Overview

Preventing Discrimination

Tools and Resources

Accommodation

Questions in this section:

1. What is the duty to accommodate?
2. Does the duty to accommodate apply to all grounds of discrimination?
3. Is there a legal requirement to accommodate?
4. What is the process of accommodation?
5. Should employers and service providers have an accommodation policy?
6. What are some examples of accommodation?
7. What if there are several options for accommodation?
 
1. What is the duty to accommodate?

The duty to accommodate is the obligation to meaningfully incorporate diversity into the workplace. The duty to accommodate involves eliminating or changing rules, policies, practices and behaviours that discriminate against persons based on a group characteristic, such as race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, marital status, family status and disability.

Sometimes, workplaces have rules, policies, practices and behaviours that apply equally to everyone, but which can create barriers based on an irrelevant group characteristic. For example, if you require that employees wear a certain uniform, you may create a barrier to someone whose religious practice requires a certain manner of dress.

The duty to accommodate requires employers to identify and eliminate rules that have a discriminatory impact. Accommodation means changing the rule or practice to incorporate alternative arrangements that eliminate the discriminatory barriers.

2. Does the duty to accommodate apply to all grounds of discrimination?

The duty to accommodate is most often applied in situations involving persons with disabilities. In these situations, accommodation often means removing physical barriers, perhaps by building a wheelchair ramp. It often also means accommodating individual needs, such as by providing a computer screen reader for a blind employee.

The duty to accommodate also applies to grounds other than physical disability. Specifically, it applies to all grounds covered by the Canadian Human Rights Act: race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, marital status, family status, disability and conviction for which a pardon has been granted.

3. Is there a legal requirement to accommodate?

The duty to accommodate is a legal requirement, per sections 2 and 15 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Section 2 reads as follows:  

2. The purpose of this Act is to extend the laws in Canada to give effect, within the purview of matters coming within the legislative authority of Parliament, to the principle that all individuals should have an opportunity equal with other individuals to make for themselves the lives that they are able and wish to have and to have their needs accommodated, consistent with their duties and obligations as members of society, without being hindered in or prevented from doing so by discriminatory practices based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, disability or conviction for an offence for which a pardon has been granted.

The Act says that accommodation is required, short of undue hardship. The Supreme Court of Canada has also defined the duty to accommodate. (For a summary of these court decisions see Appendix A of A Place for All – A Guide to Creating an Inclusive Workplace.

4. What is the process of accommodation?

When approached with a request for accommodation, an employer or service provider is expected to do the following:

• determine what barriers might affect the person requesting accommodation,
• explore options for removing those barriers, and
• accommodate to the point of undue hardship.

If the employer finds that removing the barrier or changing the workplace rule creates an undue hardship on the business, then that rule or practice is a Bona Fide Occupational Requirement (BFOR), in which case the employer does not have to accommodate.

If you fail to follow this process, you can be found to have discriminated, per the Canadian Human Rights Act.