Enercare Accessibility Plan

Our organization is committed to fulfilling our requirements under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. This accessibility plan outlines the steps Enercare is taking to meet those requirements and to improve opportunities for people with disabilities.

Our plan shows how Enercare will play its role in making Ontario an accessible province for all Ontarians.

Section One: Past Achievements to Remove and Prevent Barriers (2012 – 2019)

This document includes a summary of the accessibility initiatives Enercare has completed.

A. Customer Service

Enercare strives to service our customers in a way that provides equal treatment in a manner which respects the dignity and independence of people of all disabilities.  We have established policies and procedures which lay out these commitments below. 

Accessibility Policies

Enercare established policies and procedures for the Customer Service Standard which includes how to communicate and interact with people with disabilities and welcoming people with disabilities who use assistive devices or are accompanied by a support person or a service animal into an Enercare office building.  These policies are available on our company intranet and on our company website.

All existing employees and contractors are trained on the Customer Service Standard and we have made this training part of our onboarding process for all new hires and contractors.

Accessible Formats and Communication Supports

Upon request, Enercare will provide or arrange to provide accessible formats of external communication and will answer any questions customers may have about external content such as invoices by telephone or email. 

Maintenance of Facilities

Enercare’s office building’s areas that are open to customers have the following elements for customers with disabilities:

• Elevator;
• Powered door operator;
• Wheelchair accessible bathrooms;
• Accessible parking

These elements are maintained on a regular basis. In the event of a planned or unexpected disruption to these elements for customers with disabilities, Enercare will notify customers promptly. This clearly posted notice will include:

• Reason for the disruption;
• Anticipated length of time of the disruption; and
• Description of alternative facilities or services, if available.

The notice will be posted on the front entrance doorway and at the front reception desk, if applicable.

B. Information and Communications

Enercare strives to provide information and communication to our customers and employees in an accessible format and will work with both employees and customers to fulfill all requests for information in accessible formats.  We have established policies and procedures which lay out these commitments outlined below.

Accessibility Plans

Enercare created this multi-year accessibility plan, which was reviewed and updated in October 2016 and has been revised again in November 2019. The revised version of the multi-year accessibility plan has been posted on our Enercare website.  We will continue to review and update our plan at least once every five years.

Accessibility Policies

Enercare created a statement of commitment to establish Enercare’s vision and goals for accessibility and published this commitment on our Enercare website.  

We also reviewed current policies to ensure they met Customer Service Standards, Information and Communication Standards and Employment Standards.  Our existing Customer Service Standard policy was revised to an Accessibility Policy which incorporates all three standards. This revised policy was posted on our company intranet and our company website.

Websites and Web Content

Enercare’s website conforms to level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1.

Feedback

We established a dedicated e-mail address for people with disabilities to provide feedback on the way Enercare provides goods and services to people with disabilities.  The e-mail address [email protected] is documented in our policy posted on the Enercare website and is available on our accessibility page on our website.  E-mails sent to this address are directly sent to designated members of our AODA Committee and the Legal department. If email is not a suitable method to provide feedback, customers may contact 1-800-266-3939.  All feedback will be directed to the appropriate department to investigate and a response will be provided within 15 business days.

C. Employment

Enercare is committed to fair and accessible employment practices.  We have established policies and procedures which layout these requirements as outlined below.

Workplace Emergency Response Information

We reviewed our current staff to determine if there were current employees with current disabilities that required individualized workplace emergency plans. We also developed a process to ensure individualized workplace emergency plans are created for newly hired employees with disabilities as part of the onboarding process.

Recruitment, Assessment and Selection Process

We reviewed Enercare’s recruitment, assessment & selection processes to ensure they include accommodation for applicants with disabilities.  As a result, we updated our template for all external and internal job postings to state that Enercare will make accommodations that will take into account the applicant’s accessibility needs upon request.  Our Offer of Employment Letter templates have been updated to include a paragraph to advise of our accommodation policy and where it can be located on our external website.

Through training and internal communications, we notified all employees about the availability of accommodation for applicants with disabilities in Enercare’s recruitment process and the requirement to provide suitable accommodation that takes into account the applicant’s needs due to disability.

Informing Employees of Supports

Through training and internal communications, we informed all employees of our policies to support employees with disabilities.  This information is also provided to new employees in their Offer of Employment and as part of the orientation and onboarding process.  Updated information will be provided to employees whenever there is a change to any existing policies on the provision of job accommodations.

Accessible Formats and Communication Supports for Employees

We will consult with employees with disabilities to determine which accessible formats of communication they require and we will provide information needed to perform job and other employee communication in accessible formats as required and requested by employees.

Individual Accommodation Plans

We developed an Individual Accommodation Plan form and have made it available to employees on our intranet.  When identified, managers will develop individual accommodation plans for employees with disabilities with the participation of the employee.  These plans will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis or when requested by the employee.

Return to Work Process

We reviewed our return to work process to ensure that we take into account the accessibility needs of employees with disabilities.  Our Return to Work process is facilitated by an external provider that manages the cases with support from the employee’s physician and provides us with requirements and accommodation needs for employees returning back to work.

Performance Management

We reviewed the performance management policy and procedures to ensure we take into account the accessibility needs of employees with disabilities.  Where needed, we will provide performance management forms and documents in accessible formats.

Career Development and Advancement

We reviewed our processes to ensure that employees with disabilities as well as their individual accommodation plan are taken into consideration with respect to career development and advancement.  Whenever an employee with a disability is given a new role as part of a career development or an advancement opportunity, the needs of the employee are considered in order to determine if there are any additional adjustments needed for the new responsibilities.

Redeployment

We reviewed our processes to ensure that employees with disabilities as well as the individual accommodation plan are taken into consideration with respect redeployment.  Whenever an employee is redeployed to a new role as part of a redeployment, the needs of the employee are considered in order to determine if there are any additional adjustments needed.  

Training

Employees were trained on the areas of the accessibility standards that are relevant to their work responsibilities.  All employees were trained on the Customer Service Standard and the Ontario Human Rights Code as it applies to people with disabilities.  We have made this training part of our onboarding process for all new hires and contractors.

Section Two: Strategies and Actions Going Forward 

Enercare is committed to treating all people in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and independence and is committed to providing a barrier-free environment for our customer, suppliers, visitors, employees and other stakeholders that enter our premises or access our information.

Enercare will continue to follow the policies, procedures and commitments outlined above under the Customer Service, Employment and Information and Communication Standards.  

Our strategy to ensure that these commitments are fulfilled is to build an Accessibility Committee with employees from various departments across the organization that will meet on a bi-annual basis to review our policies, procedures and initiatives as well as the requirements of the Accessibility of Ontarians with Disabilities Act to ensure that we continue to follow these requirements and commitments.

For More Information

For more information on this accessibility plan, please contact us at [email protected].