The Government of Canada launches its first ever accessibility strategy (ASL translation)

The Public Service Accessibility Strategy sets out five goals and they’re all important, they’re all equally important, but if I had to pick the one that can have the most potential to make a difference, I would have to say it’s goal number five, which is to create an accessibility confident public service.

A public service were employees with disabilities can fully participate, can be included, can be valued, where differences are embraced and that everybody can work to their full potential and contribute to their maximum.

One of the biggest challenge that people face with the public service and the workplace in general, is always having to advocate for yourself as a person with a disability and how challenging that can be at times.

In my opinion, the most important aspects of the strategy are to be able to give persons with disabilities access to reasonable accommodations within a streamlined and effective format, and ensure that employees do not have to wait weeks or months to be able to access the tools that they need to complete their jobs.

Accessibility is so important to me, because this is Canada. We’re a country that values diversity, we believe in its richness, and so we should have a country in which no Canadian feels left behind.

In which every Canadian feels that they can make their very best contribution, in our country, and in our public service.

And because of that, we are developing the Public Service Accessibility Strategy, that is going to focus on five key areas, designed to really make our public service the best it can be in terms of accessibility.

For more information, you can go to Canada.ca/accessibleGC.