Inclusive Training Course: Create an Accessible Workplace

Organizations need to understand and keep up with the latest legislation. Barriers at work need to be identified and removed. And accommodations need to be put in place so that disabled people can get their jobs done.

Presidents Group understands that organizations want to create an accessible workplace but need help to make it happen. Any organization working on access and inclusion will benefit from this course. Creating an accessible workplace can have its challenges. Knowing where to begin and how to keep going can be overwhelming.

The Create an Accessible Workplace learning course is a great resource for organizations just starting to think about accessibility and what that would mean to staff, clients, and customers. It’s also a relevant tool for inclusive organizations who want to continue improving their work culture, policies, and procedures.

Barriers

The physical space at work can create barriers. For example, someone using a wheelchair may not be able to get under a work desk. A quick fix is raising the desk. A barrier can also be caused by work culture in that a policy or a procedure may exclude someone or make a task unnecessarily difficult. Identifying the changes needed and then finding a solution will remove the barrier. Often working with employees with disabilities is the best way to find those solutions.

Without a doubt, the biggest barriers in the workplace are attitudinal. A manager might decide that a disabled employee cannot do a task and will not give the employee a chance to prove they can. It is the manager’s attitude that is the barrier to the success of the employee. Attitudinal barriers often start because of unconscious biases. Everyone has biases! This course will make you think about your decisions and whether you bring unconscious biases, resulting in barriers, to your workplace. Your awareness of how you see people with disabilities will help you consider other ways to work with your disabled colleagues.

Legislation

People with disabilities are largely an untapped talent pool. There is confusion around the legal aspects of hiring someone with a disability. Often this confusion gets in the way of becoming an inclusive employer. The Create an Accessible Workplace course breaks it down and helps you understand your legal obligations when hiring someone with a disability.

Disability-related legislation that impacts the workplace includes:

• The BC Human Rights Code,
• The Accessible British Columbia Act,
• The Canadian Human Rights Code,
• The Accessible Canada Act.

This course also helps inclusive employers understand their legal requirements to prevent discrimination in the workplace. You will learn about your “duty to accommodate” and how to find solutions to a variety of barriers. By understanding and acting on legal expectations, inclusive employers can ensure they are providing disabled employees with a work environment that takes into account an individual’s disability rights. This concept is fundamental in creating an accessible workplace.

Accommodations

Often people with disabilities have difficulty entering the workforce without accommodations. Ensuring disabled employees have what they need to do their jobs makes good business sense. In a recent American study by the Jobs Accommodation Network, 70% of managers said workplace accommodations improved productivity. 61% percent said accommodations improved employee morale. And 89% of managers said that accommodations helped to retain valuable employees.

The Create an Accessible Workplace course helps you understand what it means to accommodate an employee. It also clarifies that accommodation is a shared responsibility between employee and employer.

By the end of the course, you will be in a better position to support employees with disabilities, find solutions together when facing barriers, and ensure your workplace is inclusive and welcoming!