Accessible Procurement

Bill C-81, the Accessible Canada Act (ACA) came into effect in 2019. The Act provides a legal framework for making progress on accessibility. It focuses on identifying, removing and preventing barriers to accessibility in 7 key areas:

• the built environment
• information and communication technologies (ICT)
• communication, other than ICT
• the procurement of goods, services and facilities
• the design and delivery of programs and services
• transportation

The Act applies to all federal government departments and agencies, crown corporations (for example, Canada Post), Parliament and First Nations band councils. It also applies to private sector businesses that are regulated by the federal government. Examples include:

• banks
• railroads, airlines, and other transportation companies that cross provincial or international borders
• radio and television stations, and
• cell phone and Internet services

Specifically related to the priority area of “procurement of goods, services, and facilities”, little exists in the market to truly understand what Accessible Procurement actually means and how it may be structured under an upcoming Accessible Procurement Standard under the ACA.

Adaptability Canada is at the forefront of understanding Accessible Procurement to assist federally regulated organizations to create a pragmatic path forward to make meaningful change to their procurement structure to remove barriers and make it accessible, possibly even inclusive.

We have created a solution framework to develop a sustainable approach to evolving procurement in the right direction. It is simple, powerful and exclusive while retaining the absolute requirements of legal and financial compliance to manage risk appropriately.

The solution framework arms our clients with a customized roadmap, tool set and processes to drive positive change throughout the procurement ecosystem including:

• People and how they build positive, lasting, respectful relationships
• Processes that empower diverse suppliers without any risk to the organization
• Policies that are forward thinking and inclusive
• Program development to provide meaningful engagement that leads to successful business relationships with disabled-owned companies
• Technology that enables easy access, provides improved communication capabilities, and enables diverse suppliers to equalize the playing field with larger competitors
• Documents and data that empowers productive responses from suppliers while simplifying purchase requests from internal buyers

Currently Adaptability Canada is seeking partners who are interested in these services to join our ongoing research project supported by Accessibility Standards Canada and get early access to the findings of the research and pilot access to our Accessible Procurement Solution Framework. Visit our partnership area.