Skip to main content

2024 Progress Report

Table of Contents

Back to top

General

The 3-Year Accessibility Plan (“Plan”) introduced by Invest in Canada in December 2022, outlines the organization’s commitments to preventing and removing barriers for persons with disabilities in order to fulfill the unique needs of their employees, clients, job candidates and visitors as well as fulfill the organization’s requirements as outlined in Accessible Canada Act (S.C. 2019, c 10). 

In 2024, Invest in Canada made significant advancements towards a barrier-free environment for internal and external stakeholders through the implementation of the commitments outlined in the Plan. In its second year of implementation, Invest in Canada is proud to have fulfilled every 2024 commitment made in the Plan and is excited to continue to showcase their commitment to accessibility in 2025 and beyond.

Feedback process and contact information 
Invest in Canada established a process for receiving and addressing feedback regarding the implementation of this Accessibility Plan and barriers experienced by employees and people interacting with the organization. The process is designed to facilitate both anonymous and direct feedback internally and externally. 

The designated person to receive feedback at Invest in Canada is the Human Resources Advisor. 

Feedback can be shared through any of the following channels:

You can also use these channels to request this plan, the organization's progress reports or the feedback process in alternative accessible formats.

Back to top

Context

Invest in Canada is a departmental corporation operating under schedules II and V of the Financial Administration Act. It is a micro-organization consisting of 67 full-time equivalents with an annual operating budget of approximately $34 million. Invest in Canada operates as Canada’s national investment promotion agency and therefore has employees located across the country. The organization recently formalized a hybrid work model with employees working from the office as well as from remote locations. Invest in Canada’s primary clients are global investors therefore many of its programs and services are provided abroad in a variety of languages. 

Invest in Canada has three main results designed to achieve its core responsibility:

  • Canada is promoted as a foreign direct investment destination.
  • Investors are investing or expanding in Canada through the support of Invest in Canada services.
  • Partners have access to services and tools to support their investment attraction efforts.

To achieve these results, Invest in Canada works closely with partners and stakeholders within Canada, including provincial, territorial and municipal governments as well as the Trade Commissioner service abroad.

Back to top

Progress: priority areas, commitments and actions 

Priority area 1: Employment

Commitment

Implement and improve human resources practices to remove and prevent barriers in the recruitment, retention and promotion of persons with disabilities. 

2024 Actions and progress 

In 2024, Invest in Canada set out to accomplish one action in the area of employment practices: to create awareness through an internal communications campaign for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, held annually on December 3. 

Ahead of December 3, an internal communication for the International Day for Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) was sent to all employees, celebrating the past milestones and reinforcing ways they must support further advancement for accessibility. Along with this communication, Invest in Canada hosted a virtual all-staff meeting during the week of December 3rd which featured a discussion with the Government of Canada’s Chief Accessibility Officer as well as a Canadian Paralympian. 

In addition to achieving this commitment, Invest in Canada updated its accommodations process with the revised GC Accessibility Passport in June 2024. 

It is important to note that Invest in Canada successfully launched its first formal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan in March 2024. This initiative integrated employment-centric elements of the Accessibility Plan into a broader strategy that aims to further the experience of all employment equity groups including persons with disabilities. 

Priority area 2: Built environment 

Commitment

Create barrier-free access to, and the use of, Invest in Canada’s workplaces. 

2024 Actions and progress 

Invest in Canada set out to accomplish one action in the area of built environment in 2024, to ensure the Telework Policy supports the needs of employees with disabilities. 

In order to achieve this commitment, an external Accessibility Consultant was contracted to audit the Telework Policy. The audit results noted that this policy supports the general population of employees, while providing persons with disabilities the option of remote work as an accommodation. They noted, “we do not have further comments on the Telework Policy as we did not identify any barriers.”

Additionally, Invest in Canada continues to partner with Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) on government-wide changes to office environments. Specific to 2024, Invest in Canada continued to work closely with PSPC on the design of the organization’s new office space. This initiative will continue into 2025 as the organization moves into the new office space. 

Priority area 3: Information and communication technologies (ICT)

Commitment

Make information and communication technology accessible and inclusive for all.  

2024 Actions and progress 

Invest in Canada set out to accomplish the following actions in 2024, and has made progress on these items as outlined below: 

  1. Launch awareness campaigns and training sessions to all employees on the accessible functionality of Office 365 for Windows 11

A Document Accessibility Workshop, hosted by Shared Services, was completed by all employees to build the tactical skill of creating and publishing accessible documents. A resource page was shared following this workshop to equip team members with materials to refer to and build on the knowledge acquired in the session. This resource page also included the accessible functionality of Microsoft Teams, outline the best practices during meetings. 

  1. Conduct an accessibility assessment, followed by any necessary remediation on the following platforms:  
  1. Invest in Canada’s Intranet 
  2. Invest in Canada’s Customer Relationship Management software

An audit of the HR Hub and the CRM software, Salesforce, was conducted by a third-party which resulted in a series of recommendations that will be implemented starting in 2025. 

Priority area 4: Communication, other than ICT

Commitment

Ensure communication from and within the organization can be accessed by all employees and clients. 

2024 Actions and progress 

Invest in Canada set out to accomplish one action in the area of Communication (other than ICT) in 2024: to inform employees of the accessible communication functionality in Office 365. 

Through a document accessibility resource page for Office 365, including Microsoft Teams, employees were informed of the accessible functionality in the platform including the use of live captions and transcripts, the use of PowerPoint Live and best practice with background effects. 

It is important to note that Invest in Canada’s Style Guide was included in the accessibility review of Marketing and Communications products and processes, and no barriers were identified in this Guide. 

Priority area 5: Procurement of goods, services and facilities

Commitment

Make the purchasing process accessible by including an accessibility lens. 

2024 Actions and progress 

Invest in Canada set one action under the area of Procurement of goods, services and facilities in 2024: to formally review its procurement processes and platforms. 

A third-party accessibility review was completed on the processes and platforms used throughout the procurement process, specifically, the software used to receive proposals, proposal evaluation process and scoring methods, and the approach to communicating with vendors. This resulted in series of recommendations that will be implemented starting in 2025. 

In addition, this year the Invest in Canada IT/IM team initiated a project to replace employee tablets, ensuring this technology considered accessibility needs to further inclusivity and support employee accommodation needs. Although the tablets will be purchased in 2025, the analysis of tablet options and their functionality was completed in 2024. They considered the following areas and features when evaluating models: 

  1. Hardware - responsive touchpads, and adjustable displays for brightness, contrast, and resolution, lightweight models were considered for employees with mobility challenges, accessible placement of ports to support external assistive devices
  2. Software - built-in tools like screen readers, magnifiers, and customizable input settings 
  3. Physical setup and ergonomics - docking station compatibility, options for larger monitors, and ergonomic peripherals to ensure flexible and comfortable work setups

The organization continues to purchase ergonomic chairs and sit stand desks for employees and make ergonomics assessments available as part of the hybrid work program. 

Priority area 6: Design and delivery of programs and services 

Commitment

Ensure stakeholders and clients are receiving programs and services that were designed and delivered as accessible as possible. 

2024 Actions and progress 

Invest in Canada set out to accomplish the following actions in 2024, and has made progress on these items as outlined below: 

  1. Evaluate marketing and communications processes and identify remediation actions where there are gaps
  2. Evaluate barriers in the user experience of data portals and identify and address actions to remove and prevent barriers
  3. Ensure services are offered in accessible formats throughout the investment facilitation process

A third-party accessibility review was completed on these areas which has resulted in a series of recommendations including but not limited to changes to various documents, event and meeting protocols, and branding considerations. Given the scale of these recommendations, some will be started or implemented in 2025 while others will appear in the next Accessibility Plan for 2026-2028. 

Priority area 7: Transportation 

Providing accessible transportation to persons with disabilities, is outside of Invest in Canada’s operational scope and therefore there are no proposed actions for this plan

Back to top

Consultations 

Internal Consultations 

As part of the development of the Accessibility Plan, Invest in Canada consulted with employees who self-identified as persons with disabilities. Virtual one-on-one interviews were performed in 2022 to discuss the barriers within every priority area that they may have experienced since beginning their employment with Invest in Canada. 

The initial consultations acted as foundational conversations which were leveraged in the development and implementation of accessibility initiatives since. The organization continued open dialogue with employees who self-identified as persons with disabilities, seeking their feedback on the organization's progress, program materials and updated processes.

Following the accessibility audit this year, Invest in Canada established a working group to support the implementation of accessibility initiatives across all priority areas. This group includes individuals who, based on the function of their roles, will have a significant impact on the actualization of the organization being accessible by design. This group will work together on how best to implement solutions and work through considerations unique to the organization’s mandate.

More broadly, Invest in Canada established its DEI Committee in March 2024 to advise on the implementation of the DEI Strategy and Action Plan. This group has played an active role in guiding the organization’s design and implementation of employment related DEI and accessibility initiatives. Most notably, they advised on the organization's internal communications strategies and the agenda for the all-staff meeting for International Day of Persons with Disabilities. 

External Consultations  

In 2024, Invest in Canada implemented its first satisfaction survey to their provincial and municipal partners. This survey included general questions regarding the organization's services to this network of stakeholders as well as a section on accessibility, including barriers with the organization's services, the partner platform InfoZone and their partner-meetings. 

Back to top

Feedback

Although Invest in Canada has continued to proactively consult employees who self-identify as persons with disabilities and more recently, their partner network, the organization has not received feedback on the Accessibility Plan through any of the feedback methods. 

Back to top

Glossary 

Accessibility
The degree to which a product, service, program or environment can be accessed or used by all. (Source: Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada)

Accommodation
Any change in the work environment that allows a person with functional limitations to do their job. Accommodations can be temporary, periodic or long-term, including:

  • Adjusting the physical workspace
  • Adapting the equipment or tools
  • Working flexible hours or job-sharing
  • Moving the workspace
  • Working from home
  • Removing or changing some non-essential tasks for others
  • Time off for medical appointments

(Source: Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada)

Assistive or adaptive device/technology
A device, system or equipment designed to help a person do a task. Examples include canes, crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, hearing aids and personal emergency response systems. They can also be IT-related items such as screen-reading software. (Source: Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada)

Barrier 
Anything that hinders the full and equal participation in society of persons with an impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment or a functional limitation. Barriers can be physical, architectural, technological, attitudinal or based on information or communications. They can also be the result of a policy or practice. (Source: Accessible Canada Act)

Disability 
Any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication, or sensory impairment — or a functional limitation — whether permanent, temporary, or episodic in nature, or evident or not, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society. (Source: Accessible Canada Act)

Persons with disabilities (PWD) 
“Persons who have a long-term or recurring physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric, or learning impairment and who

  1. consider themselves to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment, or
  2. believe that an employer or potential employer is likely to consider them to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment,

and includes persons whose functional limitations owing to their impairment have been accommodated in their current job or workplace.” (Source: Employment Equity Act)

Self-identification
Providing employment equity information for statistical purposes. The federal public service uses this information to monitor the progress of employment equity groups and to report on workforce representation. (Source: Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada)

Back to top