Guide to Developing an Accessibility Plan
Table of contents
The Accessible Saskatchewan Act
Consult persons with disabilities
Appendix B: Accessibility barriers
Appendix C: Accessible engagement
About accessibility
The Accessible Saskatchewan Act
The Accessible Saskatchewan Act came into force on December 3, 2023. The purpose of this Act is to remove and prevent accessibility barriers that persons with disabilities experience.
Accessibility plans
The Accessible Saskatchewan Act requires the Government of Saskatchewan and designated public sector bodies to create an accessibility plan.
An accessibility plan is intended to help identify accessibility barriers for people who are in, or interact with, an organization and describes the actions an organization will take to remove and prevent accessibility barriers.
Why this matters
Persons with disabilities face barriers in their daily lives that impact their ability to fully participate in their communities.
According to Statistics Canada, 29.8 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population over the age of 15 identifies as having a disability (2022).
The Accessible Saskatchewan Act was created to prevent and remove barriers that persons with disabilities experience. Removing barriers will improve the accessibility of our province and promote strong, inclusive communities.
What this means
Organizations prescribed as public sector bodies in The Accessible Saskatchewan Regulations must create an accessibility plan.
Prescribed organizations must publish their first accessibility plan by December 3, 2025, this is within two years of The Accessible Saskatchewan Act coming into force. The Government of Saskatchewan is also required to publicly post an accessibility plan by December 3, 2024.
There are certain requirements that prescribed organizations must meet when developing and updating their accessibility plan, such as consulting persons with disabilities. The Develop Your Plan section of this guide provides more information about the requirements for prescribed organizations.
Prescribed organizations with existing accessibility plans that meet all requirements outlined under the Act are not required to create a new accessibility plan.
The Saskatchewan Accessibility Office has developed this guide to assist public sector bodies to develop their accessibility plan. The provincial government’s accessibility plan will also be posted before public sector bodies are required to complete their plans and can be used as a reference.
Before you begin
The following optional steps can help your organization develop an effective accessibility plan:
- Establish a team.
- Identify a champion.
- Learn about accessibility.
Establish a team
Identify a group of passionate and driven individuals to be on your organization’s accessibility planning team.
It is recommended to include people who will be impacted by your organization’s accessibility plan. This may include people responsible for facilities, people trained in information and technology, and human resource personnel.
It is important to also include persons with disabilities and people who have experience supporting persons with disabilities whenever possible.
Identify a champion
Identify a leader in your organization to champion your organization’s accessibility plan. Involving organizational leaders in plan development and implementation helps demonstrate a commitment to accessibility.
Learn about accessibility
There are several ways to improve your understanding about accessibility. Choose the approach or approaches that work best for your organization.
- Sign up for an account to receive news and updates from the Saskatchewan Accessibility Office.
- Read the Accessibility Legislation Engagement Report.
- Read The Accessible Saskatchewan Act, and familiarize yourself with the definition of disability in the Act.
- Learn about different types of accessibility barriers.
- Invite people from local disability and accessibility related organizations to share information with your team or office.
- Access online resources, such as webinars and informational materials, published by disability and accessibility related organizations.
Develop your plan
The Accessible Saskatchewan Act requires designated public sector bodies to complete the following steps when developing and updating their accessibility plan:
- Consult persons with disabilities.
- Write your plan.
- Publish your plan online.
- Receive comments on your plan.
- Review and update your plan every three years.
A designated public sector body must also consider the principles of inclusion, adaptability, diversity, collaboration, self-determination, and universal design when developing and updating their accessibility plan.
Consult persons with disabilities
Designated public sector bodies are required to consult persons with disabilities when developing and updating their plan.
There are no specific requirements for how your organization engages persons with disabilities. Your organization can develop an engagement strategy based on the populations you serve and available resources. For example, you might consider creating a survey or hosting a forum to ask people who interact with your organization about the accessibility barriers they experience and their ideas for improvement.
It is important that your resources and events are accessible so that everyone, including persons with disabilities, can participate. Please refer to the Accessible Engagement section of this document for suggestions to help ensure your engagement strategies are accessible.
Identify accessibility barriers
Accessibility barriers are obstacles that make it difficult or impossible for persons with disabilities to do all the things they want and need to do in their communities. Accessibility barriers are created when systems, spaces, objects, and information are designed in a way that does not allow all people to use them.
Evaluate your organization to identify barriers that persons with disabilities may experience when interacting with your organization. It is important to keep the focus of your plan on removing barriers, not on a person’s disability.
See the section of this guide on Accessibility Barriers for information on different types and examples of barriers.
Identify priorities and strategies
Your organization is not required to remove every barrier immediately. Once you have identified accessibility barriers for your organization, prioritize which barriers to address first.
Tips to help identify priorities:
- Make a list of all barriers you identified and strategies to address them. Examples of accessibility barriers can be found under Accessibility Barriers in Appendix B of this guide.
- Determine which barriers have the biggest impact on persons with disabilities and what actions can be taken to address them.
- Consider if any policies or practices are creating accessibility barriers and what changes can be made to address them.
Write your plan
Draft your organization’s accessibility plan based on the accessibility barriers you are prioritizing and the actionable steps you will take to remove them.
There is no minimum or maximum number of actions your organization must commit to in your accessibility plan. What is important is that your accessibility plan results in meaningful change and improved accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Using plain language will improve the accessibility of your plan. More information about plain language is included in the Accessible Engagement section of this guide.
An Accessibility Plan Template can be downloaded here. Your organization may use this template to help prepare your organization’s plan, but there is no requirement to do so.
Joint accessibility plans
The Accessible Saskatchewan Act allows two or more designated public sector bodies to develop and update a joint accessibility plan, with approval from the Saskatchewan Accessibility Office. Please contact the Saskatchewan Accessibility Office if you would like to learn more about this option or to make a request to develop a joint accessibility plan.
Publish your plan
The Accessible Saskatchewan Act requires that designated public sector bodies make their accessibility plan publicly available through a website or other suitable electronic means. Designated public sector bodies are not required to have their accessibility plan reviewed or approved by the Government of Saskatchewan prior to publication.
If you do not have a website or other electronic platform, contact the Saskatchewan Accessibility Office to identify another format you can use to share your accessibility plan.
Receive comments on your plan
Designated public sector bodies must establish a process for receiving comments from the public on their accessibility plan.
Organizations can choose a process that best aligns with their programs and resources. Options may include providing a phone number or email that people can contact to share their comments, or creating an online feedback tool that people can use to submit comments.
Keeping a record of feedback received will be useful when it comes time to review and update your organization’s plan.
Review and update your plan
A public sector body must review and update their accessibility plan every three years, at minimum.
As a public sector body, your organization must complete all of the steps outlined in the Develop Your Plan section of this guide when updating your accessibility plan.
Evaluating and documenting the successes and challenges in completing the actions and achieving the accessibility goals will make the review process easier. During this review period, you can begin planning future strategies and actions to improve the accessibility of your organization.
Appendix A: Glossary
Accommodation: Any technical aid or device, personal support or disability-related support that a person may require. This can include, but is not limited to, accessible document formats, mobility supports to attend a meeting, interpretation or captioning services, or ensuring space has sensory sensitive features.
Adaptability: The ability to be modified for a new use or purpose. Disability and accessibility are evolving concepts that change as services, technology and attitudes change.
Alternate formats: Alternate ways of providing information beyond traditional printed material. Examples include large print, text-only documents and Braille.
Alternative text: Also referred to as alt tags or alt attributes. Alternative text provides a verbal description of a visual or graph for individuals with visual impairments who use screen readers.
Barrier: Anything that hinders or challenges the full and equal participation in society of persons with disabilities.
Captioning: Text at the bottom of the screen (television/video) allows people to follow spoken dialogue and distinct noises. Closed captioning is similar, but the text must be decoded to appear on the screen.
Disability: Any impairment that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders an individual’s full and equal participation in society. Disabilities can be permanent, temporary or episodic in nature, and may or may not be evident. There are many types of disabilities that people experience, including physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication and sensory impairments.
Diversity: Recognizing that each person is unique and has different backgrounds. Diversity means including or involving people from a range of different social or ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, etc.
Inclusion: Providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as individuals with physical or intellectual disabilities and members of other minority groups.
Large print: Printed information provided in a large font size (18 pt or larger) for people who have low vision. For easier reading, select “sans serif” fonts.
Plain language: Clear, conversational communication that makes sense to the intended audience. The goal of plain language is to communicate so clearly that the intended audience can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use the information.
Self-determination: People are empowered to make their own choices and control their own lives.
Service animal: The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission defines a service animal as an animal with specialized training to assist a person with a recognized physical and/or mental disability.
Universal design: Universal design means making things safer, easier and more convenient for everyone. It involves a range of design concepts, including design of products, or spaces and environments, to provide access in a way that respects all abilities.
Appendix B: Accessibility barriers
There are many types of accessibility barriers that persons with disabilities may experience. Examples of different types of barriers are outlined below.
Physical and architectural
Structural and design-based obstacles that prevent or limit mobility or access.
Examples of physical barriers include:
- doorknobs that cannot be turned by a person with limited dexterity or strength instead of easier to use lever-style handles;
- public events hosted at venues that can only be accessed by steps; and walkways with obstacles, such as snow-covered paths into buildings.
Information and communications
Obstacles experienced by persons with disabilities related to hearing, speaking, reading, writing or understanding, and those who communicate in different ways.
Examples of information and communication barriers include:
- using small print and poor color contrast;
- creating websites and documents without considering how some people with vision impairments use screen readers; writing documents with complex language instead of simple and easy to understand words; and
- only providing customers with one option to contact your organization such as by phone instead of multiple options like email, text message, and in-person.
Attitudinal
When people act or think based on false assumptions.
Examples of attitudinal barriers include:
- assuming that someone with an intellectual disability cannot make decisions, instead of asking them if they would need any support;
- speaking to an aid or interpreter instead of directly to a person with a disability;
- assuming that all persons with disabilities require the same accommodations instead of asking how you can support them; and
- not considering the needs of people with different types of disabilities when planning events.
Appendix C: Accessible engagement
Consulting persons with disabilities is a key requirement in developing an accessibility plan. As your organization develops an engagement approach, there are steps you can take to make resources and events more accessible so that persons with disabilities can more easily participate.
The following information is provided to help your organization plan accessible engagement.
Begin the conversation
Everyone communicates differently and accessibility is not one size fits all. When planning your engagement, consider how people will engage with your organization and whether everyone will be able to access the same information.
Accessible Communication
When you communicate with people during your engagement there are a couple of things to consider to ensure that the information is accessible to persons with disabilities. Ensuring that your staff know how to communicate with people with different types of disabilities is important to facilitate respectful conversations. Writing in plain language, by using simple, common terms is easier for all people to understand. If complex terms are needed, providing a definition or using examples can be beneficial. Offering to provide documents in alternate formats upon request can also ensure that people are able to access information.
Accessible Engagement
You may want to consider offering different ways to engage persons with disabilities. Online engagement is a popular strategy, but it might not work for everyone as technology barriers can prevent persons with disabilities from accessing information.
The following are some considerations to help ensure online and in-person engagement opportunities are accessible to persons with disabilities.
Online engagement
If you are hosting engagement sessions online, you may want to consider how you format your information. Including alternative text for images like pictures and charts helps people who use screen readers access information that is presented visually. To make content easier to read use a minimum of 14pt text and use easy to read fonts like Aptos, Arial, or Calibri. If you are using a website to host your information and engagement tools, ensure that when users zoom in on the page that things are resized so that they do not have to scroll the page left or right to find information and are able to navigate the page without using a mouse.
In-person engagement
If you are conducting in person engagement there are a few things that you may want to consider to ensure an accessible event. To ensure that the entrance to the venue is accessible consider the availability of drop off and pick up areas close to the entrance, as well as the availability of accessible parking spaces near the entrance. Also consider the paths to all venue entrances and meeting rooms to ensure they are safe and free from obstacles. Ensuring that all doorways have automatic door openers or can be propped open makes navigating spaces easier for people who use wheelchairs and other assistive devices. Within meeting rooms consider having multiple seating options available, like chairs with and without armrests and empty spaces at adjustable height tables for people who use wheelchairs.
Questions?
Please contact the Saskatchewan Accessibility Office for more information or to request an alternate format of this guide.
Saskatchewan Accessibility Office
14th Floor, 1920 Broad Street
Regina, SK, S4P 3V6
Phone: 306-787-7283
Toll-free: 1-877-915-7468
Email: accessiblesk@gov.sk.ca
