Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada:
Accessibility Plan

Accessibility Plan

The Accessible Canada Act (ACA) and the Accessible Canada Regulations (Regulations) came into force in July 2019 and December 2021 respectively, and require that federal entities prepare and publish accessibility plans. We are pleased to present the first Accessibility Plan for the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs (FJA); this plan is considered an evergreen document to be reviewed and updated yearly.

Enquiries

Any feedback on this plan or on accessibility can be addressed electronically to accessibility-accessibilite@fja-cmf.gc.ca.

Definitions from the ACA

Barrier

“means anything—including anything physical, architectural, technological or attitudinal, anything that is based on information or communications or anything that is the result of a policy or a practice—that hinders the full and equal participation in society of persons with an impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment or a functional limitation.”

Disability

“means any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment—or a functional limitation—whether permanent, temporary or episodic in nature, or evident or not, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society.”

Definitions from the Government of Canada

“Nothing without us”

“Nothing without us” is a guiding principle used across the Government of Canada (GC) to communicate the message that no policy should be decided by a representative without the full and direct participation of the members of the group affected by that policy.

Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport

The Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport helps address the obstacles federal public service employees and applicants with disabilities face in obtaining the tools, supports and measures to perform at their best and succeed in the workplace. It facilitates recruitment, retention, and career advancement for persons with disabilities. The Accessibility Passport facilitates employee mobility between GC organizations. It is meant to follow each employee and it is an evergreen document that can be updated throughout a career.

Executive summary

FJA was established in 1978 to safeguard the independence of the judiciary and provide services to federally appointed judges. As such, our Accessibility Plan is in respect to that role and those responsibilities.

As we strive to continuously improve access, since 2019-2020 we started review and implementation of FJA’s strategies and directives per the above Government of Canada’s tools. We plan on continuing our review, in consultation with our clients and stakeholders, of policies and procedures as well as communication tools, to ensure we meet the highest standards of accessibility for all Canadians, our clientele and employees. We look forward to this evergreen process and welcome this opportunity to remove and prevent any barriers to accessibility which may exist.

Accessibility statement

In order to carry out its activities and meet the ACA, FJA has undertaken a review of its physical and virtual environments to ensure every consideration is given to accessing our organization. Also, FJA has always provided services in both official languages to its clients and employees.

Since the establishment of the federal judicial appointments process in 1988, FJA continues to revise this process on the basis of ongoing operational experience. The Guide for Candidates, available on FJA’s Website, describes the process with revisions to date. In keeping with the ACA, the questionnaire for those seeking federal judicial appointments was revised as of 2016 on the basis of better reflecting diversity and inclusion of Canadian society on the superior courts. This process is ongoing in consultation with the Office of the Minister of Justice and key judicial stakeholders.

In recent years, FJA also adapted and innovated in its interactions and communications with judges and their survivors by developing and introducing documentation in user-friendly and plain-language format, and when required available in printable or fillable format. As well, active judges can submit electronically their expenses reimbursed under the Incidental, Travel, Conference and Representational allowances.

FJA has made accessible on its Website the entire collection of Federal Courts Reports (FCR) going back to 1971. FCR developed its Webpages to meet ACA which help users easily navigate its sections.

FJA created and provides a language training program tailored to the needs of judges. To stay abreast of emerging needs as they relate to social awareness and cultural sensitivity, FJA is planning a quality control review of the judges’ language training (JLT) curricula to ensure that its training with regard to terminology is reflective of cultural diversity, and JLT will continue modernizing its approach in Second Official Language Training.

FJA continues its work towards a completely barrier free experience and will continue to improve its consultation process in the next 3 years to better identify and remove any existing obstacles.

Employment

Further consultation will be required to identify barriers to employment within our organization. In the next year, we will be expanding our consultations with persons with disabilities to consider all barriers to employment. Currently, we have provided specific training to managers on unconscious bias. Our HR director works one on one with hiring managers to ensure processes meet the highest standards. This said, we realize that the application process may be cumbersome to some and that opportunities to improve our evaluation tools must be explored and we are committed in doing so.

Action	Steps	Responsibility	Timeline
Barrier identification	Review current hiring policies and procedures	Director HR	September 2024
Identify mitigation strategies	Make changes to policies and procedures	Director HR	October 2024
Provide training to HR staff on accessibility	Provide training	Director HR	December 2024

The built environment

The office building where FJA is located is owned and maintained by the Government of Canada through Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC). PSPC has worked in recent years to bringing the building up to code for accessibility purposes and ensuring that occupants and visitors have a seamless experience in accessing FJA and all areas of the building. As such, visitors and employees have access to a washroom that is wheelchair accessible, all building and floor signage and elevators buttons are also in Braille. In addition, all main access doors are fitted with passkeys which automatically open doors.

Action	Steps	Responsibility	Timeline
Identify mitigation strategies	Ensure ongoing mitigation measures are adequate and periodically reviewed	Chief Security Officer	Ongoing

Information and communication technologies (ICT)

The IT division is responsible for the provision of all IT related services at FJA. All software adhere and make use of the Web Experience Toolkit which ensures accessibility and usability. Beyond development activities, efforts are made, often on a case by case basis, to ensure that information technology resources are accessible and can be used by individuals with a wide range of abilities and disabilities. As technology evolves, approaches aimed at ensuring accessibility must be reviewed and capitalize on advancements.

Action	Steps	Responsibility	Timeline
Ensure that applications developed in-house (including our Website) are accessible and usable	Leverage accessibility and usability standards (e.g. Web Experience Toolkit) for all development activities	Manager, IT Applications	Ongoing
Provide users with assistive technologies as and when required	When a need for assistive technology is identified (e.g. text-to-speech, alternate input devices) research must be conducted and steps must be taken to identify or acquire the required technology.	Chief, Information Systems Services Division	Ongoing

Procurement of goods, services and facilities

FJA has embedded accessibility requirements within the procurement process by identifying at the procurement request stage, whether or not the goods or services to be procured have accessibility requirements. Procurement officers are responsible for reviewing and assessing accessibility for all procurement actions.

Action	Steps	Responsibility	Timeline
Accessibility training provided to Procurement officers to increase awareness of accessibility standards and potential barriers in the procurement process	Training	Director, Finance	December 2023

Training

Although training in diversity and unconscious bias has been provided to managers and staff, we will create a specific organizational training plan for accessibility that will be provided internally to staff members; it will include communicating with people with different types of disabilities as well as barrier identification tools. We will look at developing this training in 2023-2024 and roll it out to all staff in 2024-2025.

Coming soon:

• Printable version
• Large printable version (larger and clearer font)