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This newsletter is available in alternate formats on request.
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Join the Manitoba Accessibility Office in Celebration of Disability Employment Awareness Month
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Recognized by the Manitoba government each October, Disability Employment Awareness Month is a time to recognize the positive contributions people with disabilities make toward developing a more diverse and inclusive workforce for all!
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You’re invited to join the Manitoba Accessibility Office for a free webinar featuring a round table discussion from past Manitoba Accessibility Fund Grant recipients. This discussion will focus on real-life accessible employment initiatives implemented by Manitoba organizations.
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FREE WEBINAR: Breaking Barriers: Unlocking Accessible Employment
- Date: October 22
- Time: 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
- Speakers:
- Sara Malabar, Executive Director, Shakespeare in the Ruins
- Paul Deacon, Manager Maintenance and Safety, St. James Assiniboia School Division
- Joy Escalera, Managing Director, Career Connections
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This webinar will have accessibility measures such as American Sign Language interpretation (ASL) and live closed captioning.
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The webinar recording will be made available to those unable to participate in real-time on AccessibilityMB.ca.
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Reminder: Accessible Employment Standard Regulation Review
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There is still time before November 1, 2024, to provide your feedback and experiences with the Accessible Employment Standard Regulation, impacting how people with disabilities are accommodated in the workplace.
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Your comments and feedback are also welcome via briefs and submissions to the attention of the Manitoba Accessibility Advisory Council at access@gov.mb.ca. If you would like to provide your feedback over the phone, call 204-945-7613. The deadline to submit your insight is Friday, November 1, 2024.
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“Light It Up!” for Disability Employment Awareness Month
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The Manitoba Legislative Building joins over 350 buildings across Canada that will be lit up in purple and blue on October 17, in recognition of “Light it Up! for DEAM”.
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This one-night special lighting event quickly became a national movement. It is meant to ignite conversations about disability inclusion in employment, in business and communities. Learn more about this event and find the list of participating Manitoba buildings by visiting Light It Up! for DEAM.
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Spotlight on a Manitoba Accessibility Fund Project
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The Manitoba Accessibility Fund is proud to spotlight IBEX Payroll and Inclusion System, a previous grant recipient.
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IBEX Payroll and Inclusion System
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IBEX Payroll and Inclusion System creates software to empower Canadian organizations. IBEX Payroll helps small to medium-sized businesses with payroll, and the Inclusion System is a suite of payroll, scheduling, time-tracking and HR tools for the Community Living sector. We focus on making our systems easy to use, with live support when businesses and communities need it most. Every organization is unique and we are committed to evolving our platforms to meet their changing needs.
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With support from the Manitoba Accessibility Fund, we recently focused on making our software more inclusive, especially for users living with disabilities. Designing easy-to-use, accessible systems is important to us and this project helped us make real progress.
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We consulted with community members, disability organizations and experts. Team members attended a learning session about digital accessibility with Squarely Accessible. Our organization also learned about the Information and Communication Accessibility Standards and WCAG 2.1 Level AA guidelines. This information has impacted our internal communications, leading to clearer visuals and simplified language. We conducted a user survey with our customers to gather feedback on their accessibility experiences. Additionally, an accessibility audit was performed by Access Changes Everything, providing us with insights on assistive technologies, areas for improvement and recommended training for our developers. The audit identified that our system is very complex, but there are some relatively simple ways to increase accessibility, as well as some more complicated solutions.
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Awareness, particularly within our software development team, has increased towards an operational level. We have determined that Angular (our main front-end development framework) has plenty of accessibility features built-in that we can use more frequently, allowing us to integrate audit priorities more easily. We now have key information for an intentional journey towards removing barriers and making our user experience an accessible one. Our organization is focused on taking important incremental steps to create processes that make all projects more accessible going forward.
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~ Article submitted by IBEX Payroll and Inclusion System
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Workplace Emergency Response Information
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As an employer, you want to keep your employees safe, especially during emergencies. In Manitoba, under the Accessible Employment Standard Regulation, all employers with at least one employee, including businesses, non-profit organizations, public sector organizations and the provincial government, must provide workplace emergency response information to employees disabled by barriers who require assistance during an emergency in the workplace.
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Section 15 of the Accessible Employment Standard Regulation stipulates that an employer must comply with this requirement as soon as reasonably possible after becoming aware that an employee with a disability may need assistance in the event of a workplace emergency.
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What to review for workplace emergency response information
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To effectively prepare your emergency response with special consideration for employees disabled by barriers, start by:
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- Reviewing your organization’s emergency procedures.
- Asking employees if they face barriers to staying safe in the event of an emergency in the workplace.
- Engaging with affected employees in preparing for emergencies. They are the experts on how best to remove barriers they face.
- Developing individualized emergency response information with them.
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When to review workplace emergency response information
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An employer is required to review existing workplace emergency information each time:
- The employee is moved to a different workspace.
- The employee's workspace is modified.
- The employer reviews its general emergency response plans and makes changes that affect the employee's response to a workplace emergency.
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In addition to developing workplace emergency information, Section 16 of the Accessible Employment Standard Regulation specifies that employers must ask employees who require assistance during an emergency for permission to share, if applicable, information with individuals who agree to help.
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Remember: Almost one out of three Manitobans over the age of 15 have a disability, and many disabilities are invisible. Planning to meet the needs of your employees can prevent unintended injuries and keep employees safe during an emergency. Well established emergency response information avoids guessing whose arthritic knees cannot descend stairs, which employee has severe asthma, or who may be immobilized by a panic attack.
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A coalition of disability rights organizations has launched a Charter challenge against a part of Canada's law on medical assistance in dying, calling it an "abandonment” of people with disabilities.
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Apple commercials typically showcase the latest and greatest gadgets from the tech giant – and one Winnipeg woman is using her appearance in a recent ad to highlight how living with a disability doesn’t slow her down.
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This is an opportunity to create space for all individuals who are Deaf, Deaf-Blind, Hard of Hearing, as well as for hearing people to come together.
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There will be ASL interpreters on-site throughout the expo to ensure full access to communication for all parties involved. Everyone is encouraged to attend and take advantage of this unique event.
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- Friday, October 25 from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.
- Saturday, October 26 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Where: Regent Casino Hotel 1415 Regent Ave. West
- Admission is free
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Indigenous Disability Awareness Month Webinar
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The Manitoba Accessibility Office is proud to present our Indigenous Disability Awareness Month webinar, A Broken Legacy, my Journey as an Indigenous Hard of Hearing Woman…
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During this webinar you will hear from our keynote speaker, Shawna Joynt, a First Nations woman who is hard of hearing from the TR’ONDEK HWECHIN HAN NATION tribe in Dawson City, Yukon. Through Shawna’s story you will learn about her personal journey, her passion for removing barriers for the Deaf and hard of hearing and Indigenous communities.
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• When: Thursday, November 7 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Where: Virtual via Zoom
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This newsletter is available in alternate formats on request.
You subscribed to this newsletter on the AccessibilityMB.ca website.
Manitoba Accessibility Office
630 - 240 Graham Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3C 0J7
Phone: 204-945-7613
Toll-free: 1-800-282-8069, ext. 7613
Email: MAO@gov.mb.ca
Follow and join the #AccessibleMB conversation on social media.
If you wish to unsubscribe from the newsletter, please visit: unsubscribe page
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