OTTAWA — The federal Office of Government Accessibility is in limbo, months after it produced a document blaming the government for delaying support for government workers with disabilities.
The document, obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act, says the government is behind on plans to accommodate employees with disabilities.
A report prepared by the Government Services Accessibility Office for the Treasury President in June said the government had met its target of recruiting 5,000 new disabled staff by 2025. It also said the government had made progress in offering anti-bias training and developing centralized workplace accommodation processes.
But the government is lagging in “several important areas,” the report said, citing the fact that government departments differ in how they measure their progress on accessibility.
“Some use clear and measurable indicators, while others rely on broad descriptions,” said Rola Salem, a spokeswoman for the Treasury Board of Canada secretariat.
The document also mentions a “lack” of external consultation with disabled people. It said the consultation would provide “essential feedback” from the public to help government departments and agencies develop and deliver better services.
“The recommendation was for broader and deeper consultation to ensure barriers are fully identified and addressed,” Salem said, noting that departments are encouraged to consult before developing services. “This is about both access to jobs for government employees and, where appropriate, improving services for Canadians with disabilities.”
The document also says that accommodating disabled staff remains a “challenge” in the civil service, particularly when barriers are complex or difficult to identify, such as those “related to mental health and neurodiversity”.
“Taken together, more progress is needed to fully embed accessibility into the culture and operations of the public service,” the document says.
Salem said onboarding processes vary across governments and employees “may experience delays if tools, technologies or expertise are not immediately available within their organization.”
Salem said some of the most common barriers employees identified were related to workplace noise and problems with workstation equipment. She said the latest data shows that barriers related to IT demands and changes in the built environment “may be among the ones that take the longest to implement.”
Salem said initiatives are underway to reduce delays and provide more consistent access to housing by “streamlining adaptive technology procurement processes.”
The Office of Public Service Accessibility, created in 2018, is mandated to prepare the public service to meet or exceed the requirements of the Accessible Canada Act.
The office provides recommendations to departments and agencies to improve the recruitment, retention, and promotion of people with disabilities. He also gives them advice on how to support employees with disabilities.
Salem said the 2024 budget extended funding for the Office of Government Accessibility through March 31, 2026, but did not provide any details about its future. She said that “more details about her mandate beyond this date will be provided as soon as they become known.”
The document says the Office of Public Service Accessibility is working to create an “inclusive and productive digitally enabled public service” by holding government-wide workshops and providing guides and worksheets to tell departments how to track and report accessibility.
The Auditor General plans to publish a report next year that will examine the recruitment, retention and promotion of people with disabilities in the federal public service.
The latest Public Service Employment Equity report found that since March 2020, the number of people with disabilities has increased steadily in the core public service—the federal government departments and agencies reporting to the Treasury Board.
As of 2024, there were 21,089 people with disabilities employed in the mainstream federal government service, up from 12,893 in 2021.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2025.
