AODA employment checklist: recruitment, support and return to work

Make recruitment and selection accessible

Covered employers must notify employees and the public about accommodation for applicants in recruitment. When applicants are individually selected for an assessment or selection process, tell them that accommodation is available on request and consult with an applicant who requests it.

When making an offer of employment, notify the successful applicant about the employer’s accommodation policies. Review the actual application, interview and assessment arrangements rather than treating a sentence in a job advertisement as the whole obligation.

Inform employees and provide appropriate supports

Inform employees of policies supporting employees with disabilities, including job-accommodation policies, and provide this information to new employees as soon as practicable after employment begins. Give updated information when relevant policies change.

Consult an employee requesting accessible formats or communication supports for information needed to perform their job and information generally available in the workplace. Do not ask the employee to submit a diagnosis to this public tool. Individual discussions and records belong in the employer’s protected process.

Individualized emergency information and larger-employer processes

Individualized workplace emergency-response information is conditional on the employee’s disability-related need and the employer being aware of the need. Review the applicable consent, sharing and review arrangements rather than publishing personal emergency plans.

At 50 or more employees, the IASR also requires a written process for documented individual accommodation plans and a documented return-to-work process for relevant disability-related absences. These processes need the required participation, privacy and review arrangements. A generic generated document cannot establish that the organization has followed them.

Performance, development and redeployment

Where the employer uses performance management, provides career development or advancement, or redeploys employees, it must take relevant accessibility needs and individual accommodation plans into account. Do not assume that an otherwise standard process is accessible to every employee.

Use the tool’s action register to assign process checks to HR or management. Record the evidence location without uploading personal files. A small employer’s exemption from particular AODA documentation requirements does not remove separate human-rights accommodation obligations.

Official sources and scope

• IASR: employment standards, sections 20–32
• Ontario: accessible employment practices
• OHRC: human-rights obligations and the AODA

General information, not legal advice or a compliance certificate. Check coverage, governing requirements and actual implementation. A report-preparation pack is not an official filing. Individual circumstances and specialist standards may require qualified advice.