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Introduction

Public safety information can help keep people safe when an emergency happens. Ontario’s Accessibility Standard for Information and Communications can help you do that by making your emergency and public safety information accessible to people with disabilities. This guide will help you.

Note: In this guide we use the term ‘customer’ to describe any member of the public who has access to an organization’s goods, services or premises. Depending on your organization you may use a different term such as client, member, patient, constituent, parishioner, congregant, patron, consumer, third party organization, etc.

Quick fact: What is accessible information?

You can make a document accessible by recreating it in a different format; for example, printing it in large print for someone with vision loss. This is called an “accessible format.”

But you can also make information accessible by helping someone to use the original document or resource; for example, by reading it aloud. This is called a “communication support.” Other examples include adding captioning to videos or using written notes to communicate with someone who is hard of hearing.