Statement by Minister Anand on National AccessAbility Week 2024

OTTAWA, ON, May 27, 2024 /CNW/ – The Honourable Anita Anand, President of the Treasury Board, made the following statement today:  

“National AccessAbility Week (NAAW) is a great opportunity to bring Canadians together to recognize the contributions of persons with disabilities and celebrate the accomplishments of the Office of Public Service Accessibility (OPSA) in their work to remove barriers to accessibility and disability inclusion.

During NAAW 2019, the Office of Public Service Accessibility launched “Nothing Without Us: An Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada“, to guide the Government in becoming more accessible and inclusive as an employer and service provider. In it, the Government committed to hiring 5,000 new employees with disabilities by 2025. To date, through our work to remove employment barriers to hiring, we have hired 4,176 persons with disabilities into our workplace.

The theme for this year’s government-wide NAAW event is “Brave Conversations: Bold Actions“! In the first five years of the Strategy, employees with disabilities have had many brave conversations about barriers they face at work. In response, organizations across the federal public service and TBS have worked with employees with disabilities to find creative and enduring solutions to remove these barriers. 

Accessibility in the federal public service is about ensuring all employees have what they need to do their best work in an environment that is welcoming and inclusive. One of OPSA’s core functions is the management of a Centralized Enabling Workplace Fund (CEWF). This innovative fund invested $10 million over the span of 5 years to experiment with and test new initiatives to make the federal workplace more accessible. The GC Workplace Accessibility Passport, a flagship project under the CEWF, was adopted by 60 federal organizations to provide support to employees with disabilities throughout their public service careers. The Lending Library Service Pilot, Neurodiversity Recruitment Pilot, and LED Lighting Project are all examples of projects that grow organizational capacity in accessibility confidence and competence and pave the way to a barrier-free and inclusive public service by 2040.  

OPSA’s work is not done. That’s why their funding was renewed as part of Budget 2024. This will allow them to continue their important work in implementing the accessibility strategy and ensure that the public service continues to identify, prevent and remove barriers faced by persons with disabilities, as required by the Accessible Canada Act.” 

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SOURCE Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat