Best Practices From Accessible Canada Act

Since Turkish Airlines also has operations in Canada, we were affected by the Canada progress report process. The feedback we received during this process and the government’s expectations showed me some good examples regarding the implementation of legal regulations.

• Action-Orientedness: Most legal texts mention certain principles. Concepts such as inclusivity, equality, and diversity remain only on paper, and good intentions are presented regarding their implementation. What comes after, however, remains unclear. To be honest, when writing our progress reports for Canada, we also used some vague expressions in our first draft. However, the feedback we received indicated that every statement written must be supported by an action. The message is very clear: Let’s set aside conceptual discussions and talk about what we have done.
• Covering Not Only Customers But Also Employees: What I like most about Canadian regulations is that they keep the scope broad. Under EAA or American laws, it is sufficient for applications that interact with customers to be accessible. However, there are dozens of employee experience applications used within the organization. Canadian laws also care about and require the accessibility of these applications to support the employment of people with disabilities. We are not just people who benefit from services; we are also people who produce, and the necessary arrangements must be made for this as well.
• Taking Feedback Seriously: The most important part of reporting is feedback. You need to clearly present which disability organizations you contacted, what information you collected, and what action plan you prepared for them. I even think that feedback is valued more than standards. In the draft we submitted, we referenced the feedback we received rather than universal standards.
• Prioritizing Progress Over Targets: In progress reports, what is expected from you is not to comply with something by a deadline. In fact, we saw in recent weeks that such “deadline” approaches are not reasonable. Deadlines for laws such as ADA Title 2 and Section 504 were postponed. Canada provides us with certain checkpoints through progress reports. The progress made at these checkpoints is verified by the government and supported by feedback. It is actually like a mentoring process.