Accessibility Action Plan Progress Report, December 31, 2023

General

The Accessible Canada Act (ACA) established a three-year planning and reporting cycle for federal government departments and agencies, from 2022 to 2025. In the first year of the three-year plan (2022) Parks Canada published its Accessibility Action Plan. As required by the Accessible Canada Regulations, Parks Canada has now produced its first Accessibility Action Plan progress report on the implementation of our accessibility plan (due to be published on December 31, 2023).

In 2021, Parks Canada created the Values and Ethics, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Branch (VEDI) to be ready to respond effectively to the three-year planning and reporting cycle and to reflect Parks Canada’s ongoing commitment to become the diverse and inclusive Agency that it aspires to be. Parks Canada aims to provide a workplace which actively reflects and acts on shortcomings and strengths, attracts and retains talent that reflects the diversity of Canada, innovates, adapts and commits to growth and learning; and a place in which employees are proud of their organization. This branch, within the Human Resources and Employee Wellness Directorate (HREW), is responsible for overseeing and monitoring progress of Parks Canada’s Accessibility Action Plan.

The work and progress on accessibility is incorporated in all of Parks Canada directorates, namely in the Operations Directorate, the Protected Areas Establishment and Conservation Directorate, the External Relations and Visitor Experience Directorate, the Strategic Policy and Planning Directorate, the Real Property & Assets Directorate, the Chief Financial Officer Directorate and the Human Resources and Employee Wellness Directorate.

This first progress report includes information on feedback and consultations, as well as information under each of the seven areas named in the ACA, which are also the objective titles (pillars) named in Parks Canada’s Accessibility Action Plan. They are:

1. Employment

2. Built environment

3. Information and communication technology

4. Communication, other than information and communications technology

5. Procurement of goods, services and facilities

6. Design and delivery of programs and services

7. Transportation

 

Consultations

As set out in the Accessible Canada Act, Parks Canada Agency is required to consult persons with disabilities when completing this progress report. The Agency’s Employees with Disabilities Network (which has two Co-Chairs and is championed by two senior management members) has served as the first point of contact in matters regarding accessibility.

As a first step, and in preparation for the consultations, the Parks Canada Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team consulted each subject matter expert on actions taken, in progress, or planned for each of the action plan pillars.  It is important to note that, given this was the first progress report to take place and taking into consideration daily operations, it took longer than anticipated to receive all of the information. Prior to consulting with the Network and the subject matter experts, the EDI team designed a questionnaire for the consultation participants and compiled all information received in response to the questionnaire in order to facilitate the consultation process.

On November 16, 2023, during an Employees with Disabilities Network meeting, the EDI team announced it would be consulting them on the progress report. On November 22, 2023 the EDI team met with the Co-Chairs of the Network to discuss how to best proceed with the consultation. The Network felt that the questionnaire did not answer their needs and asked to be consulted earlier in the process for years to come. Thus, the co-chairs and co-champions opted not to proceed with the completion of the questionnaire for this year’s progress report.

The manner in which this process unfolded has served as an invaluable lesson learned as to how and when to consult the Employees with Disabilities Network for subsequent progress reports. This coming year, the EDI team will develop the questionnaire for the progress report in collaboration with the Employees with Disabilities network as early as six months before the progress report is due.

This progress report therefore only contains feedback on progress received by subject matter experts in regards to the seven pillars of the Accessibility Action Plan. However, under the pillars, persons with disabilities were either consulted or had some involvement with the improvements made. Further information on their involvement can be found under each pillar.

Feedback

Regarding other actions, this year Parks Canada improved its accessibility feedback mechanism, making it more accessible and more user-friendly. At this time the EDI team had only received one complaint throught the feedback mechanism pertaining to infrastructure and the appropriate Directorate has been informed.

In order to create a comprehensive progress report, all Agency directorates, either directly or indirectly responsible for carrying out the work of implementing the objectives of PCA’s Action Plan, were asked to provide input. Below are the details of actions taken, in progress or planned, in order to fulfill the objectives of the Accessibility Action Plan.

1. Employment

Parks Canada partnered with the Canadian Congress on Disability Inclusion (CCDI) by hosting an employer booth during the 2023 CCDI Virtual Career Fair. During the Fair, HR advisors interacted with students with disabilities who were seeking student employment opportunities. Many resumes were submitted for various employment opportunities within the organization and shared with hiring managers. A shortlist of eligible candidates was established which hiring managers at Parks Canada can use as required. 

The Parks Canada Senior Management Committee has approved the adoption of the Inclusive Hiring Practices for a Diverse Workforce (COR120) training, offered by the Canada School of Public Service, as a mandatory course. This course was developed in consultation with equity deserving groups, including experts in disability management. While not targeted specifically at persons with disabilities, the goal is to better equip board members, supervisors and hiring managers with best practices fostering more awareness toward inclusion, the importance of a diverse workforce and the impact that unconscious bias and other barriers can have when recruiting new talent.

Parks Canada also administers and manages the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) program which dedicates funds to hiring managers employing barrier facing youth across the country. The Summer Jobs Inventory represents a substantial talent pipeline, enabling hiring managers to screen and select qualified candidates with disabilities for various vacancies within the Agency. Other inventories hosted on VidCruiter, such as the Parks Canada Talent Hub, gather hundreds of potential candidates (currently or formerly employed by Parks Canada) and allow managers to specifically target equity seeking groups, including persons with disabilities, and offer them acting, at-level or off-season work opportunities.

Although not specifically targeted to students and youth, the Staffing Centre of Expertise has recently refreshed its “staffing inventories and pools” webpage content to reflect significant updates on various inventories and pools that are available for hiring managers wanting to hire talent from equity seeking groups, including persons with disabilities. On this page, there are numerous avenues from which hiring managers can find talented individuals who have self-declared as having a disability.

Through numerous internal and external consultations, the self-declaration form has been refreshed and updated to reach a broader equity seeking audience through various recruitment initiatives. The updated definition of “Persons with disabilities” now considers a disability as “a complex and evolving phenomenon” that is “visible or invisible” and that, “in interaction with social barriers, hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society”. With this updated definition, a candidate now has more than 15 listed options to select from, including (but not limited to) learning disabilities, chronic illness-related disability, invisible or non-apparent disability, mental-health disability, etc.

Parks Canada is in the process of developing a mechanism to review staffing processes in order to eliminate biases and ensure appropriate accommodations are available, and to then audit and report at a national level on potential issues as well as improvements.

An internal working group was set up at the end of 2022 to discuss the challenges encountered and to invite other organisations to present their service model to the Agency.  The group is comprised of disability management advisors, human resources managers, accessibility advisors and members of the network of employees with disabilities.  The consultation phase has been completed and recommendations concerning the standardisation of accommodation measures for the attention of senior management are currently being developed.

2. The built environment

The Technical and Specialist Services (TSS) for Buildings and Grounds has incorporated the standards in Canada Standards Association, CSA B651 (accessible design for the built environment) in all their recent work. They have used previous versions and are now using the 2023 version of the standard. They are also applying it to the recommendations for other groups with design projects within the Buildings and Grounds team.

The Buildings and Grounds team has attended webinars about accessibility with experts in the field. The webinars were presented by the Accessibility Professionals Network (APN) Rick Hansen Foundation. The last seminars focused on updating the Accessibility Canada Standard and informing standards for acoustics and the built environment. The Buildings and Grounds team constantly refers to and uses the CSA B651 standard in their work, enhancing their expertise on the subject.

Accessibility requirements are at the forefront of considerations for the design of the built environment. Design guides that are created by the team are distributed across Parks Canada. They are constantly being updated based on the latest accessibility standards. As an example, they created the Accessible Front Country Vault Toilet Design Guide.

Most of the projects for the National Operations directorate, External Relations and Visitor Experience (ERVE) directorate and Real Property and Asset Directorate for Built Heritage utilize the most recent accessibility standards from CSA B651. Feedback from stakeholders such as ERVE has contributed to improving the approach and to enhancing accessibility of the work.

A National Asset Review for 2022 was conducted by Parks Canada’s Technical and Specialist Services. They surveyed numerous infrastructures and determined the accessibility of the facilities. Recommendations to improve accessibility were provided in the final reports.

The primary improvement is providing wheelchair accessibility to existing facilities. Many 2100mm diameter turnaround areas are being incorporated as well as compliant ramps, pathways, and corridors. Wheelchair clearances around chokepoints such as doorways are also being provided. Accessibility in washrooms is also a major priority. All new projects are required to incorporate the accessibility requirements of the latest version of CSA B651.

The Parks Canada App offers visitors an accessible digital access to Parks Canada content and on-site experiences. Mobile guided tours offer accessible mobile on-site experiences which visitors can enjoy at their own pace. The app features integrated use of VoiceOver, TalkBack, image magnification, pan elements, audio and video transcription, image descriptions, support for over 20 languages, as well as guided tours currently available in five languages at some sites.

In collaboration with Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Sites, an accessible mobile guided tour on the Parks Canada App was created as a pilot project to augment accessible interpretation at the site beyond the minimum standard. The project was soft launched at the end of August 2023 and will be promoted to the public in 2024. “At the ready: an accessible guided tour” is available to provide a detailed overview of the physical accessibility at the site that includes information on steep slopes, uneven terrain, and other potential barriers. The tour allows visitors to personalize their experience with a self-guided approach that offers multisensory options to experience content such as images, text, and audio narration. The tour offers visitors multiple paths to navigate the site such as an interactive digital map, GPS position triggered content, text, audio, PDF map, and more. Each tour stop uses integrated audio alongside thoughtful content layouts to break up content by topics that are easy to follow. Interpretive information is incorporated throughout to bring in a taste of the site’s history.

Members of the Built Environment team attend the inter-ministerial working group on Accessibility and Inclusion in the Built Environment. They also participated in a workshop discussion about Heritage for All with Human Spaces.

A review of the Front Country Camping Design Manual took place to make it comply with most recent accessibility standards from CSA B651. 

Some examples of current accessibility projects include:

• Hyman and Sons General Store: adding an automatic door opener.
• Cape Spear Trails plans, to make a new 1 km trail accessible.
• Fort Langley: work being done on the parking lot including an accessible ramp. 
• The Nahanni Butte Office Building and Visitor Centre; fully accessible Parks Canada employee building and visitor centre for Nahanni National Park.
• Accessible front country Vault Toilet Design Guide: design templates for accessible vault toilets.
• Fort Rodd Hill: World War II Hut Renovation to renovate the interior of the hut and provide accessible and universal washrooms design.
• Fort Rodd Hill Employee Building: designing a new accessible employee building.
• New accommodations: designing a new glamping accommodation for the Snowforest Campground which will be the pilot for an agency-wide accommodation template.
• An accessibility review of major capital projects.
• Fort Rodd Hill Maintenance Compound: a review of the consultant's design for accessibility and recommendations.
• Banff National Fire Cache Facility: provided feedback on the consultant’s accessibility review. Made recommendations to update to the current CSA B651 2023 version.

3. Information and communication technologies (ICT)

The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) at Parks Canada strives to make information and communication technologies accessible by default to the extent possible.  To that end, it will continue to work with the Accessibility, Accommodation and Adaptive Computer Technology (AAACT) group at Shared Services Canada to determine and adopt relevant technology and equipment to assist people with various types and degrees of disabilities, and to support requests for accommodations as required. 

In FY 2024/25 the OCIO will develop a plan to assess the level of maturity of Parks Canada’s information and communications technologies.  This will allow assessments against established accessibility standards using guidance developed by the Office of Public Service Accessibility (OPSA) and will use feedback obtained by the Parks Canada lead on accessibility to improve processes linked to ICT development to address policy non-compliance by end of FY 2024-25. This will include ensuring new applications procured conform with targeted accessibility maturity. 

In FY 2024/25, an inventory of all applications used at Parks Canada will include information on accessibility, which will help in the identification and prioritization of applications requiring investments for improved accessibility. By the end of FY 2024/25, a process will be imbedded into existing IT project governance to assist in prioritization of these investments.

The Parks Canada IT Architecture Review Board reviews and approves the architecture of all digital initiatives in the Agency.  The board ensures accessibility requirements of new internal and external facing solutions are being met, from the design stage through to procurement and licensing. In support of the work of the Board, the OCIO is piloting an internal checklist of accessibility standards and best practices to be used when developing, implementing, and managing a digital IT project. Once the pilot phase is complete, the accessibility checklist will become a mandatory and essential component of the application process for application procurement approvals by the OCIO, to ensure accessibility requirements are understood and met prior to procurement.

Microsoft 365, which contains an inclusive and accessible suite of applications, will be rolled out throughout FY 2024-25.  Enhancements to the various applications include features like screen readers, real time sub-titles, captions for embedded videos, as well as voice to text and learning tools.  

Parks Canada promotes and makes mandatory for some employees and managers, especially those accountable for digital services, several training courses related to accessibility and inclusiveness offered by the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS), such as the "Introduction to Gender-Based Analysis Plus" course or the "Inclusive Hiring Practices for a Diverse Workforce" module. Parks Canada will continue to increase the visibility of these training courses and to explore learning opportunities for all employees and managers on accessibility legislation, policies and responsibilities.

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The National Web Team continues to make information and communication technologies accessible by default and provide the necessary accommodations.

The National Web Team continues to provide web accessibility training to all Parks Canada website editors and has recently opened this training to non-website editors. Web accessibility information is integrated into other training sessions, in addition to the dedicated web accessibility training session.

Current best practices will continue to be reviewed as will other methods to further improve the accessibility of our public website.

Working with other Parks Canada teams, the Web Management Team is ensuring that all new third-party websites exceed the current Government of Canada standard for accessibility, requiring EN 301 549/WCAG 2.1 AA instead of WCAG 2.0 AA.

A complete update of our public website is being undertaken to improve information on the accessibility of Parks Canada sites in general, as well as specific information on the accessibility of our trails.

 

4. Communication, other than ICT

Working with Parks Canada’s Accessibility and Inclusion team, the National Web Team is developing an accessibility toolkit for web content creators throughout the agency. This toolkit will be available before the end of 2023.

Through a contractor, the National Web Team will be conducting user testing of the Parks Canada website working with people with disabilities in November 2023. The National Web Team has worked with Parks Canada’s Accessibility and Inclusion team to develop a template for an accessibility information webpage for web officers throughout the agency to use for all Parks Canada locations. This template will be tested with users with lived experience starting in November 2023.

Updating of the Design Guidelines for Media Accessibility is in progress.

As a general practice, the communications team drafts and reviews communications products in ways that ensure accessibility standards are met before dissemination. All employees are reminded of accessibility guidelines and strategies through internal promotional campaigns that can involve messaging from the Co-champions for employees with disabilities, or that leverage different tools and tactics such as “Did you know” capsules and prominent presence in the carousel (intranet). More specifically, the Guidelines on Making Communications Products and Activities Accessible are promoted to all Parks Canada team members through multiple channels such as the intranet (ParksNet) and the newsletter (Flash Info).

Work with partners to better promote accessible services, programs and experiences is in progress. For example, some National Parks and National Historic Sites have accessible equipment on loan to visitors to facilitate their experiences, such as beach mats and beach wheelchairs and trail-rider wheelchairs for improved access in PEI National Park.

 

5. The procurement of goods, services and facilities

Functional experts throughout Parks Canada develop standards and guidance on how to incorporate accessibility considerations into the work related to their respective functional area. Where this guidance has been developed, the Procurement, Grants and Contributions Branch (PCGB) provides links/resources on its Procurement Hub available on ParksNet to assist cost centre managers in their requirement definition as they develop the procurement strategy in consultation with the contracting officer.  One excellent example is the guidance developed for Visitor Services.

Consideration of accessibility is a mandatory requirement of the intake process for new procurement requests processed by National Contracting Services (NCS) within the Chief Financial Officer Directorate (CFOD).  Additionally, each NCS file is subject to a quality assurance review prior to bid solicitation and contract award to ensure that accessibility has been given meaningful consideration and that procurement files are appropriately documented.  The Parks Canada post-award quality assurance program, which monitors procurement under field/business unit procurement authority delegations, also includes assessment of meaningful consideration of accessibility in the procurement strategy as one of the criteria for review.

The Procurement, Grants and Contributions Branch (PGCB) includes guidance and links to resources in the Procurement Desk Guide and on it’s ParksNet page to assist Parks Canada staff in understanding how accessibility may be incorporated into their procurement activities.  PGCB has recently modified their Introduction to Procurement training, which is delivered to cost centre managers and others involved in the procurement process throughout Parks Canada, to incorporate accessibility considerations as part of “case studies” included in the training.  This approach provides real world examples of how accessibility can be considered during the definition of procurement requirements and is a useful approach for learner participants.

 

6. The design and delivery of programs and services

The Visitor Experience - Infrastructure Accessibility and Inclusion team has been working on a tool for field units to evaluate the accessibility of their existing programs and services. The plan is to have this tool ready in 2024.

Front line Parks Canada employees working with the public receive Quality Visitor Experience Training which enables them to better support the needs of visitors with disabilities.  Additional accessibility information is also provided to help employees describe in detail the experiences available to visitors.

 

7. Transportation

• Hyman and Sons General Store: adding an automatic door opener.
• Cape Spear Trails plans, to make a new 1 km trail accessible.
• Fort Langley: work being done on the parking lot including an accessible ramp.
• The Nahanni Butte Office Building and Visitor Centre; fully accessible Parks Canada employee building and visitor centre for Nahanni National Park.
• Accessible front country Vault Toilet Design Guide: design templates for accessible vault toilets.
• Fort Rodd Hill: World War II Hut Renovation to renovate the interior of the hut and provide accessible and universal washrooms design.
• Fort Rodd Hill Employee Building: designing a new accessible employee building.
• New accommodations: designing a new glamping accommodation for the Snowforest Campground which will be the pilot for an agency-wide accommodation template.
• An accessibility review of major capital projects.
• Fort Rodd Hill Maintenance Compound: a review of the consultant's design for accessibility and recommendations.
• Banff National Fire Cache Facility: provided feedback on the consultant’s accessibility review. Made recommendations to update to the current CSA B651 2023 version.

There are shuttle services available at some Parks Canada sites. For example, there is a shuttle service to Maligne Lake (accessible bus) with an option for people with disabilities who cannot take the shuttle to take their private vehicle.

There is also a self-serve site evaluation tool which has evaluation questions related to parking, access to entrances etc. This information is used as a resource to determine if sites are in compliance with the latest standards. Moreover, site audits are done by consultants on issues including parking. The feedback and recommendations help guide improvements.

 

Beyond This Report

At the time of this report, Parks Canada is finalizing its Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Acessibilty strategy. The Accessiblity Action Plan is an integral element in the strategy framework as the Agency is committed to building a dynamic workforce that values diversity and inclusion, advocates for equity and promotes accessibility. To this end, we are consulting employee networks, including the Employees with Disabilties to guide us in this important endeavour.

This reporting process has provided great insight as to how we are doing across the Agency in our approach to accessibility. We are pleased with what we have accomplished thus far: the actions outlined for all seven pillars reflect progress in identifying, removing and preventing barriers to accessibility.

However, we recognize that there is still much that needs to be done. Through ongoing consultations and concrete actions, we will continue to honour our commitment to ensuring that Parks Canada is a place where persons with disabilities are valued and respected, and where they can fully participate in all activities.