Accessibility & Accommodation

PURPOSE

To provide accessible, quality legal services to the residents of Durham Region in a welcoming, safe and respectful manner.  To make every reasonable effort to ensure our legal services accommodate the unique needs and disabilities our clients may present.

POLICY

DCLC will abide by the Ontario Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, the Ontario Human Rights Code, the Employment Standards Act and all other government regulations and industry standards as they relate to accessibility and accommodation.

PROCEDURE

DCLC has a number of pre-set accommodation strategies and practices in place:

Training – All employees, Board members, volunteers and students receive ongoing training on a wide variety of topics related to accessibility and accommodation.

Regular Policy Review – This policy is part of the Clinic’s Quality Program which includes regular review and updates as needed of all policies.

Customer Satisfaction Survey – DCLC promotes customer feedback in all areas of its service, including service delivery in relation to accommodation and accessibility.

Service Animals – The Clinic welcomes the use of service animals.  Proper verification and advance notice is required.

Support Persons – DCLC welcomes and encourages clients to bring in support persons when needed.

Physical Space – DCLC is located in a Mall with ground level access, automatic doors, free parking, and close to public transit.  The Clinic also has private meetings rooms for client use.

Information and Communication – DCLC has access to language interpretation services.  The Clinic also endeavours to give ample notice to any change of service delivery.

Other Accommodations – The Clinic strives to meet all reasonable accommodation requests where possible and where privacy laws, conflicting priority legislation and undue hardship (as outlined in the Ontario Human Rights Code) do not prevent such accommodations.  Our social media sites are for general information, education and purposes of promoting justice reform.  Although the formats themselves have accommodation capability, they are not a form of accommodation or direct client / Clinic interaction.