Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability (AODA) Act

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA) is designed for Ontarians with disabilities. Ontario is the first jurisdiction to develop, implement and enforce mandatory accessibility standards. If a provision of this Act, of an accessibility standard or any other regulation conflicts with a provision of any other Act or regulation, the provision that provides the highest level of accessibility for persons with disabilities with respect to goods, services, facilities, employment, accommodation, buildings, structures or premises shall prevail. The definition of disability in AODA is the same as under the Ontario Human Rights Code which states a wide range of conditions or impairments. In the Act, “disability” means:

• any degree of physical disability, infirmity, malformation or disfigurement that is caused by bodily injury, birth defects or illness…
• a condition of mental impairment or a developmental disability,
• a learning disability, or a dysfunction in one or more of the possesses involved in understanding symbols or spoken language,
• a mental disorder, or
• an injury or disability for which benefits were claimed or received under the insurance plan established under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997.

Constellation is committed to:

Customer Service

• treating all people with disability in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and independence
• putting in place to improve opportunities for people with disabilities
• preventing and removing barriers to accessibility and meeting accessibility requirements under AODA
• Constellation believes in integration and equal opportunity.

Building and Facilities

• Assistive devices – Constellation will ensure that our Employees are trained and familiar with various assistive devices that may used by customers with disabilities while accessing our premises.
• Service animals – Constellation welcomes people with disabilities and their service animals. Service animals are allowed on the parts of our premises that are open to the public.
• Support persons – Constellation allows a support person to accompany the person with a disability on our premises.

Employment and Recruitment

Constellation will notify Employees and the public that Constellation will accommodate people with disabilities during the recruitment and assessment processes and when people are hired.

Information and Communication

Constellation will notify people with disabilities to determine their information and communication needs. Constellation has the AODA policy posted on our company website, Employees On-Line Centre and hard copy may be obtained from Constellation HR department.

Feedback

Feedback on how services were delivered to people with disabilities shall be invited, forwarded to the appropriate personnel, responded to, documented and tracked e.g. by phone, teletypewriter, e-mail to the office or in person in accessible formats and with other communication supports as required and/or upon request by January 2015. Customers who wish to provide feedback to Constellation can contact Christina Yau, Director of Human Resources, Canada at 905-943-6151 or via e-mail at cyau@constellationhb.com.

Accessible Emergency Information

Constellation is committed to providing their customers, visitors, future new hires etc. with publicly available emergency information in an accessible way upon request. Constellation will also provide to Employees with disabilities with individualized emergency response information (see sample copy below) when necessary.

Training

Constellation will provide appropriate training to Employees, volunteers and other members on Ontario Accessibility laws and on the Human Rights Code as it relates to people with disabilities. Training will be provided in a way that best suits the duties of Employees, volunteers and other staff members by January 2015:

• An overview of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act 2005 and compliance
• How to interact and communicate with people with various types of disabilities
• How to interact with people with disabilities who use an assistive device or require the assistance of a guide dog, service animal or a support person
• How to use the equipment or devices available on-site or otherwise that may help with providing goods or services to people with a disability
• What to do if a person with a disability is having difficulty in accessing Constellation’s building and premises
• Employees’ training will be updated when changes are made to AODA.

Notice of Temporary Disruption

In the event of a planned or unexpected disruption to services or facilities for customers with disabilities, Constellation will notify customers promptly. This clearly posted notice will include information about the reason for the disruption, its anticipated length of time, and a description of alternative facilities or services, if available.

The notice will be placed at the main entrance of Constellation. 

Website Accessibility Statement

July 23, 2024

Compliance status

We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the broadest possible audience, regardless of ability. To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more. This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs. Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments. If you wish to contact the website’s owner please use the following email karen.makedon@constellationhb.com

Screen-reader and keyboard navigation

Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers can read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements:

1. Screen-reader optimization: we run a process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images. It provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts embedded within the image using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website. These adjustments are compatible with popular screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack.
2. Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key. Additionally, keyboard users will find content-skip menus available at any time by clicking Alt+2, or as the first element of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, not allowing the focus to drift outside. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

Disability profiles supported on our website

• Epilepsy Safe Profile: this profile enables people with epilepsy to safely use the website by eliminating the risk of seizures resulting from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
• Vision Impaired Profile: this profile adjusts the website so that it is accessible to the majority of visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
• Cognitive Disability Profile: this profile provides various assistive features to help users with cognitive disabilities such as Autism, Dyslexia, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements more easily.
• ADHD Friendly Profile: this profile significantly reduces distractions and noise to help people with ADHD, and Neurodevelopmental disorders browse, read, and focus on the essential elements more easily.
• Blind Users Profile (Screen-readers): this profile adjusts the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is installed on the blind user’s computer, and this site is compatible with it.
• Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments

1. Font adjustments users can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
2. Color adjustments users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds with over seven different coloring options.
3. Animations epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
4. Content highlighting users can choose to emphasize essential elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
5. Audio muting users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
6. Cognitive disorders we utilize a search engine linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
7. Additional functions we allow users to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.

Assistive technology and browser compatibility

We aim to support as many browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS, and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and MAC users.

Notes, comments, and feedback

Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating, improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility following technological advancements. If you wish to contact the website’s owner, please use the following email accessibility@constellationhb.com.