Small businesses shouldn't have to report their accessibility findings, review finds

The rules around reporting on compliance with Manitoba's accessibility guidelinesare too onerous forsmall business owners, an independent review says.

The study, which was commissioned by the province and released publicly on Wednesday, says businesses with 20 to 49employees should not have todocument their policies and procedures forreducingbarriers for people living with disabilities, nor be forced to make those guidelinespublicly available.

Businesses with fewer than 20 employees are already exempt,and the review suggests the threshold should be extended to all businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

The report says theAccessibilityforManitobansAct willonly succeed with the "goodwill and support of the wider community" and"creating undue hardship on small businesses would likely not advance this objective."

But disabilitiesadvocate Carlos Sosasays there's no way to know whether a business is complying if there's no documentation.

"The recommendation effectively lets even small businesses off the hook," making enforcement efforts against these businesses nearly impossible, he said.

The Ontario government made a similarchangeafter receiving complaints that small businesses don't have the employees or resources to document their policies.

The province said in a news release Wednesday that itintends to adopt many of the report's recommendations, though it didn'tspecify which ones.

Not practical, retail advocate says

The Retail Council of Canada has lobbied the Manitoba government tofocuson implementation over documentation, just like Ontario, saidJohn Graham, the council's director of government relations in the Prairies.

"Small businesses just don't have written documentation or written training on any of the things that they do," Graham said."It'sjust intuitive and they react more spontaneously."

Implementation of Manitoba's new accessibility standards is still in its early stages;the customer service standard isthe first of five to be put inforce.

The customer service regulation, which came into effect for private businesses last November (it was already in effectfor the provincial government andlarge public-sector organizations), requiresevery business and organization to provide goods and services in a barrier-free way.

The regulations cover everythingfrom training staff to the built environment, but don'tprescribe specific measures, such as installing ramps at raised doorways.

The report's author, Theresa Harvey Pruden, described her review as limited because there are still four accessibility standards that haven't been put into effect, but she found several areas for improvement.

Harvey Pruden recommended more support for small municipalities and businesses, better promotion of future accessibility changes and calling on other government departments to assist thesmall office behindaccessibility reforms.

The report also found there is confusion among smaller organizations as to what brings them into compliance.

Jonathan Alward,director of provincial affairs for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the federation's membersare willing to do their part.

"All the small business owners we've talked to see this as an incredibly important issue and want to improve accessibility for all of their customers," he said. "Ultimately,this means more access to more customers."

Alward said the province did not communicate the accessibility changes as broadly as it could have, but he's seen signs of improvement.

TheAccessibilityforManitobansAct became law in 2013. It outlines a process for preventing and removing barriers that affect people with disabilities.