(1) In addition to the requirements under section 7, obligated organizations that are school boards or educational or training institutions shall provide educators with accessibility awareness training related to accessible program or course delivery and instruction. O. Reg. 191/11, s. 16 (1).
(2) Obligated organizations that are school boards or educational or training institutions shall keep a record of the training provided under this section, including the dates on which the training is provided and the number of individuals to whom it is provided. O. Reg. 191/11, s. 16 (2).
Many institutions have support centres that focus on faculty teaching and provide courses on accessible pedagogy. Administrators should ensure that such centres are aware of the institution’s accessibility obligations as stated in Section #16. These centres should develop a practice for maintaining attendance for related training courses, and either keep these records at the centre or submit them to the institution’s AODA Administrator.
COU, in partnership with the University of Guelph, the University of Toronto, York University and the Government of Ontario, has created the Educator’s Accessibility Toolkit that responds directly to the requirements of Section 16: Training to Educators. This section of the website provides a series of resources, developed under the EAR Kit project, to support universities to meet their obligations under this section of the IASR and more broadly to help educators in creating accessible learning environments for students. Additional resources will be added in winter 2013 that will include tools to assist educators in managing mental health challenges that may present in the classroom.
In Section 1 (2), the IASR states that, “the requirements in the standards set out in this Regulation are not a replacement or a substitution for the requirements established under the Human Rights Code nor do the standards limit any obligations owed to persons with disabilities under any other legislation.”