feedback processes and developing progress reports.

Definitions from the Accessible Canada Act

Barrier: “anything, including anything physical, architectural, technological or attitudinal, anything that is based on information or communications or anything that is the result of a policy or a practice, that hinders the full and equal participation in society of persons with an impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment or a functional limitation.”

Disability: “any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment, or a functional limitation, whether permanent, temporary or episodic in nature, or evident or not, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society.”

Our mandate

Under the delegated staffing system set out in the Public Service Employment Act, the Public Service Commission of Canada (“we” or “the agency”) fulfills its mandate by promoting and safeguarding a non-partisan, merit-based and representative public service that serves all Canadians. We do this by:

As the agency responsible for supporting an inclusive public service that is representative of Canadians, we must set an example in the area of accessibility. For years, we have helped reduce barriers to employment by taking part in government-wide initiatives, including:

The President of our agency emphasized in our departmental plan for fiscal year 2020 to 2021 that we must build on our success and hire more persons with disabilities into the public service to promote a workforce of the future that reflects Canada’s diversity. These initiatives are already evident in our own workforce.

In recent years, our agency has made real progress in closing the gap in workforce representation for persons with disabilities and other employment equity groups. The Management Accountability Framework results for fiscal year 2021 to 2022 showed that the Public Service Commission of Canada was the only public service department or agency to meet its workforce availability targets for all employment equity groups.

General

This is the Public Service Commission of Canada’s first accessibility plan. It will be updated based on results, feedback and ongoing consultation with employees, persons with disabilities and other subject-matter experts. We will monitor, measure and report annually on progress and will publish an updated plan every 3 years. We will also make adjustments and improvements based on the feedback received and lessons learned, on an ongoing basis.

We recognize that accessibility is a shared responsibility and that all areas of our agency are involved in creating a barrier-free environment both for public service employees and for the Canadian population.

Contact us

We look forward to receiving feedback, questions, concerns and suggestions on this plan and on others matters related to accessibility. Anyone may contact us to:

Our contact information is as follows:

Human Resources, Workplace, and Security Directorate
Corporate Affairs Sector
Public Service Commission of Canada

Mailing address: 22 Eddy Street, Gatineau QC K1A 0M7    

Email: accessibilite-accessibility@cfp-psc.gc.ca

Telephone: 1-833-925-5719


Contact: Human Resources Director General


Executive summary

This plan summarizes actions that are planned or underway at the Public Service Commission of Canada to make sure its programs, services, workplace and practices are free of real or perceived barriers. Some of the actions are ongoing and don’t have a pre-determined timeframe, while other actions have a specific schedule for implementation. Refer to Appendix A for action timelines.

The plan also explains the types of consultation activities that we undertook to help develop the plan and to support our diversity and inclusion initiatives.

In fiscal year 2020 to 2021, our Internal Audit and Evaluation Directorate completed a review of our readiness to implement the Accessible Canada Act. The review considered several factors, including:

It also highlighted the importance of working toward a culture of accessibility by default. It is in this spirit that this accessibility plan has been developed as a concrete step towards helping make the vision of a barrier-free Canada a reality by 2040.

Areas of focus

The Accessible Canada Act requires regulated entities to publish an accessibility plan outlining policies, programs, practices and services for identifying and removing barriers, and preventing new barriers, in 7 priority areas. The following section describes the measures and initiatives that we have implemented or plan to implement in the near future, under each of the priority areas.

Employment

Vision: Access to employment opportunities and accessible workplaces

Barriers 

People management strategy

Our Corporate Affairs Sector is responsible for developing, implementing and monitoring our people management strategy, which covers 4 fiscal years (from April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2024). The strategy, developed by the Human Resources, Workplace and Security Directorate, includes a pillar for ensuring people management effectiveness which aims to “build accessibility into human resource tools, programs and processes by default.”

To support this objective, the directorate provides managers with best practices for hiring persons with disabilities and for gathering information on employee needs:

Employment systems review

During the 2021 to 2022 fiscal year, we carried out an employment systems review of our agency’s employment policies and practices. The objective was to identify potential systemic barriers and recommendations to improve the work environment at our agency for employment equity group members. Two areas for improvement were identified that relate to accessibility:

To address these issues, and remove barriers to employment, we have committed to:

These actions are to be completed by March 31, 2023.

Specialisterne Canada

During the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year, we took part in a pilot project led by the Office of Public Service Accessibility. The project allowed participating organizations to work with Specialisterne Canada, a firm that provides support in hiring people on the autism spectrum or who identify as neurodivergent. The firm helps managers understand the strengths of their employees and implement strategies to help them thrive in the workplace, and to develop more comfortable processes and work environments where employees can feel productive and supported.

During the pilot project, we hired 5 people with disabilities, contributing 20% towards our agency’s objective of hiring 25 new persons with disabilities between 2020 and 2025. We closely monitored the implementation of the project, and we are developing lessons learned to better inform our hiring and management practices for persons with disabilities, in particular those who identify as neurodivergent.

In the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year, we will survey hiring managers and the people with disabilities hired through this pilot project about their views of the pilot and their experiences. This will help shape the next version of our strategy for hiring persons with disabilities and support our efforts to retain employees.

Accessibility passport

In January 2023, we will implement the GC Workplace Accessibility Passport, which aims to address the obstacles that federal public servants and applicants with disabilities face in obtaining the tools, supports and measures to succeed in the workplace. The passport facilitates recruitment, retention and career advancement for persons with disabilities. We will also update our Duty to Accommodate Guidelines to ensure they reflect new guidance from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

The accessibility passport is a tool that enables employees to voluntarily record the barriers they face at work, the solutions they have found, and the agreement they have reached with their manager to implement these solutions. It also:

We will provide training to our supervisors and managers on the accessibility passport as well as on the duty to accommodate.

Staffing policies

As the agency responsible for the administration of the Public Service Employment Act, we are evaluating policies and programs to ensure they are inclusively designed. We consistently work to identify and remove systemic barriers in public service staffing and to promote a shift to inclusive design by:

Building cultural awareness and confidence among candidates and hiring managers is central to our work. We are committed to seeking out and eliminating biases and barriers in the public service hiring culture, by:

Public Service Employment Act amendments

In the coming fiscal year, we will continue to implement amendments to the Public Service Employment Act that reaffirm the importance of a diverse and inclusive workforce and strengthen provisions to address potential bias and barriers in staffing processes.

With these changes:

Federal Internship Program for Canadians with Disabilities

The Federal Internship Program for Canadians with Disabilities is a 5-year national pilot program (running from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2024) which aims to improve the recruitment, retention and promotion of persons with disabilities.

The pilot program was launched on April 1, 2019, to provide 25 2-year federal public service internship opportunities to Canadians with disabilities each year, for a total of 125 internships over the 5 years of the program. Internships provide Canadians with disabilities who have little to no previous work experience with meaningful work experience and help them develop their professional skills. The internships are open to Canadians with disabilities between the ages of 16 and 64, with disabilities ranging from mild to severe.

The program involves partnering with departments and agencies to review hiring practices and accessibility issues. It also entails developing new relationships with organizations and communities to better reach Canadians with disabilities.

We work closely with collaborating partners such as central agencies, associations for persons with disabilities and academic institutions, equipping hiring managers with the guidance, tools and strategies they need to ensure that interns are fully supported throughout their internships. Interns and managers are also provided with customized awareness and sensitization training, assessment accommodation, as well as job/employment coaching for effective onboarding, employee development and integration.

The program’s objectives include:

An evaluation of the program by our Internal Audit and Evaluation Directorate is underway and expected to be completed in the spring of 2023. Results of this evaluation will inform our next steps.

Built environment

Vision: Move freely around buildings and public spaces

Barrier
There is a lack of rooms and spaces that meet needs such as rest, prayer and reflection in a quiet area.

We work in close collaboration with the real property experts at Public Services and Procurement Canada to make sure our offices are barrier-free, and we consider the needs of employees and Canadians visiting our premises for assessments or other services.

The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing transformation of the workplace as we transition to hybrid environments have provided many opportunities to take another look at our physical workplaces and identify any lingering or emerging barriers. This enabled us to identify the lack of private rooms for people needing to rest, pray or reflect.

Our plans for a hybrid workplace are developed based on existing data, in consultation with our Diversity and Inclusion Committee, including the Persons with Disabilities Sub-Committee, and are reviewed by the Occupational Health and Safety Policy Committee to ensure that accessibility considerations are met.

We will assess the opportunities to create these new spaces and make sure dedicated rooms are set and communicated to our employees. We will continue to assess our workplaces on an ongoing basis in order to ensure that any potential barriers are identified and prevented.

Information and communication technologies

Vision: Accessible digital content and technologies

Barrier
No barriers have been noted so far.

In fiscal year 2019 to 2020, we committed to ensuring that new systems, including internally developed or procured hardware and software, meet modern accessibility standards. Our Chief Information Officer, who leads the Information Technology Services Directorate, works with the Accessibility, Accommodation and Adaptive Computer Technology program to assess our tools and systems against accessibility standards. The Chief Information Officer also includes accessibility considerations at the planning and development stages, to ensure that new systems meet modern accessibility standards. After reviewing our policies, practices, programs and services, no barriers have been identified with our information and communication technologies. We will continue to analyze these on an ongoing basis, to make sure we address and prevent any potential barriers in this area.

Our Departmental Plan on Service and Digital for fiscal year 2022 to 2023 includes both business and foundational IT projects that will enable us to modernize our systems and services. This includes supporting the modernization of the Public Service Recruitment System and performing technical assessments to ensure a full range of functionalities as well as an inclusive-by-design concept. 

We will ensure that projects to support accessibility are identified in our Departmental Plan on Service and Digital for the period from 2023 to 2026.

Communication other than information and communication technologies

Vision: Barrier-free services and spaces for persons with communication disabilities

Barrier
The format of Public Service Commission documents, tools and resources is not always accessible.

Ongoing support

Our Communications and Parliamentary Affairs Directorate is a key player in promoting accessible communications within our organization. It delivered an orientation session to sector management committees on the range of resources available to employees to ensure that their communications are inclusive and accessible.

Centre of Expertise for Accessible Documents

The directorate has also created a Centre of Expertise for Accessible Documents to support employees as they learn about document accessibility. Since fall 2022, the centre of expertise has been providing training and guidance to make it easy for all employees to create accessible communications. It will continue to offer this training until March 2024.

The centre of expertise provided employees with a new toolkit, which includes:

The centre of expertise also provides specialized training to employees interested in becoming accessibility ambassadors. Ambassadors will receive 4 hours of training over 2 fiscal years as well as continuous support from the team of experts. Ambassadors will lead their directorates in the shift to communication products that are accessible by design by assisting their peers and sharing the knowledge they have gained.

The centre also aims to host thematic training sessions several times a year that will be open to all our employees. These training sessions will provide in-depth information on topics related to document accessibility.

Open government pilot project

In 2022, the Open Government Secretariat implemented a pilot to increase the number of documents considered for publication on the Open Government Portal. Accessibility is a requirement for all documents produced for external and internal use, and the pilot project fosters an accessible-from-inception mindset. The intended outcome of the pilot project, which will run until March 31, 2023, is to increase the number of accessible documents available to the Canadian population through the Open Government Portal.

Procurement of goods, services and facilities

Vision: Ensure purchases of accessible goods, services and facilities

Barrier
No barriers have been noted so far.

Procurement is under the responsibility of our Corporate Affairs Sector, specifically the Finance and Corporate Planning Directorate. After reviewing our policies, practices, programs and services, no barriers have been identified with procurement. As a proactive measure, the directorate has conducted a review of accessible procurement requirements and developed control mechanisms to ensure that:

To this end, Public Services and Procurement Canada has developed guidelines to ensure that future procurement projects include accessibility criteria.  We work with Public Services and Procurement Canada’s Accessible Procurement Resource Centre to ensure that the accessibility criteria and guidelines are applied during the procurement of goods, services and facilities. All procurement requests are assessed against accessibility criteria, where applicable. In cases where accessibility is not included in procurement, a form must be completed to document the reason why the department deems it not appropriate to include accessibility criteria as part of commodity specification or why it is unable to obtain goods or services that comply.

We will continue to analyze all policies, practices, programs and services with regards to procurement on an ongoing basis, to make sure we address and prevent any potential barriers in this area.

Design and delivery of programs and services

Vision: Services that are accessible to all

Barrier
Lack of information about accessibility as part of the programs and services offered to clients.

Public service hiring

Through policy direction and guidance, we support departments and agencies in hiring qualified individuals into and within the public service, helping to shape a workforce that reflects Canada’s diversity. We deliver recruitment programs and assessment services supporting the federal government’s strategic recruitment priorities and the renewal of the public service, leveraging modern tools to reduce barriers for Canadians accessing public service jobs. 

In fiscal year 2022 to 2023, we aim to support public service renewal by building on a range of targeted and diversified recruitment and assessment strategies, such as:

In our departmental plan for fiscal year 2022 to 2023, we aim to support an increase of the percentage of public service employees who are persons with disabilities to 9% by March 2023.

Accommodation services

Our Personnel Psychology Centre, a part of the Services and Business Directorate Sector, offers assessment accommodation services designed to remove obstacles presented by the method of testing, without modifying the nature or level of the qualifications that are being evaluated. The Personnel Psychology Centre has specialized consultants who:

Public Service Resourcing System

The Public Service Resourcing System, also known as GC Jobs, is an online system designed to provide human resources professionals and hiring managers in the federal public service with information and tools to help them fill advertised appointment processes using electronic recruitment. The main purpose of the system is to facilitate the process of recruiting for advertised positions to the public service.

To ensure that modern recruitment tools and services are in place to support a diverse and qualified public service, we are modernizing the Public Service Recruitment System. Accessibility considerations are among the priority features for the new system, and potential solutions have undergone technical assessments to ensure that the new system will be inclusive and accessible for all. The new central recruitment platform is intended to be inclusive by design.

Transportation

Vision: A barrier-free federal transportation network

Barrier
After carefully review of our policies, practices, programs, and services, we determine that there are no transportation barriers at this time.

As a service organization with a workforce, we remain responsible for the safe and accessible movement of employees in the performance of their duties as well as any person coming to any of our buildings. Attention will be paid to this aspect of transportation throughout our offices to avoid any barriers or issues related to transportation.

We will continue to analyze all policies, practices, programs and services with regards to transportation on an ongoing basis, to make sure we address and prevent any potential barriers in this area.

Consultations

Since the implementation of the Accessible Canada Act in 2019, we have been collecting information and consulting employees to identify barriers, as well as developing and implementing measures to eliminate them. This plan was developed based on a variety of information sources.

Review of our readiness to implement the Accessible Canada Act

In 2020, the Internal Audit and Evaluation Directorate carried out a review of our readiness to implement the Accessible Canada Act. In the context of this review, several consultation activities were held to collect information.

The review team met with key managers in the relevant directorates: the Human Resources, Workplace and Security Directorate, the Information Technology Services Directorate, and the Finance and Corporate Planning Directorate. The team also interviewed the Disability Champion, the Chair of the Persons with Disabilities Sub-Committee and other internal and external stakeholders affected by the implementation of the Accessible Canada Act.

The Internal Audit and Evaluation Directorate sent a survey to 897 of our employees and received 338 responses (response rate of 38%). The survey contained both open-ended and closed-ended questions aimed at different groups, including employees in general, managers and supervisors, people who requested accommodation and persons with disabilities.

The review also included a document study, where the review team (which included members of the Persons with Disabilities Sub-Committee) identified and reviewed our agency’s key documents related to accessibility, such as meeting minutes from key governance committees, as well as management and planning documents of the various directorates involved. The team also consulted relevant documents from central agencies and other departments, including the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Shared Services Canada (Accessibility, Accommodation and Adaptive Computer Technology) and Public Services and Procurement Canada.

Employee surveys

We pay close attention to the results from the Public Service Employee Survey every year, and we develop action plans to respond to key issues facing both our agency and employees across the public service.

To gain a better understanding of our employees and to target areas that may not be covered by the Public Service Employee Survey, we also administer an internal employee survey every year: the Have Your Say survey.

Persons with Disabilities Sub-Committee

The sub-committee falls under the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and is composed of volunteers with and without disabilities. It is supported by a champion, who serves as a spokesperson for this community in its dealings with senior management. To comply with the requirements of the Accessible Canada Act, the consultations are to be carried out on a regular basis. The ensuing discussions will help us measure our progress against the objectives set out in this plan.

Persons with disabilities’ lived experiences

We mandated the Persons with Disabilities Sub-Committee to survey employees with disabilities about their experiences. In 2019, the sub-committee carried out a “lived experiences” exercise focusing on persons with disabilities, with preliminary findings reported in late 2021.

The exercise consisted of confidential semi-structured, narrative-type interviews with questions based on the stages of the employment cycle (onboarding, selection, hiring, performance management, retention) held with employees with disabilities, with a few pandemic-oriented questions included.

This exercise was a precious source of information, with participants providing valuable feedback on their personal experiences at the Public Service Commission of Canada. Among the feedback collected, participants said:

The Persons with Disabilities Sub-Committee has formulated recommendations to respond to the concerns expressed by participants in the lived experiences exercise, and will continue engaging with the Human Resources, Workplace and Security Directorate and the Finance and Corporate Planning Directorate to consult persons with disabilities and better understand the visible and invisible barriers they face in the workplace.

Looking forward

The Public Service Commission of Canada will continue to rely on these sources to monitor implementation of this plan and to measure its progress. We are committed to respecting the essence of the “Nothing Without Us” principle and will continue to ensure targeted consultation of persons with disabilities.

We will closely monitor all priority areas to measure progress on the activities mentioned in this plan and to identify any lingering or emerging barriers. We will make adjustments and implement new initiatives as needed and will develop indicators to help measure our success.

Progress reports will be published in the fiscal years ending March 31, 2024, and March 31, 2025. These reports will showcase our actions to realize a barrier-free environment and will inform the next accessibility plan due to be published during the 2025 to 2026 fiscal year.

Appendix A: Accessibility Management Action Plan

Area of focus Item Responsibility Term Timeline
Employment People Management Strategy Corporate Affairs Sector (Human Resources, Workplace and Security Directorate) Long term Annual progress updates
  Employment Systems Review Corporate Affairs Sector (Human Resources, Workplace and Security Directorate)Corporate Secretariat, Internal Audit and Evaluation Directorate Short term By March 31, 2023
  Specialisterne Canada Corporate Affairs Sector (Human Resources, Workplace and Security Directorate) Short term By March 31, 2024
  Accessibility Passport Corporate Affairs Sector (Human Resources, Workplace and Security Directorate) Short term By March 31, 2023
  Staffing policies Public Service Commission of Canada Long term Ongoing
  Public Service Employment Act amendments Public Service Commission of Canada Short term Beginning of the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year
  Federal Internship Program for Canadians with Disabilities Public Service Commission of Canada Medium term End of the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year
Built Environment Ongoing activities Corporate Affairs Sector (Human Resources, Workplace and Security Directorate) Long term Ongoing
Information and Communication Technologies Ongoing activities Corporate Affairs Sector (Information Technology Services Directorate) Long term Ongoing
  Departmental Plan on Service and Digital (annual updates) Corporate Affairs Sector (Information Technology Services Directorate) Short term By March 31, 2024
Communication other than information and communication technologies Ongoing support Policy and Communications Sector (Communications and Parliamentary Affairs Directorate) Long term Ongoing
  Centre of Expertise for Accessible Documents Policy and Communications Sector (Communications and Parliamentary Affairs Directorate) Medium term By March 31, 2024
  Open Government Pilot Project Oversight and Investigations Sector (Open Government Secretariat) Short term By March 31, 2023
Procurement of Goods, Services and Facilities Ongoing activities Corporate Affairs Sector (Financial and Corporate Planning Directorate) Long term Ongoing
Design and Delivery of Programs and Services Public Service Hiring Public Service Commission of Canada Short and long terms Activities are ongoing, with progress to be measured annually in the Departmental Results Report (next report to be developed in the first half of the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year)
  Accommodation Services (ongoing) Services and Business Development Sector (Personnel Psychology Centre) Long term Ongoing
  Public Service Resourcing System Services and Business Development Sector (Business Development and Systems Directorate) Medium term TBD
Transportation Ongoing activities Corporate Affairs Sector (Human Resources, Workplace and Security Directorate) Long term Ongoing

Give feedback on this plan

Provide feedback

Accessibility plans developed by other institutions

List of Accessibility plans developed by other institutions


For more information, contact:

Public Service Commission of Canada
22 Eddy Street, Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0M7

Email: accessibilite-accessibility@cfp-psc.gc.ca

Website of publisher: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-service-commission.html

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the President of the Public Service Commission of Canada, 2022.

Cat. No. SC12-2E-PDF (Electronic PDF, English)
ISSN 2817-1497

Cat. No. SC12-2F-PDF (Electronic PDF, French)
ISSN 2817-1500

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