For more definitions, please refer to the Glossary of the Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada and the Accessible Canada Act.
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A view or attitude that treats people without disabilities as “normal” and those with disabilities as “abnormal,” “inferior,” or “other.” Ableism can be both intentional and unintentional (Source: Inclusive language considerations).
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The degree to which a product, service, program or environment is available to be accessed or used by all (Source Glossary: Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada).
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Accessibility-confident at VAC
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VAC employees understand what accessibility means and why it matters and are equipped to make the Department a more accessible and inclusive service provider and employer.
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Accessibility Network
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Provides the opportunity for employees with a disability, as well as their allies, to help identify accessibility barriers within the Department, and to provide feedback on the plans under development for a more accessibility-confident VAC. This group provides feedback and input based on their lived experiences and helps guide VAC towards being a more accessibility-confident department.
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Accessibility statements
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Disclose known barriers and what we are doing to remove them. They can provide a starting point for exploring or requesting accommodations.
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Adjustment to rules, policies, workplace cultures, and physical environments to ensure that they do not have a negative effect on a person with a disability within the employment life cycle (Source: Accessibility Standards Canada).
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Includes 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 (Source: Accessible Canada Act).
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Standard for Digital Accessibility that the Government of Canada is adopting for ICT. The industry standard for web accessibility is W3C WCAG (World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). CAN/ASC-EN 301 549:2024 includes WCAG plus accessibility standards for all other digital products, including mobile phones, electronic documents, software, and hardware.
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Standard for employment that the Government of Canada is adopting. The Standard covers diverse types of employment contracts and work-related activities and sets out essential requirements for an accessibility strategy that organizations must adopt to create inclusive and accessible employment systems.
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Standard for plain language that the Government of Canada is adopting. The Standard presents the benefits of plain language, as well recommendations to help organizations create accessible, clear and efficient communication.
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Citizen-developed applications
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Applications built by non-IT VAC employees to solve a business problem. This is typically done using a low-code platform like Microsoft SharePoint or PowerApps.
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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 (Source:Accessible Canada Act).
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Duty to Accommodate
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Employers have a Duty to Accommodate employees to avoid discrimination based on the eleven grounds identified in section 2 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Employers must accommodate employees who fall into the groups protected by the CHRA up to the point of undue hardship (Source: VAC’s internal Employment Equity and Diversity Action Plan 2017-2022).
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Recognizing that people have multiple and diverse identity factors that interconnect to shape their perspectives, ideologies and experiences. (Source: VAC’s Policy on Gender-Based Analysis Plus).
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Helps federal public service employees get the tools, supports, and measures they need to perform at their best and succeed in the workplace. It facilitates recruitment, retention, and career advancement for persons with disabilities. (Source: Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport).
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The learned shared values, beliefs, and assumptions of members of an organization. Values, norms, and symbols are all key aspects of an organization’s culture (Source: Audit of organizational Culture, Internal Audit and Evaluation Sector).
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According to the International Plain Language Federation, “Communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information.” (Source: Plain language, accessibility, and inclusive communications).