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The Accessible Canada Act (ACA) was enacted in 2019 with the aim of realizing a barrier-free Canada by 2040 by identifying, removing and preventing accessibility barriers within the federal government’s jurisdiction. One of RBC’s requirements under the ACA is to publish this RBC Accessibility Plan (the “Plan”) by June 1, 2023.
The ACA identifies the priority areas to pursue barrier-free accessibility; this Plan aligns with the ACA priority areas that are applicable to our financial services businesslegal bug 1:
- Employment
- Built environment
- Information and communication technologies
- Communication other than information and communication technologies
- Design and delivery of programs and services
- Procurement of goods, services and facilities
The purpose of this Planlegal bug 2 is to outline how RBC will identify, remove and prevent barriers for Persons with Disabilities and meet relevant ACA requirements. This Plan was informed by internal and external consultations with Persons with Disabilities, including employees, clients and members of the public. We’ve developed action plans to remove these barriers and prevent new ones from occurring in the priority areas applicable to RBC. In some instances, a more thorough assessment is required to identify an effective long-term solution and implementation. We will provide more detail in future progress updates to this Plan. This Plan will continue to evolve as we progress toward our accessibility goals and with the release of future accessibility standards/requirements.
RBC’s Plan has been informed by and developed with:
- Accessibility Standards Canada’s “nothing without us” principle in mind
- Consultations and feedback from our employees, clients and members of the public who identified as having a disability
- Conversations with accessibility experts to identify barriers and opportunities for improvement
This Plan outlines the progress to date and the actions we plan to take between 2023 and 2026. We will publish an updated Plan in 2026 and progress reports in the interim, which will incorporate any feedback we receive.
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Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This RBC Accessibility Plan (Plan) may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of certain securities laws, including the “safe harbour” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements in this Plan may include, but are not limited to, statements related to certain social and governance-related objectives, vision, commitments and goals of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC, we, us or our), including our objectives, vision, commitments and goals related to the identification, prevention and removal of accessibility barriers for persons with disabilities in relevant areas identified in the Accessible Canada Act (ACA). The forward-looking information contained in this Plan is presented for the purpose of assisting our stakeholders in understanding the ways we intend to address accessibility barriers and pursue opportunities to enhance accessibility for persons with disabilities and to meet relevant ACA requirements, as well as our related social and governance-related objectives, vision, commitments and goals, and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as “believe”, “expect”, “expectation”, “aim”, “achieve”, “intend”, “commit”, “goal”, “plan”, “strive” and “objective”, and similar expressions of future or conditional verbs such as “will”, “may”, “might”, “should”, “could” or “would”.
By their very nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that our expectations or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that our assumptions may not be correct, and that our social and governance-related visions, commitments, goals and objectives will not be achieved. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of risk factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements.
These factors – many of which are beyond our control and the effects of which can be difficult to predict – include but are not limited to: our ability to successfully implement various initiatives throughout the company under expected time frames, the risk that initiatives will not be completed within a specified period or at all or with the results or outcomes as originally expected or anticipated by RBC, our ability to enhance accessibility in RBC’s business operations, including RBC’s workspaces and retail branches, feasibility of incorporating accessibility into our information and communication technologies, the legal and regulatory environment, and regulatory compliance (which could lead to us being subject to various legal and regulatory proceedings, the potential outcome of which could include regulatory restrictions, penalties and fines), strategic, reputation, competitive, and systemic risks and other risks. We caution that the foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive and other factors could also adversely affect our results. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations in such forward-looking statements can be found in the risk sections of our Annual Report for the year ended October 31, 2022 (2022 Annual Report) and the Risk management section of our Quarterly Report for the three-month period ended April 30, 2023 (Q2 2023 Report to Shareholders). When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to us, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events.
Except as required by law, RBC does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.
All references to websites are for your information only. The content of any websites referred to in this Plan, including via a website link, and any other websites they refer to are not incorporated by reference in, and do not form part of, this Plan.