Appendices
Appendix III
1. Accessible Customer Service Standards
The Accessibility Standard for Customer Service project was initiated to ensure that the Region of Peel complies with the Customer Service Regulation 429/07 by the legislated date of January 1, 2010. Two key deliverables of this project are the adoption of an accessibility policy and the delivery of accessible customer service training.
The first mile stone completed was the development, approval and implementation of the accessibility policy. The Accessible Customer Services Policy was validated and communicated as follows:
- Accessibility Program Steering Committee presentation
- Executive Management Team endorsement
- Accessibility Advisory Committee presentation
- Communication to Commissioners and Directors
- Publication on the internal and external website
- Inclusion within all training mediums for Accessible Customer Service training
The second deliverable; the awareness training, has been rolled out in a variety of methods to ensure that all Regional staff can conveniently access training. The training is currently available to staff through following methods:
- e-learning
An online tutorial was developed and is available to all regional staff from their workstations. This module guides the user through obligations under the AODA and offers tips on serving customers with a disability while tracking completed training for compliance process.
- In class training
In class courses are available to Regional staff via Learning and Development training courses. This course is part of the course list offered by the training program to all employees.
- Train the Trainer method
Staff assigned to the role of Departmental Trainer, whether for the implementation of the Accessible Customer Service standard or as a permanent role, may request training as a Trainer of Accessible Customer Service.
- via a booklet
An easy to read booklet has been designed for self-study for employees who do not have immediate access to a computer and may also be used for vendors, agents and volunteers of the corporation unable to access other training mediums.
A training tracking system was implemented to capture, reconcile and report employee training as per the AODA reporting standards.
In order to fully implement this initiative, the sustainability of the corporate policy was given appropriate attention by integrating training requirements to our employee orientation checklist. Additional efforts were put forth to ensure other Regional Policies are integrated to reflect the Accessibility Corporate Policy in due course.
The Region of Peel is proud to say that we have overcome many road blocks from funding to resource availability and are working diligently to achieve compliance by January 1, 2010.
