2024 Progress Report

Summary

The Accessible Canada Act requires that federally regulated entities create accessibility plans, updated every three years. The Act also requires that federally regulated entities publish annual accessibility plan progress reports in the intervening years. The Office of the Intelligence Commissioner (ICO) published its initial Accessibility Plan in 2022 explaining how it will identify, prevent, and remove accessibility barriers. In 2023 the ICO published a progress report on the implementation of the accessibility plan, including any feedback received from employees and citizens. The ICO remains committed to removing barriers to accessibility and fostering a culture of inclusion.

Given its specific role – supporting the fulfillment of the Intelligence Commissioner’s oversight mandate as set out in the Intelligence Commissioner Act – the ICO does not provide programs and services to the public. The ICO is committed to transparency and accessibility and contributes by publishing the Intelligence Commissioner’s decisions electronically and making them available in an accessible format.

The 2024 progress report will discuss progress in each of the seven pillars of the Act along with information about any feedback received.

Employment

The ICO is committed to consulting employees and seeking their involvement in improving their workplace to be more inclusive and barrier free.

In 2024, the ICO implemented the Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport (the Passport). This tool allows ICO employees to confidentially self-identify and update their information at any time via an accessible PDF form. The ICO launched an accessibility awareness campaign to encourage the use of the Passport.

The Built Environment

The ICO is committed to improve accessibility of the built environment and has already taken steps towards this goal.

The ICO is located within a privately owned building that houses many federal government entities. A private company ensures maintenance of the building but because the majority of tenants are federal government, the building must meet the accessibility standards of the Government of Canada. All entrances, elevators, restrooms, emergency exits, wayfinding and signage are under their jurisdictions.

The ICO does not directly provide any programs or services to the public.

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)

The ICO relies on Service Canada as the authority regarding the Government of Canada’s Standard on Web Accessibility for all Canada.ca websites. The Government of Canada has adopted the WGAC 2.0 that was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to make sure the web content is accessible to people with disabilities. The ICO does not have an internal website (Intranet) for its employees.

In 2024, the ICO continued to the publish documents in HTML and accessible PDF.

Communications other than ICT

Alternate formats of employee communication are available upon request.

In 2024, the ICO launched an internal process for obtaining alternate communication formats when requested, in a timely manner. Furthermore, all documents are reviewed prior to being finalized to comply with accessible standards such as plain language, font, size, colour of text, alternate text for tables and photos.

Procurement of Goods, Services and Facilities

The ICO relies on Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) as the Government of Canada’s common service provider for the procurement of goods, services and facilities for major projects. Furthermore, in 2024 the ICO continued to use PSPC tools which incorporate accessibility requirements directly into standing offers (for example, stipulating that supplier website functionality requirements must meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0).

Design and Delivery of Programs and Services

The ICO does not provide programs or services directly to the public.

Transportation

The ICO does not provide transportation to the public.

Consultations

The ICO consulted with other departments to assist in meeting the requirements of the Accessible Canada Act. The ICO benefited from the work performed and guidance from those departments in the development of the accessibility plan and the progress report to seek input on any known barriers and understand actions being taken by each of the respective organizations so that ICO could develop comprehensive action plan.

The ICO will continue to work with other departments to actively seek feedback from the persons with disability community to ensure that the report reflects the desired impact and results for those it is intended to support.

Feedback

The Executive Director and General Counsel is designated to receive feedback on barriers and the ICO’s accessibility plan. More information on the accessibility feedback process can be found on the ICO’s webpage: Accessibility feedback process.

The ICO welcomes all feedback regarding its accessibility plan. Since publishing its plan in December 2022, the ICO received one feedback submission in 2023 and none in 2024.

	Number of feedback submissions
Received during the reporting period	0
Outstanding from the previous reporting period	0
Outstanding from more than one reporting period	N/A