Lady York Foods

Accessibility Plan

Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation 

Employment: Lady York is committed to finding, hiring, and supporting employees with disabilities. Currently, we have two employees with disabilities, one who has been working with the company for over 10 years. Although Lady York has employed these two people, we are still capable of making our company more accessible to people with disabilities. This will be done as follows:

• Our Managers will be instructed to inform potential applicants of our modified hiring process in which we will accommodate their disabilities.
• Our Human Resources employee will build the needs of our employees into our Human Resources practices, for example our Health & Benefits Plan will be structured to accommodate the specific disabilities of our employees.
• Our Human Resources employee will create specific documentation to accommodate each individual employee and their disability.
• Our Health & Safety Manager will create a specific Emergency Plan for those employees with disabilities and inform those individuals of specific emergency response information when necessary

Information & Communications: Lady York is committed to making information about our company accessible for all customers, including those with disabilities. Currently, we have a few company documents which are available in alternate formats for customers with disabilities. Although our documents are not available in every format, we will make efforts to provide those documents in the format requested when necessary. Our Information & Communications will be improved in the following ways:

• When it is time to update our website, we will do so according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, in which our customers with disabilities will have better access to our website.
• We will provide accessible formats and communications in alternative formats as quickly as possible and at no additional cost when a person with a disability asks for them.
• We will make feedback processes accessible by providing alternative formats when requested
• We will make all emergency information accessible when requested
• We will provide an alternative format of our Company Policy to any employee when requested

Current Assessment

Barriers: In completing an assessment of the store and its accessibility, there are barriers which have been identified. These barriers include:

• Some aisles are too narrow for people in wheelchairs due to the number of product displays on the floor
• There are products on the top shelves which may be too high for people in wheelchairs to access
• There is only one cash register which allows for wheelchair passage
• The south entrance secondary doors of our store are not automated for persons with disabilities
• The asphalt entrance outside the south doors is not level, which proves difficult for cane and wheelchair access
• The stairwell to the basement/lunchroom is too narrow and only has one handrail, which proves difficult for employees with disabilities to go up and down
• When the overstock of products have been piled too high in the basement, employees with disabilities have a difficult time retrieving those products
• The type of work involved at Lady York is being on your feet for long hours, this may prove difficult for employees with disabilities

Preventing/Removing Barriers: In looking at the barriers identified above, we will strive to prevent or remove these barriers. We will address the barriers one by one and develop solutions to their prevention or removal. Some of these barriers cannot be fixed immediately and we will need more time to develop a strategy. Some solutions to these barriers are as follows:

• Ideally, if there was more room in the store to widen our aisles we would do so immediately. However, our store is small in size and widening the aisles may not be plausible. We will try, however, to reduce the number of product displays on the floors in each aisle to account for wheelchair accessibility.
• Employees will be asked not to stack products on the top shelf at too high of a level whereby a person in a wheelchair cannot reach.
• Ideally, if there was room in the store to widen the space between the registers we would do so immediately. Again, this feat may not be plausible. We will, however, put signage on the one register that allows for wheelchair access to indicate its accessibility to customers.
• We need to replace the secondary doors at the south entrance of the store with automated doors to allow easy access for customers with disabilities. In doing so, all six doors at the west and south entrances will be automated.
• Ideally, we need to level out the asphalt entrance by the south entrance to prevent slips, trips, and difficulties for people with disabilities. However, this may not be plausible according to building codes or the construction of the entrance with respect to the level of the pavement. We do try to prevent slips and trips, especially in the winter, with frequent salting of the entrance. We could also redirect customers with disabilities to the west entrance using signage.
• Ideally, if the basement stairwell could be widened we would do so immediately. However, we cannot do so in any manner available. We can ensure that slip strips are on the stairs and changed frequently. In addition, we can add another handrail to help balance those employees with disabilities when they travel up and down the stairs.
• Employees should never stack overstock products any higher than eye level as it is a safety risk. If this risk is assumed, employees with disabilities would not have to worry about being unable to retrieve products.
• Being that our employees are on their feet for 8-9 hours a day, an employee with disabilities may require alternate work. They may ask for reduced hours, not to perform a task which requires standing in one spot for long periods of time, reduced workloads, or an extra break to relax. Depending on the employee’s needs, we will accommodate that employee to make their workday easier.