The 8th Episode of Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast is Now Available, Diving into More About the Huge Advocacy Drive in Ontario by Parents of Children with Autism

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update

United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities

Website: www.aodaalliance.org

Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com

Twitter: @aodaalliance

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aodaalliance

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The 8th Episode of Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast is Now Available, Diving into More About the Huge Advocacy Drive in Ontario by Parents of Children with Autism

 

January 30, 2026

 

SUMMARY

 

The 8th Episode is Out!

 

The 8th and latest episode of Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast was released today. Check it out! It’s entitled “Smart Strategies, Real Change: Lessons from a Landmark Autism Campaign Part 2. ” It features guest autism advocate Bruce McIntosh, a board member and originally the founding president of the grassroots Ontario Autism Coalition. Part 1 of this discussion was the focus of the third episode of the podcast last fall. In Part 2, Bruce McIntosh’s discussion with host David Lepofsky resumes their discussion of how targeted advocacy resulted in policy change for provincial funding of autism therapies. This second part talks about the very high and very low points in this campaign especially over the past ten years.

 

You can enjoy this episode without having first heard Part 1 of the discussion in Episode 3, but we encourage you to listen to both episodes.

 

 

Here’s the Correct Link to Watch Our January 28, 2026 Queen’s Park News Conference – We Earlier Sent You the Wrong Link

 

Heck, nobody’s perfect! In the January 29, 2026 AODA Alliance news release, we accidently gave the wrong link to watch the archived video of the important January 28, 2026 Queen’s Park news conference convened by the AODA Alliance, the Ontario Autism Coalition and Ontario Parents for Education Support. Here is the Correct link, we promise! https://youtu.be/mwcDtHMDVIE

 

It is really worth a watch. Our volunteers in the coming days will work to improve the closed captions.

 

More About the Podcast

 

Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast takes listeners to the front lines of disability rights advocacy. We delve into advocacy incidents and battles of all sorts. Some were waged by individuals and others by groups and organizations. We extract action tips on how to be an effective advocate, whether you are advocating on a disability issue or any social justice issue.

 

You will enjoy these stories whether or not you ever thought you’d have to advocate on a disability issue. In fact, at some point in everyone’s life, they will have do this, since everyone is bound to eventually get a disability as they age, if not sooner. Episodes are designed to be informative for listeners anywhere in the world, and not just in Canada where the podcast is based. We have listeners spread in countries all around the world.

 

New episodes come out every third Friday. Earlier episodes include:

  • “The 12 Year Fight for Automated Stop Announcements on the TTC” about Lepofsky’s long struggle to make transit in Toronto accessible for blind riders” with host David Lepofsky.
  • “Beyond Building Codes: Designing Spaces for Everyone”” with guest built environment accessible design expert Thea Kurdi
  • “Smart Strategies, Real Change: Lessons from a Landmark Autism Campaign” covering how targeted advocacy resulted in policy change for autism therapies.” With guest autism advocate Bruce McIntosh.
  • “Turning Barriers into Headlines: Practical Tips from a Veteran News Reporter” with former journalist Michelle McQuigge.
  • “How to get a Politician’s Attention” Parts 1 and 2 with the Honourable Kathleen Wynne, former Ontario Premier.
  • Airline Accessibility: How Maayan Ziv Turned a Mangled Wheelchair Into Real Change

 

 

You can find this podcast on the major podcast platforms.

 

Apple music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disability-rights-and-wrongs-the-david-lepodcast/id1838700161

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WFLiSy99OJPMZ1ZSrkWCg

 

 

Why not ask your smart phone, Alexa, or Google Nest:

 

“Play podcast ‘Disability Rights and Wrongs!’”

 

To read a transcript of each podcast, Apple Music can generate transcripts. Spotify might do that as well. For iPhone users, you might prefer to use the live captioning feature that comes with your phone.

 

How You Can Help

  • Help us grow the audience for this podcast. Each new listener may become a new disability advocate! Most people only discover new podcasts when a friend or family member tells them about it. When you are talking to someone about it, and they sound interested, encourage them to take their smart phone out then and there. Get them to open a podcast app, search for “David Lepodcast” and subscribe! It is that easy. Otherwise, they can forget to subscribe.

 

  • Email us about the podcast. How did you like it? What did you learn from it? How did you hear about it? What other topics and guests should we include? Write us at aodafeedback@gmail.com