Accessibility plan progress report 2024 for the Canadian Grain Commission

Introduction

The Canadian Grain Commission regulates grain handling in Canada and establishes and maintains science-based standards of quality for Canadian grain. We have approximately 450 employees working in in a variety of occupational groups including technical, scientific and administrative. We have a presence in 7 provinces, with our head office in Winnipeg, regional offices in Montreal and Vancouver and 10 service centres. Our employees work in several types of environments, including third party terminal elevators at waterfront sites, scientific laboratories and offices.

The Accessible Canada Act (ACA) aims to create a barrier-free Canada by 2040 through the identification, removal and prevention of barriers. Our first accessibility plan, published in December 2022, identified barriers to accessibility in our policies, practices, programs and services based on consultations with all our employees, employees who self-identified as having a disability, divisional managers and subject matter experts. It also documented our goals for removing and preventing barriers. Our 2023 progress report described the progress we made in achieving our accessibility goals. This 2024 progress report details our continued progress in achieving accessibility. Our accessibility plan and subsequent progress reports considered workplace culture and the 7 areas outlined in Section 5 of the ACA:

• Employment
• Built environment
• Information and communication technologies
• Communication, other than information and communication technologies
• Procurement of goods, services, and facilities
• Design and delivery of programs and services
• Transportation

How to provide feedback

Employees, clients and members of the public can provide feedback to us on barriers they have encountered and the implementation of our accessibility plan. Your comments and questions can be sent to Scott Hazlitt, the Canadian Grain Commission’s accessibility officer, using any of the following methods:

• Email: accessibility-accessibilite@grainscanada.gc.ca
• Telephone: 431-336-3479
• Mail: Canadian Grain Commission
  303 Main Street
  Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 3G8

You can also provide feedback anonymously on any matter related to accessibility through our Accessibility Feedback Form. Details on our accessibility feedback process are available on our website.

Contact our accessibility officer to request a copy of our accessibility plan, progress reports or a description of our feedback process in print, large print, Braille, audio format or an electronic format that is compatible with adaptive technology that is intended to assist persons with disabilities.

Progress made in 2024 in removing and preventing barriers

The National Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (NEEDIC) is a consultative forum at the Canadian Grain Commission that supports open dialogue and sharing of information between the employer and employee representatives, including union, employees representing designated groups and other equity deserving groups. In 2024, NEEDIC continued to provide information, advice and educational opportunities within the Canadian Grain Commission to address employment equity, diversity and inclusion concerns. Specific activities to help create and maintain a culture of inclusion for employees with disabilities included:

• A message promoting National AccessAbility Week was distributed to all staff in May 2024. Employees were encouraged to explore learning opportunities through the Canada School of Public Service and were made aware of other accessibility resources and tools.
• An organization-wide event was held in October 2024 as part of our diversity and inclusion speaker series. At this event an employee shared their lived experiences related to invisible disabilities and mental health.
• Four issues of our Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI) Newsletter were distributed to all employees. These newsletters contained information on accessibility and accommodation initiatives, training opportunities and resources available to employees.
• A NEEDIC orientation course was developed to provide employees with information about equity, diversity and inclusion at the Canadian Grain Commission. New employees are now automatically enrolled in the course and the course is also available to current employees.

Additional work to remove barriers to a culture of inclusion included:

• Members of our Accessibility Working Group attended two manager’s forums to discuss accessibility and required training related to accessibility.

Progress made in 2024 in removing and preventing barriers

Considerable effort was placed in this area resulting in the following achievements:

• Tools have been developed and provided to assessment boards to assist members and hiring managers in the evaluation of biases and barriers in all steps of the assessment process.
• Our workforce representation gap for persons with a disability is steadily decreasing year over year, with additional progress made in 2024 (Figure 1).

  

  Graph data

  Employees with disabilities compared with workforce availability estimates

  Year	Percentage
  2021-2022	42.3
  2022-2023	56.6
  2023-2024	68.4
  mid-year 2024-2025	69.2

• An interdisciplinary duty to accommodate working group continues to work collaboratively through complex accommodations in an expedient manner. A process to track and monitor workplace accommodation requests was recently implemented with the aim of future information being available to inform practices and procedures.
• An internal order was created as a means to track money spent on workplace accommodations and was implemented in summer 2024. As of late October 2024, no purchases have been reported on the internal order.
• A commitment to providing a barrier free work environment and information on accommodations during the assessment process continue to be included in job advertisements. As of October 2024, these were included in all internal and external job postings.
• The importance of self-identification was promoted in the November issue of the Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI) newsletter and further awareness of self-identification is planned to coincide with the expected release of the modernized form and application from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) in late 2024.
• We are anticipating a full roll-out of the Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport to our employees in late 2024 or early 2025 to coincide with the launch of the TBS digital Accessibility Passport application. In the interim, the current passport is promoted as a tool to support employee and manager conversations on accommodations. Information on the current passport is also shared in each edition of the EEDI newsletter and is available on our internal website.
• Information about accessibility has been included in the New Employee Orientation Guide.
• In August 2024, Canada School of Public Service courses on disability and workplace accommodations were made a requirement for all employees and managers. The courses were promoted in an all-staff message and at monthly departmental managers meetings. Further discussions and/or training with managers have started and will continue be held within the Canadian Grain Commission.
  • 45% of managers completed their required training in the first three months after the training launch. 41% of employees completed their required training within this same time frame. Follow-up on outstanding training will be conducted as part of our year-end activities.

Progress made in 2024 in removing and preventing barriers

• Work has begun on replacing toilets in washrooms identified as accessible in the headquarters building to ensure that they meet current accessibility standards.
• Two regular audits of automatic door buttons to ensure that they are functioning properly are now conducted annually at our headquarters building location. An audit of buttons in facility spaces managed externally by BGIS is done in January and an audit of buttons for which the Canadian Grain Commission is responsible is completed in June. If any issues are found by staff outside of these audits, employees are encouraged to report them to the National Service Call Centre or our accessibility officer.
• Automatic door buttons have been added to 4 doors at the headquarters building where they were previously not available, and several existing buttons were moved for better access.
• The need for 5 height adjustable grading benches was identified this fiscal year and procurement is working on a long-term proactive solution for purchasing grading benches across all regions.
• Ergonomic stools were purchased for one of our work sites in Vancouver.

Progress made in 2024 in removing and preventing barriers

• Training and resources available through the Accessibility, Accommodation and Adaptive Computer Technology (AAACT) program were promoted to all employees 3 times in 2024 using the internal social engagement platform Viva Engage.
• The AAACT program worked with us on accommodations requiring adaptive technology. Knowledge gained on how to best expedite these processes will be incorporated into future accommodation requests.

Progress made in 2024 in removing and preventing barriers

• All emails promoting Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI) speaker series events include information on closed captioning.
• Post speaker series event questionnaires now include a question to determine the accessibility of events and to seek feedback on any barriers experienced.
• Our standard template for PowerPoint slides used for presentations to employees and external clients has been updated to improve accessibility through increased colour contrast, larger font size and a lower limit on the number of words per slide.
• Information on how to provide feedback on accessibility was posted on our external and internal websites and is included in each of our quarterly EEDI newsletters.
• Instructions for creating accessible emails was shared with employees on our accessibility community Viva Engage page.
• The Digital Accessibility Toolkit’s learning materials and resources for creating accessible digital projects and meetings were shared with employees through our EEDI newsletter.
• The Accessibility Hub’s how-to guides available to federal public servants were shared in the November issue of the EEDI newsletter to help employees make their documents more accessible.

Progress made in 2024 in removing and preventing barriers

• Text on our internal and external websites is reviewed using the principles of plain language before posting.
• The formatting of tables in the reports and articles from our Grain Research Laboratory that are posted to our external website has been updated to avoid merged cells, empty cells, rotated text direction and poor colour contrast between text and cell backgrounds.
• Charts in all reports and articles from our Grain Research Laboratory that are posted to our external website now include drop-down tables containing the data used to create the charts.
• Alt text descriptions are being added to figures on our external website.

Employees and managers

Among the employees and managers we spoke to, some had disabilities, and some did not, but it was important for us to hear diverse perspectives on accessibility in the workplace. Members of our accessibility working group attended two hybrid manager’s forums to discuss accessibility, where comments and questions could be asked orally or in writing.

Accessibility working group

The accessibility working group was established at the Canadian Grain Commission to ensure the implementation of our accessibility plan. Members include persons with disabilities, a union representative and the Canadian Grain Commission’s accessibility officer. In 2024 they met 4 times to discuss feedback on accessibility. Members also reviewed and provided comments on the draft 2024 progress report prior to it being finalized for publication.

National Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (NEEDIC)

NEEDIC met 11 times in 2024 and accessibility is an agenda item at each meeting. Feedback and information from these meetings are shared with our human resources department. At NEEDIC’s in-person meeting in February, our accessibility officer led a larger discussion on accessibility at the Canadian Grain Commission.

Feedback gaps

We will continue to promote accessibility awareness and our feedback mechanisms as there are still areas in our accessibility plan where no feedback has been received.