Video Series on Tackling the Many Recurring Accessibility Barriers that People with Disabilities Face in the Justice System

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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Video Series on Tackling the Many Recurring Accessibility Barriers that People with Disabilities Face in the Justice System

 

March 21, 2026

 

SUMMARY

 

People with disabilities face many recurring accessibility barriers in all aspects of the justice system. That includes when they go to court, or must appear before some sort of an administrative tribunal, or take part in less formal processes like mediation. In terms of court alone, people with disabilities can participate as a party to a case, an accused or crime victim, a witness, a juror or prospective juror, a judge or justice of the peace, a lawyer, a member of the court staff, or as a member of the public who has the fundamental right to come to court and observe court proceedings.

 

This video series, and the additional resources listed under each video, gives several different insights into the barriers that people with disabilities can face in the justice system, and creative strategies for addressing these. There have been interesting developments in Ontario Canada and elsewhere. The goal is a fully accessible and barrier-free justice system.

 

This video series begins with a series webinars that the Law Society of Ontario (then called the Law Society of Upper Canada) provided for lawyers and paralegals between 2012 and 2017 as continuing professional development programs on removing barriers facing people with disabilities in the court process. They remain highly relevant today. They were each hosted/moderated by AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky. These six videos were created under the auspices of the Ontario Courts Accessibility Committee of which he is a member. That is a joint initiative of the Ontario Courts and the Ontario Government to tear down disability barriers in the courts. It works to implement the landmark report entitled “Making Ontario’s Courts Fully Accessible to Persons with Disabilities.” Link to playlist (videos 1-6): https://tinyurl.com/enhanceaccess

 

All these videos listed here will interest you if:

  • You work in any capacity in the justice system, e.g., as a judge or justice of the peace, court staff, policy planner, administrative tribunal member.
  • You want to learn about disability rights, disability advocacy or the history of our disability rights movement.
  • You want to advocate for disability rights, and want to see our grass roots advocacy in action, to learn how it is done.
  • You are a lawyer, law student, or future lawyer or law student, who wants to learn about disability rights legal issues.
  • You work in the field of disability accessibility.
  • You are involved in any social justice, equity or social justice advocacy or campaigning and want to learn from our experience and/or want your efforts to fully include people with disabilities as an equality-seeking group.
  • You work at a disability community organization of any sort.
  • You teach law, politics, public or social policy, disability issues, human rights and discrimination, social justice, social work, history, political science, architecture and other areas of design, public planning, and other topics that can touch on disability accessibility, disability inclusion or disability rights.
  • You live outside Ontario Canada and would like to see what’s going on here to compare with practices and efforts elsewhere in the world.

 

Some of our videos have been used in schools, and in college and university and other courses. Disability organizations in Ontario and elsewhere around the world have used them. We are delighted. Any teachers should feel free to use them as much as they wish! You don’t need to ask us in advance, but we would love to know when they are being used, if possible.

 

Below you will find a Quick Guide that lists all the videos catalogued here. After that, we include a fuller description of each video, including its title, the link to it, a description of it, and a list of additional resources on the topic that the video covers. Anyone using these videos to teach a course, or to write a paper for a course, will find that background information helpful.

 

Over time, we will create more videos. We will add them to this list when relevant. To find out what’s new, just jump to the end of this web page, and then scroll up.

 

Many of our videos are on the AODA Alliances YouTube channel. Others are on the YouTube channels of other organizations. Please sign up to follow our YouTube channel so you can get notified whenever a new video is posted there.

 

How to Learn More

  • Visit the AODA Alliance website’s videos page to see other series of videos that we have created, and a mega-list of all our videos together. More video series will be posted over time.
  • Send us your feedback. Write us at aodafeedback@gmail.com and tell us what you think of these videos and how you have used them. For more information about our disability advocacy:
    • Go to the AODA Alliance website’s home page and sign up to receive our newsletter. We announce each new video series in our AODA Alliance Updates.
    • Check out the AODA Alliance’s podcast called: Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast. It is available on the major podcast platforms like Apple Music and Spotify.

 

Quick Guide

  1. Enhancing Access to the Courts for People with Disabilities 2012

 

  1. Enhancing Access to Courts for People with Disabilities 2013: Practical Strategies for Accommodation

 

  1. LSO CPD Enhancing Access to the Courts 2014

 

  1. Enhancing Access to the Courts: Accommodating Mobility, Learning and Communication Disabilities

 

  1. Enhancing Access to the Courts for People with Disabilities 2016

 

  1. Ensuring Access to Your Law Office and Services for People with Disabilities

 

  1. Access to Justice for People with Disabilities – What Canada and Jamaica Can Learn From Each Other

 

  1. Making Courts and Mediations Accessible for People with Disabilities

 

  1. A New Approach to Resolving Disability Accessibility Discrimination Claims – Structured Negotiations, A Winning Alternative to Law Suits By Lainey Feingold February 10, 2017

 

  1. A Champion for Disability Rights– Lainey Feingold on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” February 13, 2017

 

  1. Controversial 2006 Changes to the Enforcement of Human Rights (Anti-discrimination) Legislation in Ontario – The Important Debate around Bill 107’s Privatization of Human Rights in Ontario February 6, 2017

 

  1. Billion Dollar Accessibility Bungle: Accessibility Problems at the New Toronto Courthouse: Long Version

 

  1. Billion Dollar Accessibility Bungle: Accessibility Problems at the New Toronto Courthouse: Short Version

 

  1. Billion Dollar Accessibility Bungle: Accessibility Problems at the New Toronto Courthouse: 4 Minute Trailer

 

Detailed Guide

Video 1) Title: Enhancing Access to the Courts for People with Disabilities 2012

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/0Cl4RjU1wp4?si=R0rzHY3-leduIxQw

Description: When people with disabilities are involved in the court system as litigants, witnesses, jurors, judges, lawyers, court services workers or as members of the public, they can encounter barriers to participation. This on demand webcast outlines what steps are being taken to create a fully accessible court system, and what you can do to break down accessibility barriers.

Panel 1: Overview of enhancing access to the courts. Speaker: David Lepofsky – 5:57

Panel 2: Staff at the Ministry of the Attorney General that deal with accessibility of court services discuss how to make use of their services. Speakers: Laurie McEvcoy and Janette Sprovieri – 35:57

Panel 3: Judges discuss their experiences with accessibility of court services and offer tips. Speakers: The Honourable Anne Molloy, The Honourable Howard Borenstein and The Honourable Stanley Sherr – 1:05:05

 

Video 2) Title: Enhancing Access to Courts for People with Disabilities 2013: Practical Strategies for Accommodation

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/9N1SjbGQ-94?si=YUnNORgxrHtBTmMt

Ted Kelly, Joe Wright, Marsha Swadra, Joanne Cohen, Laurie McEvoy and Justice Beverly Brown (26:55)

Description: Learn how to help clients, witnesses, counsel, and other court participants with disabilities overcome the many barriers that impede full access to Ontario’s courts. This On Demand Webcast focuses on specific strategies you can use in your practice, in particular, with respect to issues relating to hearing and mental health.

Panel 1: Accommodating people with hearing loss. Speakers: Bonnie Rittersporn and Kimberly Neeson – 8:13

Panel 2: Accommodating people with mental health issues. Speakers: Ted Kelly, Joe Wright, Marsha Swadra, Joanne Cohen, Laurie McEvoy and Justice Beverly Brown – 26:55

 

Video 3) Title: LSO CPD Enhancing Access to the Courts 2014

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/etP9je7LFhw?si=2uFRSWekO3QauMJs

Description: Be proactive and learn how to help clients, witnesses, counsel, and other court participants with disabilities overcome the many barriers that impede full access to Ontario’s courts. This On-Demand Webcast focuses on enhancing access for people with vision loss and intellectual disabilities.

Panel 1: Meeting the needs of people with vision loss. Speakers: Shonagh Pickens and Alexandra Papaiconomou – 12:58

Panel 2: Meeting the needs of people with intellectual disabilities in the court process. Speakers: Graeme Leach, Deborah Richards, June Hvalica and Anna Marie Dodge – 1:05:55

 

Video 4) Title: Enhancing Access to the Courts: Accommodating Mobility, Learning and Communication Disabilities

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/4_4T6IwJbZ8?si=nCepuU6eIMEG9BXE

Description: Ontario courts should be open to everyone. But clients, witnesses, counsel, and other participants with disabilities often encounter barriers to full access. Do you know what accommodation tools are already available in the courts? This On-Demand Webcast focuses on enhancing access for people with physical or mobility issues and people with learning and communication disabilities, highlighting the strategies and approaches you can use in court to facilitate their accommodation.

Panel 1: Physical disabilities and barriers to people with mobility limitations. Speakers: Steven Christianson, Harley Nott and Jill Sawchuk – 8:36

Panel 2: Learning disabilities. Speakers: Stacey Brooks, Mitchell Curci – 40:26

Panel 3: Communication disabilities. Speaker: Pamela Cross – 1:10:54

Q&A with all speakers – 1:36:11

Video 5) Title: Enhancing Access to the Courts for People with Disabilities 2016

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/fUxpfpGpHz4?si=XWuyIKp7v3lty5hr

Description: Everyone has a legal right to fully participate in court proceedings, both to defend their rights and to pursue the recognition of their rights in the appropriate court or tribunal. As a lawyer or paralegal, you have a special responsibility to protect the dignity of individuals and to respect human rights in Ontario. In this fifth installment of this important series, our presenters branch out to cover outstanding issues and share insights in dealing with more complex or unusual disability situations, as well as addressing the needs of lawyers, paralegals, and judges with disabilities. This On-Demand Webcast benefits first-time viewers as well as those who have watched the earlier webcasts in this series.

Panel 1: Accommodating multiple sclerosis, autism spectrum disorder, and people with traumatic brain injuries in the courtroom. Speakers: Angela Covert, Stephanie Moeser, Gail Simpson – 12:55

Panel 2: How the Ministry of the Attorney General is accommodating individuals in the courtroom. Speakers: Jill Sawchuk and Laurie McEvoy – 1:08:54

Panel 3: Perspective from decisionmakers. Speakers: Justice Howard Borenstein, Justice Anne Molloy and David Wright – 1:31:38

 

Video 6) Title: Ensuring Access to Your Law Office and Services for People with Disabilities

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/zrmH9Qsk0H8?si=RZPkgUsMoUPa4dzb

Description: Almost two million Ontarians have a disability, whether physical, mental, sensory or learning. On average, that’s one person in every seven. Can your firm accommodate them? No law firm or paralegal practice can operate effectively without ensuring that its office and services are fully accessible to people with disabilities. This On-Demand Webcast offers practical strategies for both public and private sector practitioners to make their workplace and client services compliant. Learn what you need to do, who it will benefit, and what the law requires.

Panel 1: Practical tips for accommodation in the built and digital environments. Speakers: Geordie Gibbon, Thea Kurdi and Sambhavi Chandrashekar – 12:15

Panel 2: A broader range of barriers clients with disabilities face. Speakers: Robert Lattanzio, Joanne Silkauskas and Colleen Bauman – 1:07:12

 

Video 7) Title: Access to Justice for People with Disabilities – What Canada and Jamaica Can Learn From Each Other

Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWZkyg_iU8s

Description: This is AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky’s November 13, 2024 speech at Jamaica’s Social Justice Conference focusing on access to justice for people with disabilities, held in Kingston Jamaica on November 13 and 14, 2024.

Related resources:

Video 8) Title: Making Courts and Mediations Accessible for People with Disabilities

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3d73LGpGXY&feature=share&list=PLDGgB77j2ZYrl_rtpe32nSjOXfrDAGvnn&index=7

Description: In this captioned January 21, 2014 lecture to Osgoode Hall Law School’s Negotiations and Mediation Seminar taught by Prof. Martha Simmons, David Lepofsky describes specific strategies for ensuring that persons with disabilities can fully participate in court proceedings and in mediation and negotiations processes connected with litigation.

Related resources:

  • To learn more about the barriers that impede many persons with disabilities from full access to and participation in court proceedings, and strategies for removing and preventing these barriers, read “Making Ontario’s Courts Fully Accessible to Persons with Disabilities – the December 2006 Report of the Ontario Courts Disabilities Committee (The Weiler Report), available at this link.

 

Video 9) Title: A New Approach to Resolving Disability Accessibility Discrimination Claims – Structured Negotiations, A Winning Alternative to Law Suits By Lainey Feingold February 10, 2017

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkNw65JEeyI

Description: In this captioned lecture to the first year class at the Osgoode Hall Law School, introduced by David Lepofsky, leading U.S. disability rights lawyer Lainey Feingold describes “Structured Negotiations”, a novel and highly successful new approach she has invented for resolving disability discrimination and accessibility cases. She explains how structured negotiations work and how they succeed.

Related resources:

  • Lainey Feingold’s website at this link.
  • Lainey Feingold’s book “Structured Negotiations – A Winning Alternative to Law Suits”, published by the American Bar Association, available here.
  • Lainey Feingold’s February 13, 2017 appearance on TVOntario’s program The Agenda with Steve Paikin, later in this video series (and available at this link), where she explains to the public how structured negotiation has worked in the US, to advance the rights of people with disabilities.

Video 10) Title: A Champion for Disability Rights– Lainey Feingold on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” February 13, 2017

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WOsT1Ppf44

Description: In this TV interview on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”, US disability rights lawyer Lainey Feingold explains her novel approach to resolving disability accessibility and human rights claims, which she calls “structured negotiations”. This is especially important in Ontario, where enforcement of accessibility remains a serious deficiency.

Related resources:

  • Lainey Feingold’s February 10, 2017 lecture to the first year class at the Osgoode Hall Law School, included in this video series (and available at this link, and the documents and resources listed there for more information.

 

Video 11) Title: Controversial 2006 Changes to the Enforcement of Human Rights (Anti-discrimination) Legislation in Ontario – The Important Debate around Bill 107’s Privatization of Human Rights in Ontario February 6, 2017

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH4xCi5Ye_g&t=6s

Description: In this captioned lecture, given to a first year State and Citizen course at the Osgoode Hall Law School, David Lepofsky explores the controversial changes that the Ontario Government made in 2006 to the way a discrimination victim enforces his or her human rights in Ontario, through the enactment of Bill 107. Before that change, discrimination complaints were brought to a public law enforcement agency, the Ontario Human Rights Commission. After the 2006 reforms imposed under Bill 107, an amendment to the Ontario Human Rights Code, human rights enforcement was privatized. Discrimination victims had to privately investigate and present their own case before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, without a public law enforcement agency. David Lepofsky took active part in that 2006 debate on behalf of the AODA Alliance, which vigourously opposed these reforms.

Related resources:

  • The history of the unfolding debate over Bill 107 in 2006, and its aftermath, recounted in detail on a special part of the AODA Alliance’s website, available at this link.
  • The November 27, 2006 AODA Alliance brief, calling for substantial amendments to Bill 107 before the Legislature passed it, available at this link.
  • The March 1, 2012 AODA Alliance brief to the Andrew Pinto Review which the Ontario Government appointed to review the effectiveness of Bill 107, available at this link.
  • The April 12, 2012 supplemental AODA Alliance brief to the Pinto Review (link here), which the Pinto Review refused to read (link here).
  • The November 2012 final report of the Andrew Pinto Review of Bill 107, available at this link.
  • The November 16, 2012 AODA Alliance analysis of the Andrew Pinto Bill 107 Review final report, available at this link.

 

Video 12) Title: Billion Dollar Accessibility Bungle: Accessibility Problems at the New Toronto Courthouse: Long Version

Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvo9jYIUvSc

Description: The new Toronto Armoury Street Courthouse, which opened in the first half of 2023 and which cost almost 1 billion dollars, has serious disability accessibility problems, as this video reveals. Said to be Canada’s largest courthouse, this mega-courthouse, which includes some 63 criminal courtrooms, totally or partially replaces 6 criminal trial courthouses around Toronto. Narrated by blind Toronto lawyer and disability rights advocate David Lepofsky, Chair of the non-partisan Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, this video shows that this is a billion dollar accessibility bungle. This video will interest anyone concerned with disability rights, architecture, design of the built environment, equality or social justice. This long version provides detailed explanations of just some of this courthouse’s disability accessibility problems. A short version of this video more briefly summarizes these disability accessibility problems.

Related Resources:

 

Video 13) Title: Billion Dollar Accessibility Bungle: Accessibility Problems at the New Toronto Courthouse: Short Version

Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6XNVMoUmB8

Description: Toronto’s new Armoury Street courthouse, which opened in the first half of 2023 and which cost almost 1 billion dollars, has serious disability accessibility problems, as this video reveals. Said to be Canada’s largest courthouse, this mega-courthouse, which includes some 63 criminal courtrooms, totally or partially replaces 6 criminal courthouses around Toronto. Narrated by blind Toronto lawyer and disability rights advocate David Lepofsky, Chair of the non-partisan Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, this video shows that this is a billion dollar accessibility bungle. This video will interest anyone concerned with disability rights, architecture, design of the built environment, equality or social justice. This short version is a summary of just some of this building’s accessibility problems. A long version is also available, which provides a more detailed description of just some of this building’s accessibility problems. This is a 14 minute summary of the long version of this video.

Related Resources:

 

Video 14) Title: Billion Dollar Accessibility Bungle: Accessibility Problems at the New Toronto Courthouse: 4 Minute Trailer

Link to video: https://youtu.be/hViGUVoj_iM

Description: The new Toronto Armoury Street Courthouse, which opened in the first half of 2023 and which cost almost 1 billion dollars, has serious disability accessibility problems, as this video reveals. Said to be Canada’s largest courthouse, this mega-courthouse, which includes some 63 criminal courtrooms, totally or partially replaces 6 criminal trial courthouses around Toronto. Narrated by blind Toronto lawyer and disability rights advocate David Lepofsky, Chair of the non-partisan Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, this video shows that this is a billion dollar accessibility bungle. This video will interest anyone concerned with disability rights, architecture, design of the built environment, equality or social justice. This long version provides detailed explanations of just some of this courthouse’s disability accessibility problems. A short version of this video more briefly and a longer version more extensively reveal these disability accessibility problems.

Related Resources: