2023 Accessibility Progress Report

1. General

Statement of Commitment

The Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) is dedicated to being accessible to everyone. This includes making our workplace, activities, and services accessible to people with disabilities. We understand that accessibility needs evolve over time and that people with disabilities are the experts in their own experience and accessibility. We commit to listening to people who have disabilities and to keep improving accessibility at CDIC for all our stakeholders. This includes all the people interested in what we do, including our employees, members of the public and our member institutions (financial institutions like banks, credit unions, etc.). Wherever possible, we will address barriers as soon as we become aware of them even if they are not scheduled in our Accessibility Plan.

Summary of Progress

Over the last year we have worked hard to achieve the goals that we outlined in our first Accessibility Plan. Some of our accomplishments this year include:

• Our employees are allowed to work anywhere in our offices. We have different types of work environments for employees to choose from, including quiet and smaller spaces.
• We completed a review of our hiring process and made changes to improve accessibility. We have had positive feedback from candidates since these changes were made.
• We are in the process of researching and launching accessibility training opportunities for our IT and Communications teams.
• Our webmaster (the person in charge of our website) has completed advanced accessibility training.

Contact Information & Feedback Process

CDIC welcomes all feedback, including anonymous feedback, about this Progress Report and our Accessibility Plan. We also welcome any feedback about accessibility at CDIC. We are committed to reviewing the feedback we receive in good faith and taking steps to address barriers identified through this feedback.

The person responsible to collect and keep any feedback we receive is:

Information about how to give feedback to CDIC is also available on our public website.

If you give us feedback, we will respond to you within one (1) week to let you know that we received your feedback (unless your feedback was anonymous). We will collect and store all the feedback we get about accessibility in one document and will save it for at least seven years. We will use the feedback we get to help us measure the progress of our accessibility goals, learn about accessibility barriers we were not aware of before, and to help us refine our Accessibility Plans and Progress Reports in the future.

Alternative Formats

You can request alternative formats of this Progress Report, our Accessibility Plan, and a description of our feedback process by contacting:

An electronic version of this Report can be downloaded from our website here. This electronic version works with assistive technology.

CDIC will provide this Report in print or larger print within 15 days of a request.

CDIC will also provide this Report in braille or audio format within 45 days of a request.

2. Areas Described under Section 5 of the ACA

Built Environment

In our first Accessibility Plan we set three goals related to our built environments. The following section will show those goals, and the progress we have made towards them.

1. Goal: By March 2023, CDIC will set up “quiet workspace” areas in our offices. Employees can work in a quiet workspace if they need a break from the open-plan office.
   
   Progress: CDIC has now put in place a model in our offices that we call “hoteling”. We have a variety of places to work, including quiet and closed spaces. Hoteling allows each employee to choose the type of workspace that provides the type of environment they prefer to work in. This has improved the accessibility of our office spaces for employees with disabilities.
   
2. Goal: By June 2023, CDIC will review and update our emergency evacuation plans for people with disabilities in both offices.
   
   Progress: CDIC has updated our emergency plans for both our Toronto and Ottawa offices. Both plans now include information about evacuation for people with disabilities. We have also assigned some of our employees to provide help to people with disabilities in the event of an emergency and have provided training to those employees.
   
3. Goal: By December 2023, CDIC will review our offices in Ottawa and in Toronto to assess the need for further accessibility features.
   
   Progress: CDIC is currently completing a review of our office spaces and we are on track to complete this review by the target deadline of December 2023. Once this review is complete, we will begin to address the changes needed to improve the accessibility of our office spaces. Details about what changes we plan to make will appear in our future Accessibility Plans and Progress Reports.

Employment

In our first Accessibility Plan we set four goals related to employment. The following section will show those goals, and the progress we have made towards them.

1. Goal: By June 2023, CDIC will develop and publish an alternative process for job applications for individuals with disabilities who experience barriers to the online system.
   
   Progress: CDIC has not yet published an alternative process for job seekers who experience barriers navigating the online job application system. However, we continue to work with all candidates to provide whatever accommodations are needed throughout the hiring and interview process.
   
   CDIC plans to update our online job application system in 2024. When we do this upgrade, we plan to remove the barriers that applicants with disabilities might be experiencing with our current online system.
   
2. Goal: By the end of 2023, CDIC will develop a corporate policy about accommodations for employees and candidates with disabilities.
   
   Progress: CDIC is in the process of developing our corporate policy about accommodations for employees with disabilities. We are on track to complete and publish this policy by the end of 2023.
   
3. Goal: By the end of 2023, CDIC will conduct a review of hiring processes to look for barriers. We will make plans to remove those barriers.
   
   Progress: CDIC has completed this review of our hiring process. We incorporated Gender Bias Analysis+ (GBA+) when drafting job descriptions to make them as inclusive as possible. Based on feedback from neurodiverse candidates, we revised the descriptions to include only essential skills, making sure to use plain language. We drafted an Accommodation Policy that includes job applicants as well as employees. We trained and coached hiring managers on the strategies to make our workplace more accessible.
   
4. Goal: By the end of 2024, CDIC will conduct a review of the accessibility of the platform where we post jobs. Once this review is complete, we will plan to remove any barriers.
   
   Progress: CDIC is in the process of completing this review. Whatever information is learned from this review will be used when we redesign our job application system in 2024. Our goal is to remove as many accessibility barriers on that platform as possible.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

In our first Accessibility Plan we set three goals related to our information and communication technologies (ICT). The following section will show those goals, and the progress we have made towards them.

1. Goal: By the end of 2023, CDIC will conduct a website accessibility audit that includes a review by persons with disabilities. We will remove the minor website barriers found through our consultations and others that are discovered. These include:
   • Changes to text contrast and size;
   • Improvements to structure and formatting; and
   • Improving navigation of the website for people who are using a screen reader.
   
   Progress: CDIC completed a review of our website accessibility at the beginning of 2023. This review included gathering informal feedback from people who have disabilities. We have since addressed the barriers that were located through this review and throughout consultation with people who have disabilities. We will continue to seek out feedback about any barriers on our website and will actively look to address those barriers as soon as we become aware of them. CDIC is committed to maintaining WCAG 2.O AA level compliance but has also embedded an access widget from accessiBe to optimize the user experience.
   
2. Goal: By the end of 2024, CDIC will conduct a review of the accessibility of the internal website that only our employees use (which we call the Intranet). After that review, we will plan to remove any barriers in our control.
   
   Progress: CDIC is in the process of conducting this review and making changes to our intranet website. We are planning to improve the overall user experience of this website by introducing new widgets for employees and are also reviewing all the pages to make sure that they meet our accessibility standards. We are on track to complete this review and make changes to our intranet site by the end of 2024.
   
3. Goal: By the end of 2024, CDIC will provide web accessibility training for all employees who create or edit web pages or content for the web.
   
   Progress: CDIC is in the process of researching accessibility training options for employees who create and edit our webpages. We are on track with this goal and this training will be launched in 2024.
   
   As a first step, our Webmaster (who is the main person in charge of our website) completed an extensive web accessibility training through the Web Accessibility Professional (WAS) & Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies program. The webmaster will continue to refresh this training regularly. We hope that this will set the tone for our entire IT team and that it signals the importance of accessibility for all our information and communication technologies.

Communication, other than ICT

CDIC ensures that its approach to public awareness is accessible. Being in service to the general public — CDIC knows that awareness of deposit insurance helps people make decisions about their money. Also, we know we can do better. In our first Accessibility Plan, we set five goals related to our communications, other than ICT. The following section will show those goals, and the progress we have made towards them.

1. Goal: By the end of 2023, key documents for the public will be available in alternative formats.
   
   Progress: CDIC is working towards this goal. We have identified which documents are “key for the public”. We are working to reduce the number of documents that are published to consolidate information.
   
   We hope to have all the documents that we decide are for the public fully accessible by the end of 2023.
   
2. Goal: By the end of 2023 we will increase the accessibility of our social media by doing the following:
   • Making our contact information and website address visible on platforms;
   • Writing posts in plain language and without acronyms;
   • Capitalizing the first letter of each word in hashtags and placing hashtags at the end of captions;
   • Adding alt-text for images;
   • Making sure photos have sharp colour contrast; and
   • Using times closed captions for video and Descriptive Transcripts, where possible.
   
   Progress: We do our best to make sure that all our social media posts follow accessibility best practices using Social Media Accessibility | Accessibility Hub (queensu.ca) as our guide.
   
3. Goal: By the end of 2023, CDIC will ensure that captions for all videos are available and easily accessible.
   
   Progress: We have gone back to update some of our older videos to make sure that they all have captions. We still need to complete a final audit to make sure that all the videos have been reviewed. We will complete this goal by the end of 2024.
   
4. Goal: By the end of 2024, CDIC will publish transcripts of all videos so that individuals who cannot access the videos are still able to receive the information.
   
   Progress: We currently use automated transcripts for the videos that we host on YouTube. By the end of 2024, we will go back and make sure there are transcripts for all videos that were posted earlier.
   
5. Goal: By the end of 2024, CDIC will provide accessibility training for all employees who work on communication activities.
   
   Progress: We have begun to provide training opportunities for our employees who work on communication activities. In 2022, we hosted a workshop on how to write in plain language.
   
   In 2024 we plan to research options for more formal training opportunities for our communication staff. We will launch this training as soon as we can.

Procurement

In our first Accessibility Plan, we set one goal related to procurement The following section will show that goal, and the progress we have made towards it.

1. Goal: By the end of 2024, CDIC will develop rules for accessibility in procurement. These rules will include when and how accessibility should be considered; and reviewing all templates to identify areas where accessibility can/should be considered.
   
   Progress: We are currently in the process of researching best practices for accessible procurement. Once that research is finished, we will make changes to our procurement process. We are on track to complete this goal by the end of 2024.

Design and Delivery of Programs and Services

In our first Accessibility Plan, CDIC did not identify any specific goals related to our programs and services. This is because our main service is to provide information to the public and this is primarily done through our Information and Communication Technologies and other forms of Communication (not-ICT). Therefore, the goals that we have set in those sections of our accessibility plan, will contribute towards improving our programs and services.

CDIC will continue to look for ways to improve the accessibility of our programs and services and if any additional barriers are discovered within our programs and services, we will address them in our future Accessibility Plans and Progress Reports.

Transportation

CDIC does not run any transportation services. Therefore, this priority area is not applicable to CDIC.

3. Training

In our first Accessibility Plan, we committed to train all our employees on disability and accessibility awareness by the end of 2024.

To advance this goal, over the last year we have invited guest speakers and increased disability and accessibility knowledge through awareness campaigns. We celebrated National Accessibility Awareness Week in May with a speaker on Disability and Employment and we publicly celebrated International Day of Persons with Disabilities. We also brought in a guest speaker to talk about providing accommodations, mental health, and employee wellbeing.

By the end of 2024, we will develop a coordinated plan of invited speakers who will help our employees raise awareness of people living with disabilities. We hope that these invited speakers will help increase understanding and help us make sure that our workplace is inclusive to people with disabilities.

4. Consultations

CDIC is committed to listening to and learning from people with disabilities. To uphold this commitment, CDIC will consult people with disabilities in all aspects of our Accessibility Plans and Progress Reports.

For this Progress Report, we consulted with our employees who have disabilities, and a focus group of people with disabilities. To consult with our employees, we sent them a survey and asked them to share their feedback about our progress over the last year. Twenty-seven (27) employees responded to this survey and six of those people are employees with disabilities. Our employees provided some specific feedback about accessibility, for example that some of our office doors are still difficult to open. This barrier was identified as part of our accessibility audit noted in the Built Environment section above. We are in the process of addressing these barriers. They also gave feedback about the accessibility of our internal meetings, especially for employees who are Deaf or have hearing loss. Overall, our employees are happy with the progress we are making. Many also suggested that we focus our attention on invisible disabilities and people who are neurodiverse. We will take this feedback into consideration as we plan for our future accessibility initiatives and our next Accessibility Plan.

We also held a focus group with eight people who have disabilities and live across Canada. These people represent people in the public who have disabilities and who might one day need to interact with CDIC. We sent them a draft of this Progress Report and then held a virtual meeting where we asked for their feedback. The focus group members gave us feedback that we were able to apply when writing this report. Some of this feedback included:

• The group asked us to provide more details in some areas. For example, they wanted to know what kind of training our webmaster took and so we included that detail in the final version of this report.
• The group gave us tips on how to make sure this progress report is accessible to all users, for example they told us to avoid using tables because they are not accessible to people who use screen readers.
• They asked us to clarify some of the wording and add definitions.
• The group shared positive feedback about this report and our commitment to accessibility over the last year. They encouraged us to always keep improving accessibility at CDIC.

5. Feedback

Currently, we have not received any feedback through our official feedback mechanism. We believe that the reason for this lack of feedback is that the public does not interact with CDIC on a regular basis. Although we work to protect Canadians’ money, some people are not familiar with CDIC and, therefore they do not have feedback on our accessibility.

We have received feedback from our employees with disabilities through our outreach and consultation activities (see the section above called Consultations). We will continue to be open to receiving feedback about accessibility at CDIC and about our Accessibility Plan and this Progress Report.

6. Conclusion

CDIC is committed to improving accessibility by continuously monitoring and updating our progress. Over the next year we plan to keep advancing our accessibility commitments forward, while also looking ahead to the future. We will begin to think about our next Accessibility Plan and will look for new opportunities to improve accessibility at CDIC.