Workplace Accommodation Panel
3:10 pm - 3:50 pm · Main room
Workplace accommodation is often framed as a process: a request submitted, a tool provided, a box checked. But for the employees who depend on accommodations to do their work, the experience is shaped by how quickly those supports arrive, how well they are maintained, and whether the organization treats them as routine or exceptional. This panel brings together practitioners who design and deliver accommodation programs inside large organizations to examine what it takes to move accommodations from one-off responses to reliable, scalable systems. The conversation will explore how accommodation requests are handled end to end, where the process breaks down, what role technology plays in closing gaps, and how lived experience should inform the way these programs are built. Panelists will share what they have learned about building accommodation programs that hold up under real operating conditions, and where the gap between policy and practice remains widest.
Speakers
Shiri Sol Ohayon
Lead, Digital AccessAbility and Accommodations Centre of Excellence (CoE), Deloitte Technology Canada
Shiri is the National Lead and Founder of Deloitte Technology Canada's Digital AccessAbility and Accommodations Center of Excellence, where she provides strategic leadership for the firm's digital accessibility initiatives. She has led the design and delivery of scalable accessibility programs, including establishing in-house digital accessibility assessment services, launching bilingual training, and embedding accessibility into technology onboarding, procurement, and compliance processes. Shiri also leads Deloitte Canada's AODA Digital Accessibility Compliance Program, guiding asset owners and delivery teams toward accessibility-first practices that move beyond reactive compliance. She founded and chairs a Global Accessibility Community of Practice, hosting guest speakers for a global Deloitte audience, as well as a monthly Digital A11y Connect, bringing together 30+ cross-sector senior digital accessibility leaders at Fortune 500 companies. A CPACC-certified accessibility professional with 25+ years of global experience across IT, service delivery, and operations, Shiri is recognized for driving cultural change and building internal accessibility capability at scale. A disability ally and parent to neurodivergent twins, she brings both lived experience and systems leadership to her speaking, inspiring organizations to treat accessibility as a foundation for excellence.
Loran Upton
IT Build Specialist (Accessibility), TD Bank
Loran Upton brings over a decade of experience delivering and advancing workplace accommodations within large financial institutions. Her work focuses on ensuring employees with disabilities receive practical, timely supports, whether through technology, hiring processes, or workplace systems, so they can fully participate and succeed at work. She has supported accommodations end-to-end, from hands-on delivery of technology solutions to influencing enterprise processes that shape how accommodations are requested, implemented, and sustained. Loran is known for translating accessibility standards into practical action and building cross-functional partnerships that lead to measurable improvements for employees. Loran is an active contributor to national disability inclusion conversations, having presented at conferences such as Connecting the Dots (CNIB) and Rethinking Disabilities. She served on the National Advisory Committee for the Increasing Diversity Hiring in Canadian Banks project and sits on the board of the DeafBlind Ontario Foundation, supporting the advancement of accessibility and inclusion across the province.