Toronto Looks Into Cost of Disability Accommodation

Toronto Looks Into Cost of Disability Accommodation

October 2, 2019 Greg Thomson

City has avoided hiring people with restrictions because of budget constraints, analyst said Laurie Monsebraaten
The Toronto Star Oct. 1, 2019

Louis Manno worked in the city’s old “Access Toronto” call centre for a dozen years until the current 311 information service was introduced in 2009 and forced him into early retirement.

Manno is blind, and the 311 technology was not compatible with his computer screen reader, which transcribed web pages into braille or speech so he could respond to callers’ queries.

“City staff knew I needed this technology to continue working there and they said they were building a new system from the ground-up to accommodate me,” Manno said in an interview.

“But at the end of the day, it didn’t work.”

To his knowledge, he is the last blind person to work for the service. The city refused to say if 311 currently employs any blind staff “due to privacy” concerns.

Manno isn’t sure what happened, but now 65 and “happily retired,” he wonders if money might have been a factor.

A motion before Toronto council this week from the city’s accessibility advisory committee is aimed at addressing the cost of accommodating current and future [...]

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