Breaking Barriers

To be a truly public broadcaster is to be an accessible broadcaster. That’s why CBC/Radio-Canada has been committed to accessibility for decades to ensure that all Canadians have access to our services and content. As just one example, we first aired closed-captioned programming more than 40 years ago, in 1981. Since then, technology has changed and so has our understanding of what accessibility means.

Today, with this National Accessibility Plan, we are deepening our commitment to better serve and reflect all Canadians. After all, most Canadians experience a disability at some point in their life, whether temporary or permanent. Today, one in five Canadians lives with a disability.

To be accessible to all Canadians, we must champion accessibility in all that we do, both as a broadcaster and as an employer. That means identifying, preventing and removing barriers to our services and within the workplace, and representing disability in our programming.

This National Accessibility Plan puts us on a path to accomplishing these goals. We aim to make CBC/Radio-Canada the barrier-free public media organization that Canadians deserve. We aim to be a world leader in accessibility, propelled by the contributions of people with disabilities.

CBC/Radio-Canada employees with disabilities were at the heart of every step of the plan's development, and I’m proud of the tremendous work they have done. I’m proud, too, of our consultations with Canadians with disabilities, to hear their vision for the public broadcaster. Hundreds of Canadians with disabilities took the time to share their thoughts with us, and their insights have shaped how we think about inclusion and accessibility across our organization.

Indeed, this accessibility plan outlines seven strategic objectives that touch every aspect of what we do. From our content, to our recruitment, retention and promotion efforts, to our technology and infrastructure, and much more, it provides a framework for our transformation.

I am confident that with this plan, we will uphold the trust placed in us by all Canadians, and most importantly those with disabilities, to become a barrier-free CBC/Radio-Canada. An accessible public broadcaster is not only possible—it’s within our grasp.

Catherine Tait
President and CEO,
CBC/Radio-Canada

We aim to be the barrier-free public service media organization that Canadians deserve.

How?

Our National Accessibility Plan is our roadmap. It shows where we are today, what we learned from consulting people with disabilities, and where we plan to be in 2025.

During our public consultations, we asked Canadians across the country what an accessible, barrier-free public broadcaster could look like. This video is an example of what we heard.

To learn about CBC/Radio-Canada’s commitments and initiatives in favour of greater accessibility:

Read our :
Plan Summary [PDF]
Full Plan [PDF]

Listen to our Plan Summary

View the American Sign Language (ASL) version of our Plan Summary

Becoming a more accessible public service media organization means making a difference in three key areas:

1

Offering an accessible and inclusive employee experience

We will foster an inclusive workplace culture by identifying, removing and preventing barriers.

A journalist is getting ready to do a live on-site report. He stands in a canola field. — On a live location, prior to a report.

2

Reflecting disability in our stories and storytelling

We will distinguish ourselves through the representation and participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of our content creation.

Leymo Mohammed, a young autistic Black man, reads a letter to his late mother updating her on his struggles, achievements and dreams. — LOVE, LEYMO, a CBC short doc.

3

Championing accessibility in all that we do

We will drive accessibility by designing and delivering accessible services and programs.

An employee monitors several screens to ensure that the images captured by our field teams are fed into our editing rooms for recording and/or live broadcast. — One of our control rooms.

Learn more about what our employees with disabilities had to say on how CBC/Radio-Canada can become an inclusive organization.

Accessibility Feedback

We’re committed to the realization of a Canada without barriers by 2040. Let us know what barriers you’ve encountered accessing our content.

Launch of our Accessibility Plan

On May 29, 2023, we unveiled our first National Accessibility Plan during a special live event. A panel of experts shared their experiences and perspectives on the representation of people with disabilities in our content and the measures necessary to make it more accessible. Catch up on the event right now: