AODA Alliance
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update
United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities
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AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky’s Monthly Column in the Toronto Star’s Metroland Publications Urges Parents of Students with Disabilities to Sign Up to Speak at the June 18, 2026 Virtual Town Hall on How to fix the Many Disability Barriers in Schools Around Ontario
June 10, 2026
SUMMARY
Below you can find AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofskys monthly column for June in the Toronto Star’s 25 Metroland publications all over this province. It encourages parents of students with disabilities and the students themselves to sign up to speak at the Virtual Town Hall that the AODA Alliance and Ontario Autism Coalition are holding from 10 AM to noon on Thursday, June 18, 2026. The speakers will be invited to describe disability barriers of any kind impeding students with disabilities at school, and what needs to be done to remove and prevent these barriers.
How You Can Help
- If you are a parent of students with disabilities in an Ontario school who has encountered disability issues or barriers at school, sign up to speak at the June 18 Virtual Town Hall! That includes any kind of disability whatsoever.
- Please send this article to any parents of students with disabilities that you know in Ontario. Encourage them to register to speak at this Encourage your local media to cover this Virtual Town Hall. Let’s focus public attention on what is needed to give students with disabilities equal opportunity to succeed at Ontario schools.
MORE DETAILS
Inside Halton June 9, 2026
Originally posted at https://www.insidehalton.com/opinion/columnists/parents-share-barriers-to-education-june-18/article_98152f1e-0e67-532e-9325-3d8b1f66fbbb.html
Concerned about disability barriers in Ontario schools? Virtual town hall gives parents, students a chance to share concerns
A virtual town hall hosted by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance and Ontario Autism Coalition will be held June 18.
By David Lepofsky
David Lepofsky is the chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance.
Wherever you live in Ontario, do you have a child, grandchild, niece or nephew with disabilities in school, or who you want to go to school?
That includes kids who have a physical, learning, hearing, vision, communication, mental health disability, or autism, or any other challenges learning. A unique and important opportunity has been created for you.
On April 27, Education Minister Paul Calandra made this important commitment when addressing a standing committee at the Ontario Legislature:
“The level of special education across the province is different from school board to school board. I’m frankly unhappy with that. I’m unhappy with the disconnect between the three ministries that are responsible. I certainly think we can do a better job. I will be spending a significant amount of time over the next number of months seeing how we can better perform when it comes to special education.”
In previous columns, I’ve talked about the many unfair disability barriers that more than 300,000 students with disabilities face in Ontario schools.
These include difficulties getting into and around a school, problems getting the adaptive technology they need and the training to use it, lack of sufficient staff to support their learning in class, and bureaucratic obstacles when trying to navigate a maze-like school board.
I bemoaned the lack of effective strategic action by the Ontario government to fix this chronic injustice. Today, I offer you a way to try to make a difference.
Two non-partisan grassroots disability coalitions have teamed up to help the minister hear from parents of students with disabilities, and from students with disabilities themselves, about the barriers to learning in kindergarten to Grade 12 schools anywhere in Ontario.
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance (which I chair) and the Ontario Autism Coalition are holding a virtual town hall on Thursday, June 18, from 10 a.m. to noon EDT.
We’re inviting parents and students to sign up to tell us what barriers to an equal education they face at school, and to recommend what needs to be done to remove and prevent these barriers.
Sign up to speak by emailing TownHall@ontarioautismcoalition.com or learn more about the event and how to watch it live on the alliance’s website, www.aodaalliance.org.
We’ve invited the education minister to log in, listen to speakers, and say a few words at the virtual town hall.
It is incredibly important for him to hear unfiltered feedback from our classrooms’ front lines.
School boards and the education ministry often say parents are the best experts on their kids. We are devoting our volunteer efforts to ensure that the minister can hear from those experts.
We are accepting speakers on a first-come, first-served basis.
To respect privacy, we ask speakers not to name their child, their school or their teacher. We’ll only give a speaker’s first name. If possible, we’d like to know with which school board they are connected.
We also know speaking at this event will be hard — both because the topic can be very emotional and because we’ll have to limit each person’s time to allow all participants to speak.
Please encourage parents of students with disabilities or students with disabilities to participate.
I believe that the Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) at each of Ontario’s 72 school boards should hold a similar event, both in-person and online.
For too long, too many parents of students with disabilities around Ontario have felt stressed, isolated and unable to get a platform to be heard. Let’s help the education minister keep his commitment to them.
David Lepofsky is a retired lawyer who chairs the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance and the Toronto District School Boards Special Education Advisory Committee. He is a visiting professor of disability rights at the law schools at Western, Queen’s and the University of Ottawa, and hosts a podcast: Disability Rights and Wrongs – The David Lepodcast.