ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE UPDATE
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UNITED FOR A BARRIER-FREE ONTARIO
AODA ALLIANCE LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO GET MCGUINTY GOVERNMENT TO DEVELOP THREE NEW ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS TO ADDRESS BARRIERS IMPEDING PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN ACCESS TO EDUCATION, TO HEALTH CARE AND TO RESIDENTIAL HOUSING – MCGUINTY GOVERNMENT HASN'T ANNOUNCED ITS PROMISED CONSULTATION ON WHICH NEW ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS TO DEVELOP NEXT
July 10, 2012
SUMMARY
It is
essential for the Ontario Government to now start the process of developing
three new accessibility standards under the Accessibility for Ontarians with
Disabilities Act. Today we kick off a campaign to get the Government to act. A
priority over the next weeks will be to focus our attention and efforts on this
goal. This Update gives background on this issue, explains what three
accessibility standards we want the Government to develop and offers specific
tips on how you can help with this campaign.
Send us
your feedback. We welcome your thoughts on everything discussed in this update,
including our proposals for new accessibility standards that the Government
should develop. Write us at
aodafeedback@gmail.com
MORE
DETAILS
1. THE
THREE NEW ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS WE WANT THE
For many
months we have been urging the Ontario Government to embark on creating three
new accessibility standards. We want these new accessibility standards to
address barriers facing persons with disabilities in the areas of:
1.
Access to education at all levels including pre-school, schools, colleges and
universities, and other training settings;
2.
Access to health care across our health care system; and
3.
Access to residential housing, or put simply, a place to live.
We
proposed these three new accessibility standards for very good reasons. We drew
upon our experience advocating for strong measures in the accessibility
standards that have been under development to date. We drew upon feedback we
received from our supporters over the years. We assessed barriers the existing
accessibility standards don't effectively cover. We considered recurring
accessibility issues that keep cropping up in
These
three areas focus on some of the most important basics for one to enjoy a full
life. Education is vital to grow and to get a good job. Everyone needs good
health. Both health and education have been ongoing priority areas for Premier
McGuinty, as well as both opposition parties. Residential housing—having a place
to live in the community—is basic for everyone.
These
three areas are especially well-suited for new accessibility standards because
the Government has degrees of involvement in each. As well, persons with
disabilities should not have to fight long human rights cases, one barrier at a
time, to correct recurring systemic barriers in each. For example, a school
child and his or her family would not want to wage years of litigation to fight
barriers in school. By the time a child wins a case against barriers in
elementary school, he or she may already be in high school, where the elementary
school barrier won't matter any more. The same goes for a patient with a
disability facing recurring barriers in a hospital or long term care facility.
Setting
detailed accessibility Standards in these areas would help our society plan to
ensure that they will become fully accessible in the future. By not setting
accessibility Standards in these areas,
Years
ago the Ontario Human Rights Commission reviewed and documented significant
systemic barriers in the education system that impede students with
disabilities. This helps show that there is a pressing need for the Government
to develop and enforce a strong and effective education accessibility Standard.
Check out:
a)
"The Opportunity to Succeed," a consultation report on barriers facing students with disabilities that the Ontario Human Rights Commission published in 2003, available at: http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/opportunity-succeed-achieving-barrier-free-education-students-disabilities
b)
"Guidelines on Accessible Education," the Ontario Human Rights Commission's policy statement in the area of disability and education, available at
http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/guidelines-accessible-education
2. THE
NEED FOR MORE ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS – MORE BACKGROUND
The
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act requires Ontario to become
fully accessible for persons with disabilities by 2025. That is just
twelve-and-a-half years from now.
To get
In the
seven years since the AODA was passed, the Ontario Government has enacted
accessibility standards to address barriers facing persons with disabilities in
the areas of customer service, transportation, information and communication,
and employment. The Customer Service Accessibility Standard was enacted in 2007.
The areas of transportation, information and communication, and employment were
addressed together in one standard, the Integrated Accessibility Regulation.
That standard was enacted a year ago, in early June 2011.
The
Ontario Government has one more standard now under development, to address
barriers in the built environment. On August 19, 2011, Premier Dalton McGuinty
made a written election pledge to us that the Built Environment Accessibility
Standard would be enacted "promptly." Fully 11 months later, it has not been
enacted, nor has a date for its enactment been announced.
For more on the overdue Built Environment Accessibility Standard, visit:
http://www.aodaalliance.org/strong-effective-aoda/06042012.asp
The
Government has known for several years about the need to develop additional
accessibility standards under the AODA, beyond the first five that it set out to
create after the AODA was enacted in 2005. As far back as three years ago, on
June 12, 2009 the McGuinty Government announced the appointment of Charles Beer,
to conduct an Independent Review of the AODA’s implementation and effectiveness.
One of the tasks that the Government assigned to Mr. Beer was to advise the
Government on which additional accessibility standards need to be established,
apart from the five already under development.
The Beer
Independent Review's final report, made public on May 31, 2010, did not make any
firm and specific recommendations in this area. It stated:
"What
the Review Heard: Additional Standards
Though
included in the review’s terms of reference, the need to develop additional
accessibility standards was not a top-of-mind issue for most people consulted.
When prompted, some did mention the possibility of considering accessibility
standards for education or health care.
On the
other hand, a number of stakeholders remarked that not all issues can be
addressed in a standard and some may need to be dealt with through policy or
legislation. Overall, the view was that the government should finalize the first
five standards before considering new ones."
3. THE
GOVERNMENT'S PROMISE TO CONSULT ON THE NEXT ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS TO DEVELOP
In the
lead-up to last year's last provincial election, we wrote all three major
Ontario Party leaders to ask them to make a series of election commitments on
disability accessibility. In our July 15, 2011 letter to the three parties, we
asked each party to commit, among other things, to "Develop AODA accessibility
standards in the next term of the Government, in the areas of health care and
education/training (including schools, universities, colleges and other
educational institutions), and of access to housing/residential accommodation,
with work on these standards to begin by April, 2012."
Eleven
months ago, on August 19, 2011, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty wrote us to set
out the Liberal Party's election commitments in this area. On this topic he
wrote: Having the first five accessibility standards under the AODA enacted will
set a firm foundation for further progress on accessibility, and we look forward
to working with Ontario’s accessibility communities and partners to identify the
next standards that will move accessibility forward in our province."
You can read Premier McGuinty's August 19, 2011 written election pledges to the AODA Alliance by visiting: http://www.aodaalliance.org/strong-effective-aoda/090220111.asp
4. THE
GOVERNMENT'S UNJUSTIFIED DELAY IN KEEPING ITS ELECTION PROMISE ON DEVELOPING NEW
STANDARDS
We
followed up on this election pledge after the October 2011 Ontario election.
Eight months ago, on November 1, 2011, we wrote the newest Ontario Community and
Social Services Minister John Milloy, to identify priority areas on the
disability accessibility agenda within his ministry's responsibility. He is the
minister responsible for developing accessibility standards under the AODA.
Among the priorities we identified for him, we listed:
"3.
Selecting and undertaking the development of the next accessibility standards
that need to be developed under the AODA. We have asked the Government to next
develop accessibility standards in the areas of access to education at all
levels, to health care, and to residential housing. In his August 19, 2011
letter to us, Premier McGuinty promised: "…we look forward to working with
Ontario’s accessibility communities and partners to identify the next standards
that will move accessibility forward in our province." Because it takes years to
develop an accessibility standard, it is important to get to work on developing
the next round of standards right away."
You can read the AODA Alliance's November 1, 2011 letter to Community and Social Services Minister John Milloy at: http://www.aodaalliance.org/strong-effective-aoda/11012011.asp
Since
then, we have alerted the McGuinty Government that this is a priority issue for
us. Despite this, to date, the Government has announced no steps to implement
its promise to consult with us and other stakeholders on the areas that the next
round of new accessibility standards will address.
We have
let the Government know that it is very important that work on these new
standards be commenced as soon as possible. Ontario is now well behind schedule
on achieving full accessibility by 2025. Even if all the existing accessibility
standards are fully implemented and complied with, Ontario will not achieve full
accessibility by 2025.
The
Government's delay in getting to work on new accessibility standards is entirely
unjustified. Back in 2003-2004, over the same number of months since the 2003
election, a new minister took over this file, Dr. Marie Bountrogianni. She
learned the ropes, launched a province-wide extensive public consultation on
what the new AODA needed to include, held a series of public forums and sector
roundtable meetings to gather input, and published the details results of all
those consultations. That focus on the enormous uncharted terrain of what the
entire new Disabilities Act would include. Four months after that, she had
designed an entire new law, the proposed AODA, and tabled it in the Legislature
for public debates.
In sharp
contrast to that prompt and impressive record of action in 2003-2004, over the
same number of months in 2011-2012, the same Government now comes to this issue
equipped with ample experience with running a government and with this
accessibility issue. This Government already has the AODA on the books, and
experience consulting the public and developing accessibility standards. Yet
over the same number of months in 2011-2012, the promise consultations on which
new accessibility standards to enact has not even been announced, much less
conducted. Ontarians with disabilities deserve far more prompt attention. We
deserve the same prompt action as this Government showed it could achieve back
in 2003-04.
The fact
that we now have a minority government does not excuse this delay. The
Government does not need the Legislature's approval to take the steps needed to
keep its 2011 election promises to us. Moreover, we are not aware of the
opposition parties using their combined majority in the Legislature to slow
progress on the accessibility issue.
Ontario
cannot afford any more delay. It has taken a long period, at least two years,
for a Standards Development Committee to come up with final proposals for a new
accessibility standard. After a Standards Development Committee makes a final
recommendation to Government, it has taken another long period, always more than
a year, for the Government to review the Standards Development Committee's
proposals, to finalize the standard and to enact it as a law. Each standard to
date has then too often set out excessively long time lines for organizations to
comply with them. We have now gone through more than one third of the 20 year
period that the AODA gave
5. A
PROMISE THAT CAN BE QUICKLY KEPT
The
Government does not need to take much time to conduct consultations on which new
accessibility standards it should embark on developing. As we have shown here,
the Government has had that issue on its plate for at least as far back as the
2009 summer, three years ago, when it sought Charles Beer's advice on this. We
have pressed and refined our recommendations since as far back as the Beer
Review. The Accessibility Directorate of Ontario, part of the Ministry of
Community and Social Services, is well-positioned to advise the Government, on
choosing which sectors of our economy should be addressed by new accessibility
standards. The ADO has worked closely with all Standards Development Committees
and generally, on the Government's implementation of the AODA, since 2005.
From the
disability perspective, we have been publicly calling for the Government to
develop new accessibility standards in the areas of education at all levels,
health care, and residential housing, for quite some time. We have received
absolutely no negative or contrary negative feedback on these proposals from the
disability community or from any other sectors of the public.
If the
Government were now to issue a news release to announce a quick consultation on
options for areas that new accessibility standards could address, it could give
the public four weeks for sending in input. The Government could then make its
choice promptly and announce it. As soon as the Government publicly announces
the sectors that will be the focus of the next accessibility standards to be
developed, the disability community and those sectors can get right to work
developing ideas. If, for example, the Government accepts our proposal that a
new Education Accessibility Standard be developed, we could begin a dialogue
with school boards, colleges, universities and other education-providers on key
barriers to address. Those organizations could get to work exploring different
options for addressing those barriers. All this could be started even before the
Government formally appoints anyone to actually develop proposals for that new
accessibility standard. The same goes for the health sector, and the residential
housing sector, if the Government were to announce that it will develop new
accessibility standards in those areas.
The
longer the Government delays getting this going, the further behind schedule of
full accessibility by 2025
We know
that the Government is planning to announce a new process for developing
accessibility standards. That doesn't justify any delay here. The Government can
now consult the public, including the disability community, on which new
accessibility standards to develop. It can promptly announce its final decision
on that issue, while it is finalizing its plans for its new process for
developing accessibility standards. The Government can do more than one thing at
the same time.
To see the Government's announcement of plans to implement a new process for developing accessibility standards, visit:
http://www.aodaalliance.org/strong-effective-aoda/06292012.asp
6. HOW
YOU CAN HELP
Please
help us press the Government to get on with keeping its election promise in this
area, and to develop new accessibility standards in the areas of education,
health care and access to residential housing.
We
encourage you to:
* Phone,
email, write or visit your member of the Ontario Legislature. Urge them to call
on the McGuinty Government to now launch its promise and long-overdue
consultation on which next accessibility standards to enact under the AODA. Urge
them to support our call for new accessibility standards to be developed,
enacted and enforced in the areas of education at all levels, health care, and
residential housing.
* Press
Premier McGuinty and Community and Social Services Minister John Milloy with the
same message.
* Think
of barriers you or people with disabilities you know face when trying to fully
benefit from
* If you
are on the board or are a staff member, volunteer or client of a disability
community organization let them know about this issue. Urge them to publicly
support our call for Premier McGuinty to keep his election promises to us, and
further, that we need strong and effective new accessibility standards developed
in the areas of education, health care and residential housing.
*
Contact your local school, university, college, hospital or other health care
provider, as well as any real estate agents or developers, builders or
architects you might know. Urge them to start thinking about new and better ways
to make our education and health care systems fully accessible.
* Let
your local media know about our need for the Government to keep its as-yet
unkept promises in this area. Let them know about the need to get new
accessibility standards under development as soon as possible. Share the
information set out in this Update. Raise this issue on call-in programs. Write
a guest column for your local newspaper.
* If you
use FaceBook, Twitter or other social media, spread the word on this issue
through those social networks.
* Think
of other creative and positive ways of bringing this issue to the public's
attention.
* Here's
a new resource you may wish to share with the media or others whom you are
trying to reach out to on this topic. On June 15, 2012, AODA chair David
Lepofsky gave a speech to a conference on inclusive education hosted in New
Brunswick. He addressed the gains we have made to date in the area of accessible
education for students with disabilities, and the pressing need for Ontario to
develop, enact and enforce a strong and effective Education Accessibility
Standard under the AODA. To listen to the June 15, 2012 speech by AODA Chair
David Lepofsky on the need for an Ontario Education Accessibility Standard,
visit http://db.tt/6seSjlBz
We understand that the video stream from this entire conference may eventually be available on line. We will provide that link if we learn more.
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