‘If you're taking an approach where you're just being reactive all the time, then you're not creating a good work environment,’ says BDO Canada’s Mandi Crespo
While many organizations quietly scaled back or dismantled diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs over the past year due to US policies, BDO Canada stayed firm and moved in the opposite direction.
For Mandi Crespo, doubling down meant formally embedding accessibility into its DEI framework, reframing it as DEIA. As she explains, it was a structural shift shaped by legislation, workforce realities, and client expectations.
Unlike the US, she notes, Canada has spent the past several years rapidly expanding accessibility legislation at both the federal and provincial levels, moving from a patchwork approach to one where most jurisdictions now have clear requirements.
That legislative momentum has pushed organizations to think more seriously about accessibility not as a narrow compliance task, but as a core organizational responsibility.
“It was really important for us,” said Crespo, national accessibility leader at BDO Canada. “We wanted to do what was right for BDO but also be thinking about how we can align with what we're seeing among our clients and what they they're finding meaningful. We made the decision a few years ago to align with the Accessible Canada Act. We're not required to follow it, we're not federally regulated, but we are provincially regulated, so we are following the accessibility legislation within provinces. But we really liked what is coming out of the federal legislation and the thought of inclusion of persons with disabilities and the intersectionality of identity. That’s why we decided to focus on accessibility, building it into our culture and thinking about how accessibility aligns and intersects with people and their identities.”
Crespo emphasized that BDO’s focus is comprehensive, encompassing all aspects of DEI, but accessibility has notable urgency given the size and growth of the population it affects.
With over a quarter of Canadians identifying as having at least one disability - a number expected to rise due to aging demographics and increased recognition of mental health conditions - disability represents one of the largest equity-deserving groups in the country.
Consequently, the firm expanded its existing DEI pillar to formally include accessibility, creating a combined framework of all four areas. For BDO, this meant integrating accessibility alongside other DEI efforts rather than treating it separately.
Crespo describes BDO’s doubling down as less about introducing accessibility and more about changing how seriously it is embedded in day-to-day culture. While accessibility had long been on the firm’s radar, she says the last three years marked a turning point, with greater emphasis on lived experience rather than regulatory checklists.
“We put an increased focus on it and took a different approach and worked on our culture more than just compliance,” she said.
That change, she added, has also produced tangible feedback from both employees and clients. Internally, staff have reported feeling more comfortable, supported, and able to do their jobs, while externally, clients have responded positively to more thoughtful planning around accessible documents and locations.
Crespo attributes that response to a deliberate move away from reacting to individual issues after they arise.
“We're being thoughtful in our approaches to accessibility from the beginning instead of being reactive,” she said.
Yet, she cautions employers against treating compliance as the endpoint as meeting legal requirements does not guarantee a positive experience.
“You can do everything you are required to do. And still get lots of feedback from people saying that they are having a bad experience,” she said.
While BDO has long met accessibility requirements under legislation such as Ontario’s standards and the Employment Equity Act, she underscored how recent shifts in the legal framework have expanded the definition of disability.
It now includes temporary, episodic, and mental health-related conditions, rather than only long-term or permanent disabilities. She notes that a purely reactive approach, like waiting for employees to request accommodations, fails to create an environment where people can fully participate and thrive.
“If you're taking an approach where you're just being reactive all the time, then you're not creating a good work environment where people with disabilities can thrive and be fully included in a workplace,” asserted Crespo.
That’s why BDO moved beyond compliance toward intentionally designing a workplace culture that enables everyone to bring their whole selves to work, said Crespo. This involves actively seeking feedback, understanding who may be excluded, and making incremental, strategic changes over time.
Crespo also emphasized the importance of considering intersecting identities, ensuring that employees who are Indigenous or belong to other equity-deserving groups do not face additional barriers and can succeed within the organization.
According to Crespo, implementing accessibility requires a structured and intentional approach. She advises starting by asking employees about their experiences and barriers, ensuring that the process is led by someone with dedicated responsibility rather than as a secondary task.
She acknowledged the importance of cross-functional collaboration, noting that accessibility touches multiple areas - from website development to communications and customer service, while coordination among teams is critical to prevent gaps or duplicated efforts.
Tracking progress is another key component. Crespo recommends establishing a baseline for what already exists, such as the number of employees with disabilities, satisfaction levels, and accessibility of physical spaces, then monitoring improvements over time.
She noted both qualitative and quantitative data are necessary to understand impact, including feedback from employees on processes like accommodations. Small wins should be acknowledged to maintain momentum and reinforce a culture of inclusion, she said.
Additionally, measuring impact can be challenging but is ultimately essential, noted Crespo. For example, BDO gauges the effectiveness of firm-wide accessibility training by assessing confidence levels before, immediately after, and several months following the program.
This helps determine meaningful indicators of progress and informs ongoing efforts to strengthen accessibility and inclusion.
“Because of the size of the population of persons with disabilities, it's impossible to ignore the business case. It’s a very strategic business decision to think about, especially as there could be upwards of 40 per cent of Canadians in the next 15 years that identify as having a disability. When you're looking at that number of Canadians with a disability, if they're experiencing barriers in your organization, they're going to find somewhere else to go. It’s not something you can ignore,” asserted Crespo.
“Employers need to think about how they can create a culture where people feel like they can be themselves, fully participate and be successful in the work that they do. The only way to do that is to remove those barriers and create that culture that helps people feel like they belong.”
