2026 to 2028 Accessibility Plan

General

Our commitment to accessibility

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) knows how important it is that all people are free from discrimination in all forms and can participate fully in society. Racism and ableism are rooted in history and current systems. To fight discrimination, we need to educate the public, listen to the communities who face discrimination, and take action.

This plan represents the CRRF’s commitment to listening to people with disabilities and working with them to remove barriers in everything we do. Racialized people with disabilities have unique, intersectional experiences, and their voices are especially important in the work we do. In the preparation of this plan, we looked for barriers in our organization and in the programs and services we offer to remove them. We will continue to work with people with disabilities to identify, remove, and prevent barriers.

The CRRF will always abide by its obligations under the Accessible Canada Act (“the Act”), the Canadian Human Rights Act (“CHRA”), and the Canada Labour Code (“CLC”). Any part of this plan that does not respect the Act or the CHRA will be modified or removed.

About the Canadian Race Relations Foundation

The CRRF is a federal Crown corporation. As a Crown corporation, we are owned by the government, but we are not part of the government. We are also a non-profit organization. Our goal is to work towards a Canada that is free of systemic racism and hate. We aim to do this by sharing knowledge and supporting community. We put on events, do research, develop policies and training, connect with governments and other organizations, and provide grant funding.

We understand that Canada has a racist history and that many forms of racism, including systemic racism, are still present today. We want to make space for important conversations, education, and policy change to end racism in Canada.

The CRRF was created in 1996 by the Canadian government as part of the Japanese Canadian Redress Agreement. Through this agreement, the government apologized for how Japanese Canadians were treated during and after World War II. This agreement inspired the CRRF’s work to end racism for all in Canada.

The CRRF has around 40 employees across Canada, many of whom were hired to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are two offices: one in Toronto and one in Montreal.

Go to the CRRF website to learn more about the organization.

How to contact us and share feedback

The CRRF understands that listening to people with disabilities is important in becoming a more accessible organization. We welcome feedback from our employees, partner organizations, and members of the public

What can I give feedback about?

You can give feedback about:

• this accessibility plan and
• barriers you have encountered when interacting with the CRRF.

Feedback can be given anonymously, without giving a name or contact information. We’ll acknowledge your feedback unless you submitted the feedback anonymously.

How will my feedback be used?

Your feedback will be shared with and considered by the teams responsible for accessibility at the CRRF. It may be actioned while the current accessibility plan is in place, or it may be considered for a future plan. Plans are developed and published every 3 years.

A summary of your feedback and how it was considered will be included in our progress reports. We will keep your feedback for at least 7 years.

How can I give feedback?

If you would like to share your feedback with us, you can contact our Chief Administrative Officer in the following ways:

• Email: accessible@crrf-fcrr.ca
• Phone: 647-403-0367
• Hours of operation: 9:00am to 5:00pm from Monday through Friday. Closed on Saturday, Sunday, and Statutory holidays
• Mail: 6 Sakura Way, Suite 225, Toronto, ON M3C 1Z5

How to ask for alternate formats

If you would like this accessibility plan or a description of our feedback process in an alternative format, please contact our Chief Administrative Officer using any of the following ways:

• Email: accessible@crrf-fcrr.ca
• Phone: 647-403-0367
• Hours of operation: 9:00am to 5:00pm from Monday through Friday. Closed on Saturday, Sunday, and Statutory holidays
• Mail: 6 Sakura Way, Suite 225, Toronto, ON M3C 1Z5

When alternate formats will be ready

We strive to provide alternate formats as quickly as possible. At the latest, the following alternative formats are available upon request within the timelines outlined in the ACA:

Within 15 days of request:

• Print
• Large print (increased font size)

Within 45 days of request:

• Braille (a system of raised dots that people who are blind or who have low vision can read with their fingers) 
• Audio (a recording of someone reading the text out loud)

An accessible electronic version of this accessibility plan is available for immediate download on our website. It is compatible with assistive technologies.

Definitions

The following definitions apply throughout this accessibility plan:

• Disability: Any impairment, or difference in physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, or communication ability. Disabilities can be permanent, temporary, or can change over time.
• Barrier: Anything that might hinder people with disabilities’ full and equal participation. Barriers can be architectural, technological, attitudinal, based on information or communications, or can be the result of a policy or procedure. 
• Accessibility: The design of products, devices, services, environments, technologies, policies and rules in a way that allows all people, including people with a variety of disabilities, to access them.
• Remediate: To fix something or make it right. In this case remediation refers to changing things to make them more accessible.
• Ongoing: The word ongoing is used in this plan to describe activities and goals that are planned to continue. This includes activities that are built into our work and that are continuously being completed. For example, we will share our event checklist with event partners on an ongoing basis. This means we plan to do this moving forward without an end date.
  
  

Consultations

Hearing directly from people with disabilities was essential in the writing of this plan and continues to be important for the CRRF. We are committed to having ongoing conversations and partnerships that will ensure our actions and decisions are accessible and equitable. We know that continuing to consult with people with disabilities and racialized people with disabilities is critical to our work. 

We hired an accessibility consulting firm, Left Turn Right Turn (LTRT), to support our consultation activities, which included gathering feedback from CRRF employees through a survey and consulting with LTRT’s Accessibility Advisory Group. The Accessibility Advisory Group is a group of Canadians with different disabilities, identities, and lived experience who provide feedback in consultations. They are not CRRF employees, but they represent members of the public who could be interacting with our organization. We are grateful for the feedback and experiences that employees and the Accessibility Advisory Group shared with us as part of our consultations.

We have also identified five organizations that work at the intersection of disability and race that we want to work with and consult with. We have reached out to these organizations and are at the early stages of continuing to build relationships.

Employees

We consulted employees through an optional online survey in October 2025. We made the survey accessible in the following ways:

• The survey was designed to be accessible (e.g. plain language, concise, screen reader friendly, adjustable font size, option to save and continue later) and was hosted using an accessible platform called SimpleSurvey
• The survey was available in French and English
• Employees were given an option to speak directly with our partner consultant, Left Turn Right Turn, if they preferred to share feedback in a different method
• Employees were offered accommodations to support them in completing the survey

We asked employees the following questions:

1. Do you identify as a person with a disability?
2. What type of disability do you have?
3. Do you know or have close connections to someone with a disability? (i.e. a spouse, friend, family member, child)
4. What type of disability does your close connection have?
5. What has the CRRF done well with respect to accessibility and removing barriers for people with disabilities?
6. What barriers, for people with disabilities, continue to exist at the CRRF?
7. What solutions could be implemented to remove barriers for people with disabilities at the CRRF?

Five employees completed the survey. This is a small number of responses, and we have a small number of staff. We will try and create additional opportunities for employees to share their feedback about accessibility in the future. However, we also recognize the challenge of consulting with employees with disabilities because of the size of our workplace, the variety of different disability experiences people might have, and the vulnerability of employees when they share their experiences. As a result, we know it’s important to continue to seek other ways of consulting people with disabilities.

Some of the positive feedback we heard from employees was:

• Employees appreciate our work to improve accessibility and comply with the Accessible Canada Act. This includes recognizing the CRRF’s work to:
  
  
  • Use more plain language and offer plain language summaries
  • Use of captions
  • Create an accessible website

Employees feel that the CRRF tries to be a flexible and understanding workplace, which can benefit people who are neurodivergent. Employees also identified barriers or areas that we can improve, mostly related to internal communications and employment. Specifically, the volume and frequency of internal communications, and changes to tasks. 

Overall, these barriers can make it hard for some people with disabilities to focus on a task or to understand the most important information being communicated. 

In addition to identifying barriers, employees made some suggestions for how to remove them:

• Continue to ask for employee feedback and experiences related to accessibility.
• Continue to include neurodiverse perspectives in the CRRF’s accessibility planning work.
• Improve the accessibility of communications by providing information in different ways, with multiple opportunities for employees to ask questions. For example, if complex information is first shared in an email, there could be a follow-up meeting to confirm understanding.
• Continue to provide resources on how to be a more accessible workplace, including learning more about workplace accommodations.

We appreciate the feedback we received from our employees and recognize it is critical to becoming more accessible. We are committed to listening to employees and considering their feedback in the development of this plan and our goals. 

Accessibility Advisory Group

LTRT’s Accessibility Advisory Group consists of approximately 10 Canadians with a range of disabilities. This group includes Indigenous and racialized participants. We consulted with them in October 2025. Types of disabilities represented by the Accessibility Advisory Group participants include:

• Acquired neurological and cognitive disabilities
• Communication disabilities/ speech impairments
• Mental health conditions
• Neurodivergence, including autism and ADHD
• Hearing loss
• Sensory sensitivities
• Deaf-Blindness
• Blindness
• Low vision
• Chronic health conditions
• Mobility device users, including people who use a walking stick, braces, and power and manual wheelchairs
• People of shorter stature
• Learning disabilities

The group was provided a list of tasks with instructions a week in advance of meeting virtually. Each group member could choose which tasks to complete based on their interest, knowledge of the topic, or personal choice. The following tasks were provided:

• Browsing CRRF social media platforms
• Trying to contact the CRRF
• Exploring the website
• Looking at the granting process
• Reviewing job postings

While the participants completed those tasks, they were asked to reflect on the following questions: 

1. Overall, what are your general impressions as you interact with the CRRF’s services and resources?
2. Did you experience any other barriers, if so, please explain?
3. What suggestions do you have for accessibility improvements?
4. What did you like about the process of interacting with the CRRF?
5. Can you imagine any barriers that specifically relate to the overlapping experience of race and disability? Or, do you have any experience to share?

Then, the group met in a virtual meeting to answer the questions above and report back on their experiences completing the tasks. The meeting was run accessibly by:

• Providing clear and concise instructions in an accessible format
• Providing instructions and material (website links) to the group one week in advance of the virtual meeting
• Hosting the meeting on Zoom and communicating its accessibility features to meeting participants
• Providing accommodations to the group based on their needs

Some of the things that the group thought were positive and accessible were:

• An easy to find and accessible contact page on the website. The page gave clear information on how to contact the CRRF.
• Most of the website was easy to navigate and the group could find most of the information they were looking for independently.
• An easy-to-read summary in the accessibility plan was useful to understand the content of the plan in a shorter, simpler format
• An upcoming event was planned to be hybrid and gave an option to join virtually.

The Accessibility Advisory Group identified barriers and shared feedback about important things for us to consider, such as:

• While the website was mostly accessible, participants identified some barriers and shared ideas to make it more accessible. For example, they suggested changes to website colours to reduce overwhelm, the ability to adjust font size, the ability to switch to black and white format, how information was ordered, and breadcrumb navigation. Some participants also highlighted some information was difficult to find on the website, such as where the job postings are.
• While the group liked the page with our previous accessibility plan, they noted that there was not a lot of other people with disabilities visible on the website. They encouraged us to meaningfully include people with disabilities and consider intersectionality in the work that we do.
• Inconsistent accessibility in our social media. For example, some posts use camel case hashtags, but not all. Our link tree on Instagram was also very long and could use headings to keep it more organized.
• The contact us form was mostly accessible, but some participants noted that the captcha could be a barrier to some people with disabilities.
• There was a typo on one of our contact phone numbers.
• Consider how hybrid event information is shared. For example, it was not obvious that there was a virtual option to join an upcoming event, and it was not stated what accessibility services would be available (which event hosting platform, availability of captions, etc.).
• Many documents on the website are only available as PDFs, including reports and job descriptions. PDFs are not the most accessible and some participants did not want to download PDFs.
• The information about grants and the grant application process was both long and not easy to understand. The group recommended reviewing the content to make it easier to understand and more concise. Specifically, they recommended using plain language, providing clear step-by-step instructions or a checklist, and providing a budget template. They also wanted to see clear communication related to available supports and accommodations for grant applicants with disabilities.
• With respect to CRRF job postings, the group raised some concerns related to the job application process, the job descriptions, and the types of job postings they saw. 
  
  
  • Different job postings seemed to have different processes. For example, one posting went to a different website, but another stayed on the CRRF website).
  • All the job descriptions required a high level of education and many years of experience. Participants noted that both people with disabilities and racialized people face systemic barriers to education and employment. They recommended to consider if lived experience would be recognized as equivalent to education and formal work experience.
  • Parts of the job descriptions were not clear and gave some participants the impression that the jobs would have accessibility barriers. This includes elements like “demonstrates sound judgment”, and “enjoys a fast-paced work environment”.
  • Job postings did not always contain clear information about the accessibility of the hiring process and what type of accommodations would be available. While there was an indication that accommodations could be available, there was no contact email provided.
  • Participants also identified that no entry level positions seemed to be posted on the Foundation’s website and questioned if they were posted somewhere else, or if the CRRF only hires for more experienced roles.

The feedback from the Accessible Advisory Group helped us understand how members of the public may interact with us, and identified important barriers. We have considered this feedback in the development of our goals.

Areas described under Section 5 of the Accessible Canada Act

Over the next three years the CRRF plans to improve accessibility through clear, achievable actions and ongoing consultation with people with disabilities. We will continue to invite feedback on the accessibility of the CRRF from our employees, partner organizations, and members of the public, focusing on the perspectives of racialized people with disabilities. This feedback supports our ability to adjust our goals and priorities to create meaningful improvements to accessibility at the CRRF. Our plan highlights our goals to remove barriers in each of the seven priority areas established by the Accessible Canada Act, as well as organization-wide initiatives.

Organization-wide Initiatives

We recognize the importance of considering accessibility in all the work we do. We have taken steps to improve accessibility across the organization and will continue to learn and build our capacity around the topics of accessibility and disability.

Actions taken and barriers identified

In our first plan, we identified barriers that affected the entire organization and outlined how we would take action to remove or address these barriers. We hired an accessibility consulting firm, Left Turn Right Turn (LTRT), to help us with our accessibility goals. LTRT employs people with disabilities and makes recommendations based on the lived experience of people with disabilities. 

One important organization-wide action was to train all staff on disability and accessibility, which we completed in 2023. LTRT developed and delivered the training for us. The training covered an introduction to disability and race, interacting with people with disabilities, disability in the workplace, and accessibility terminology. We learned about ways to communicate with people with a range of disabilities, how to include accessibility in the workplace, and appropriate words to use when talking about disability or accessibility.

Our other organization-wide goals will strengthen how we consider the intersectionality of race and disability in the work we do. We are continuing to work on these goals. As part of this work, we identified five organizations that work at the intersection of disability and race that we want to work with and consult with. We have reached out to these organizations and are at the early stages of continuing to build relationships. We have also supported in the past and continue to support work at the intersection of disability and race. This includes work that is internal and external to our organization.

While we continue to build relationships with organizations working at the intersection of race and disability, we are also reviewing our current activities and thinking about how we can consider accessibility in these activities. These goals are ongoing activities. This means that we will continue to do these activities and that there is no end date planned.

While we are proud of the steps we have taken so far, we recognize that there is more work to be done. Remaining barriers are listed under the seven priority areas.

Goals for 2026 to 2028

While we do not have organization-wide barriers identified, we still have a couple of goals that we think will impact the entire organization. We are continuing these actions from before 2026, and they are:

• We will continue to build relationships with existing organizations that work at the intersection of disability and race. We will work with them and consult with them on an ongoing basis to inform our work. We will report on this goal in following progress reports and plans.
• We will continue to review our current activities and find opportunities to work specifically at the intersection of disability and race. This is an ongoing goal that we will report on in following progress reports and plans.

Employment

The CRRF is a small organization with 40 full-time employees located across Canada. We have two offices and work in a hybrid model, where employees work both remotely and in the office. The organization has grown and changed over the last few years, and we expect that we will have more new staff join us in the next three years. Therefore, it’s important that our hiring process and workplace is accessible, and that new and existing employees have a strong understanding of accessibility as an important part of the work we do. 

Actions taken and barriers identified

When developing our previous plan, we considered the different parts of employment, from potential applicants to employees. A key action we took that supports both applicants and employees was writing a formal accommodations policy. LTRT helped us develop the policy in 2024 and provided training to staff on how the process works.

We also wanted to make our internal policies more accessible. In the fall of 2025, we developed a plan to review our internal policies and make them more accessible by writing them in plain language and aligning them with our flexible corporate culture. We will action the plan starting in 2026. As part of this plan, we will make sure our policies are available in accessible formats. 

We have also started to review our hiring practices to make the hiring process more accessible. This includes reviewing our hiring processes and reviewing our job descriptions and job postings. 

Overall, we have started to address barriers, but we still have work to do. Specifically, we are still working on removing these barriers:

• Our internal policies are not the most accessible. They are written in complicated language and are typically in inaccessible PDFs.
• The existing hiring practices may pose some barriers for both the applicant and the hiring team. For example, tight, strict timelines can be a barrier for people with disabilities.
• External platforms used for recruitment and hiring may not be accessible.

Goals for 2026 to 2028

• We will continue to provide all new staff with annual accessibility and disability inclusion training. 
• We will continuously consider what kinds of training and resources staff need related to accessibility. Specifically, we will look for opportunities to support staff knowledge on accessible communications and the intersection of race and disability. We will assess the needs of staff by the end of 2026. Then, we will make a plan to develop and deliver relevant accessibility training at least once a year in connection with our existing annual accessibility and disability inclusion training. The plan will be developed in 2027. The training and/or resource development will be ongoing.
• Starting in 2026, we will action our plan to review our internal policies to make them more accessible. By Spring 2027, we will:
  
  
  • Make policies more consistent and aligned with the CRRF’s flexible work culture.
  • Update our policies to use simpler language. Where that is not possible, we will make an easy-to-read guide that communicates the key elements of the policies.
  • Explore the feasibility to make our policies available in a format more accessible than PDF. For example, HTML or Microsoft Word. We will implement these changes by the end of 2028.
• By Summer 2026, we will update some of our hiring practices to make them more accessible. Specifically, we will: 
  
  
  • Revise our statement offering accommodations to job applicants on our website and job postings. The updated statement will be more detailed with examples of available accommodations. We will add an email contact for accommodation requests.
  • Review our job postings and consider which qualifications are critical for the job and which may be unintentionally discouraging people with disabilities from applying.
• By the end of 2027, we will review information about the accessibility of the external platforms we use in the recruitment and hiring process to confirm if they are accessible.

The built environment

Our two offices are located in Toronto and Montreal. We are now following a hybrid work model, which means that employees sometimes work remotely and sometimes in the office. Employees typically work one or two days in the office per week, depending on their team and the employee’s preferences. We also use spaces for some of our events and programs. We do not own our offices, so we must work with our landlords if we want to make changes to the spaces. We want to make sure that employees, partners, and event participants can enjoy these spaces with as few barriers as possible.

Actions taken and barriers identified

We identified accessibility gaps and barriers in our previous plan such as a lack of clear information for the safe evacuation of people with disabilities. To address this barrier we revised our evacuation plans for both offices with the help of LTRT. We notified all staff about the evacuation plan updates and have added it to our onboarding process so new employees know about the plan. 

In developing our previous plan, we heard from employees that the Montreal office was not accessible for people with some mobility related disabilities. We have since moved to a new location with no obvious built environment barriers. The property management firm for the building has a designated accessibility contact person and number to provide assistance, if required. In the future, we will continue to consider accessibility when acquiring or leasing new office spaces. In the meantime, we have done a preliminary walk through of the Toronto Office to identify improvements to wayfinding and will be working with the landlord and incorporate to address during onboarding for new staff.

We identified the following existing or potential barriers, which we hope to address through the goals we developed for this plan:

• Both of our offices have not been assessed for accessibility and barriers could exist that have not been identified yet. 
• Wayfinding from the Toronto building entrance to the office and inside the office may not be accessible.
  

Goals for 2026 to 2028

• By the end of 2027, we will work with the landlord to identify wayfinding barriers at our Toronto office. Then, we will make plans to address the barriers for incremental implementation by the end of 2028. 
• We will continue to work with our landlords to identify barriers related to the built environment and make plans to address them. If we are not able to remove barriers completely, we will offer accommodations to people who are impacted by the barrier. This is an ongoing goal that we will report on in following progress reports and plans.
• As part of one of our procurement goals, we will incorporate accessible procurement best practices into our procurement processes. We will apply this knowledge to make sure all future office spaces are accessible. As per the goal, this resource will be completed by the end of 2027.

Information and communication technologies (ICT)

The CRRF uses a variety of software and technology, such as our public website, the Microsoft suite, and video conferencing tools.

Actions taken and barriers identified

Barriers on our website and newsletter were identified in the development of our previous plan. We are proud to share that in 2023 our website was redesigned and major accessibility barriers were addressed. Some of the barriers that were removed during the redesign include fonts that were difficult to read, poor colour contrast, unnecessary animations, and text on pictures. Also in 2023, we revised the newsletter design and template to remove barriers such as poor colour contrast and a confusing layout.

Much of the software we use have accessibility features built in to them, such as the accessibility checkers in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Some of our employees are already using these built-in tools and we want to develop resources for employees to reference to know how to use them.

We are also starting a modernization effort across the organization. This means that we are reviewing all the technology we use and what we use it for. This process also gives us the opportunity to update our ICT systems and make sure they are accessible.

As we prepared this plan we have identified the following barriers:

• While major barriers on the website have been removed, there is not an accessible website guideline that ensures new barriers are not created.
• Different types of technology have been added on an as-needed basis over time. In this process, accessibility has not always been considered.

Goals for 2026 to 2028

• Starting in 2027, we will develop tip sheets and share other resources, including trainings, to support staff using information and communication technologies. These resources will be aimed at helping staff learn about these technologies and their accessibility features. This will become more important as our modernization effort continues.
• By the end of 2027, we will develop an accessible website guideline that outlines steps to take when updating or designing new website elements. This will ensure new barriers are not created on the website. The guideline will also be available to new staff to reference.
• As part of one of our procurement goals, we will incorporate accessible procurement best practices into our procurement processes. We will apply this knowledge to make sure all future ICT systems are accessible. As per the goal, this resource will be completed by the end of 2027.

Communication, other than information and communication technologies

A lot of the work the CRRF does involves communication. We publish different kinds of reports, social media posts, and videos. The audience for our communications can include the public, the government, and policymakers.

Actions taken and barriers identified

While developing our previous plan, we identified several barriers in our existing communications and wanted to provide training and resources for staff who work on our communications. We hired LTRT to develop some trainings and resources for us.

With the help of these consultants, we trained our communications staff on various accessible communication topics in 2024. The training was made available to all staff and new staff when they join the CRRF. These experts also helped us develop an accessible communications guideline that helps all of our communications, including reports, presentations, social media posts, and videos, be more accessible. This checklist was completed at the end of 2025. This resource will support all staff to make communications more accessible.

Another barrier we identified was that the language we use can be very technical, legal, and/or academic, which can make it hard for people to understand. For some of the language we use, we cannot change it without changing its meaning. We have still been looking for opportunities to simplify our public-facing language and have taken important action. For example, for some of our reports we have written simplified summaries along with the full report to make the content more accessible. We are proud of our work on these summaries and are committed to continuing to make these types of summaries when we can.

We also considered the format for some of our communications. Most of our reports are available on our website in an inaccessible PDF format. Sometimes we can publish reports in a more accessible format like HTML, but not all the time.

We have also reviewed our automated interactions with the public and are working on making these more accessible. For example, we are working with staff to make sure they record clearer outgoing voicemail messages.

Communications are a very important part of our work, and we are continuing to address related barriers. Barriers we have identified are:

• Topics we cover have some complicated and technical language that can make it difficult for people to understand. Writing plain language in French is particularly challenging. While we have simplified summaries for some of our reports, it’s not done for all reports. We also work with other partners on some communications which can make it more challenging to make communications plain language.
• Some of our communications are only available in PDF, which is not always the most accessible.
• Our social media posts apply accessible practices inconsistently. The accessibility checklist completed at the end of 2025 will address this barrier.
• Some of our automated interactions do not provide the same level of information. For example, if someone reaches out by email, they get an automatic reply, but not if they reach out by our contact form.

Goals for 2026 to 2028

• In 2026, we will deliver refresher training related to accessible communications. We will also raise awareness about the accessible communication checklist we developed and support its use. We will also share the checklist with partners, as appropriate. This is an ongoing goal.
• By the end of 2026, we will develop an ongoing accessible communications training plan. This will include a strategy for French plain language. 
• By the end of 2027, we will address outstanding barriers in our automated interactions with the public. This includes providing the same level of information to respondents no matter how they reach out to us.
• By the end of 2027, we will implement processes to share documents with the public in an accessible format, such as Microsoft Word or HTML.

The procurement of goods, services and facilities

The CRRF is a small organization and procures goods, services, and facilities to support the work we do.

Actions taken and barriers identified

We want to be more consistent in how we include accessibility in procurement. For example, when we are looking for venues for our events, we think about the accessibility of the potential venues. As a contrasting example, we don’t always consider accessibility when we are buying new software.

We are a small organization and are starting to hire more staff to support our accessibility goals, including accessible procurement. These additional staff will help us make sure that we are continuing to make progress on our goals.

We know that there are still barriers related to procurement, such as:

• Opportunities to improve how accessibility is considered in the procurement process. This includes requirements for how accessible the goods we procure are for the final user.
• We are not sure how accessible our procurement documents are. We know standard documents can pose barriers to potential vendors with disabilities.
• Our procurement process is aligned with guidance from the federal government. However, it could be confusing for someone who has not done a procurement with another Crown corporation or the federal government before.

Goals for 2026 to 2028

• In 2026, CRRF will review federal Crown corporation procurement requirements to ensure our practices continue to be aligned with existing standards. We will consider any adjustments that may need to be integrated into CRRF processes to improve the accessibility of the process and how we consider accessibility when buying goods and services. If changes need to be made integration will occur by the end of 2027. 
• We will continue to monitor the guidance and resources of the federal government on accessible procurement.
• In 2027, aligned with our modernization work CRRF will also review Accessible Standards Canada’s technical guides that may impact our consideration of new systems and office spaces.
• By the end of 2027, we will review the accessibility of our procurement documents, including Request for Proposals and contracts to ensure they align with our accessible communication goal to implement processes for accessible document formats.

The design and delivery of programs and services

The programs and services we deliver include events and grant programs, like the National Anti-Racism Fund (NARF). Our events can be in-person, virtual, or hybrid. We also publish reports related to our anti-racism work. Sometimes we partner with other organizations to put on events and publish reports.

Actions taken and barriers identified

During the development of our last plan, we identified several barriers and outlined how to address them. One important action was to develop an accessible events checklist that we can use to make all our events more accessible. We hired LTRT to develop this checklist for us. It includes accessibility considerations for in-person, virtual, and hybrid events. We now use this checklist for most of the events we plan. We have received feedback from our organizing partners that they are excited that we are planning for accessibility in our events. This checklist is mostly used by our programs department, and we think that it might be useful for other departments that also run events occasionally. We are also continuing to host hybrid events when possible, so that people can join virtually if they face barriers to joining an event in-person, like inaccessible transportation.

We also wanted to make our grant program and processes more accessible and find ways of partnering with organizations that are more accessible. As part of our current grant application process, we schedule virtual information sessions in English and French and invite attendees to ask questions. We record the sessions and make them available afterwards. We’re not sure that the question and answer feature we use at these sessions are accessible for all participants. We are still working on reviewing the grant application process overall and identifying barriers.

Once grants are awarded, we have orientation sessions for successful grant recipients. As part of this orientation, we go through the contract and explain some of the technical and legal terms.

We know that there is more work for us to do to make our programs and services accessible. We identified the following barriers:

• We sometimes partner with other organizations for events or provide funding for someone else to put on an event. This means that we are not in charge of organizing the details of the event and so we do not use the accessible event checklist. We want to make sure that even if we are not in charge of an event, these can be more accessible.
• We know that our grant application process could be more accessible. The application requires following detailed instructions and has deadlines for submission. The language related to the grant process can also be very technical and legal in nature, which could be hard to understand. We want to make the process more accessible for an applicant with a disability.

Goals for 2026 to 2028

• In 2026, we will raise awareness about our accessible events checklist for all departments and support its use for future events.  This is an ongoing goal.
• Starting in 2026, we will share the accessible events checklist with external partners, such as event co-hosts and grant recipients to encourage them to make their events more accessible. This is an ongoing goal.
• By the end of 2026, we will add accessibility considerations to our partner decision-making process so that events put on by our partners are also more accessible.
• In 2027, we will consider adding questions to our grant applications that ask applicants to reflect on how they have considered accessibility in their plan and application.
• We will be clear about our reason for asking and how their responses will influence their application. 
• In 2027, we will review the grant contract content with legal counsel and try to make the content simpler and easier to understand. In this context, we will consider developing a guide that explains the contract in simpler language.
• In 2028, we will review the grant application process and consider how it can be more accessible. This will include developing an accommodations process for grant applicants, investigating our capacity to accept other types of submissions such as oral or video submissions, and providing direct support to applicants.

Transportation

The CRRF does not provide transportation services. Some employees travel for work often, and some employees commute to one of our offices. We work in a hybrid work environment, which means that employees work virtually from home and from the office.

Actions taken and barriers identified

In the first plan, we did not have any transportation-related goals. For this plan, we thought more about the travel that our employees and our event attendees do. We identified the following barriers:

• Some employees have to travel for a long time to commute to the office. This can be tiring, especially for people with disabilities. We also know that employees with disabilities might not have access to reliable and accessible modes of transportation.
• Some employees need to travel for work, to attend meetings with community representatives, and to organize and run events. These can result in long travel days, which may not be accessible to some employees with disabilities. The modes of travel available to make these trips may also not be accessible. For example, some events require employees to travel by plane, train, and car.
• There is no CRRF signage on the outside of the office buildings so it can be difficult to know how to get inside if you don’t already know where to go.
• When we organize in-person events, we don’t usually include information about how to get there. We do include information about the location and make sure that the location itself is accessible. We try to host our events at venues that are easy to get to, but sometimes the venues are not close to public transit because of constraints like the budget and availability.

Goals for 2026 to 2028

• We will continue to consider accommodations for employees in relation to accommodations for remote work. This is an ongoing goal.
• As we create in-person meeting opportunities, we will continue to balance accommodation considerations and barriers that in-person meetings may create.
• By the end of 2026, where possible, we will continue to provide information in our event descriptions about how people can get to the event location. For example, what kinds of public transportation can be used and if there are accessible parking spots available. We will make this part of our accessible event checklist, as mentioned in our programs and services achievements. We will complete this goal by Summer 2026.
• We will write accessible instructions about how to get to the offices and make sure that this is available for all employees, especially new employees. These instructions will be available by Spring 2026.
• As mentioned in our programs and services achievements, we will continue to offer virtual and hybrid events to overcome transportation-related barriers that event participants face.

Conclusion

Removing barriers for people with disabilities and including them fully in our organization is important to us. This plan outlines the actions we will take in the next three years, how we will collect feedback about accessibility at the CRRF, and how we plan to continue to consult with people with disabilities. We are committed to this plan and to proactively making our organization more accessible in the future.