AODA Alliance Asks the 5 Candidates for Ontario Liberal Party Leadership for Commitments on Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aodaalliance

Twitter: @aodaalliance

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

TikTok @AODAAlliance

 

AODA Alliance Asks the 5 Candidates for Ontario Liberal Party Leadership for Commitments on Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities

 

September 2, 2026

 

SUMMARY

 

The AODA Alliance has written the five candidates who are running for leadership of the Ontario Liberal party. We ask to make specific commitments to lead Ontario to become accessible for people with disabilities. We asked for a lucky 13 commitments. You can read that letter below. We will make public the responses we receive from any of these candidates, as each is received. In summary, we sought commitments that if the candidate becomes Liberal leader and if they become Ontario Premier, they will:

 

  • Meet with and work together with the AODA Alliance.
  • Make removing and preventing disability barriers a priority.
  • Make written election commitments in Ontario elections on disability accessibility.
  • Maintain and not weaken the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and its implementation.
  • Show strong new leadership on accessibility and revitalize the AODA’s implementation.
  • Include directions on disability accessibility in their mandate letters to their cabinet ministers.
  • Create a comprehensive multi-year action plan to get Ontario to the AODA’s required goal of an accessible province.
  • Enact an effective Education Accessibility Standard and Health Care Accessibility Standard under the AODA.
  • Reform Ontario’s education system to remove disability barriers facing students with disabilities and reform the funding formula for educating students with disabilities.
  • Not use public money to create or perpetuate barriers against people with disabilities.
  • Tear down disability barriers in provincial and municipal elections and
  • Reform the delayed and dysfunctional process for bringing a discrimination claim under the Ontario Human Rights Code.

 

 

Between November 9 and 20, 2026, members of the Ontario Liberal Party will vote for their party’s next leader. The winner will be announced on November 21, 2026.

 

As a non-partisan grass roots coalition, we will not endorse, support or oppose any candidate. Our non-partisan goal is to get strong commitments from all the leadership candidates, whatever be their party.

 

The AODA Alliance has done this in the last three races for leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party, and in the last two leadership races within Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party.

 

 

How You Can Help

 

  • Reach out to the Ontario Liberal leadership candidates. Urge them to make the accessibility pledges we seek. Let them know why this is important to you.
  • Urge the media to cover the disability issues we are raising in the Ontario Liberal Party leadership race.
  • Listen to Episode 5 and Episode 6 of Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast where AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky interviewed the former Liberal leader and the former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to get a sense of how a party leader can be persuaded on disability issues.

 

MORE DETAILS

 

AODA Alliance September 2, 2026 Letter to Candidates for Leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party

 

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance

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

Web: www.aodaalliance.org Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com Twitter: @aodaalliance Facebook: www.facebook.com/aodaalliance/

 

September 2, 2026

 

To: Candidates for Leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party

 

Via email:

Navdeep Bains contact@navdeepbains.ca

Lee Fairclough info@leefairclough.ca

Dylan Marando info@votefordylan.ca

Stephanie Bowman contact@stephaniebowman.ca

Eric Lombardi team@ericlombardi.ca

 

Dear Candidates for Ontario Liberal Party Leader,

 

We ask each of you to make commitments on making Ontario accessible to over 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) has required the Ontario Government to lead this province to become accessible to Ontarians with disabilities by 2025. We seek your commitment to show strong leadership on achieving accessibility for people with disabilities.

 

In the 1999 and 2003 elections, the Ontario Liberal Party promised to enact and effectively enforce strong disability accessibility legislation. In 2005, Under Premier Dalton McGuinty, the Legislature unanimously passed the AODA.

 

In the last three Ontario Liberal Party leadership races (2012-2013, 2019 and 2023), we received written accessibility commitments from some or all candidates.

 

In this letter we:

Describe the problem we need you to address;

List the specific commitments we request;

Explain who the AODA Alliance is, and

Give you background on the Liberal Party’s record of commitments on this issue.

 

The Problem Facing All Ontarians

 

Over 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities still face too many barriers when they try to get a job, ride public transit, get an education, use our public health care system, get around in our community, or shop for and enjoy the goods, services and facilities that are available to the public. This hurts all Ontarians. Everyone either has a disability now or is bound to get one later as they age. People with disabilities are the minority of everyone.

 

The Ontario Liberal Party can be proud that when it formed Government in 2003, it had committed to pass strong new Ontario accessibility legislation, working in consultation with Ontario’s disability community to design it. Ontario’s Liberals can also be proud that in 2005, the Legislature unanimously passed the AODA, and shortly afterwards, got a good start on implementing it.

 

However, progress later slowed, plagued by bureaucracy. Ontario has made some progress on disability accessibility. However, Ontario is far from accessible. Ontario did not fulfil its legal duty to become accessible by 2025, due in no small part to the Government’s inadequate implementation and enforcement of this landmark legislation.

 

Even though the Ontario Government failed to meet the 2025 deadline, the AODA remains in full force and effect. Ontarians with disabilities need the Ontario Government to effectively implement and enforce it.

 

In January, 2019, the final report of the Government-appointed Third Independent Review of the AODA’s implementation and enforcement, conducted by former Lieutenant Governor David Onley, found that the pace of change since 2005 for people with disabilities has been “glacial” and that “…the promised accessible Ontario is nowhere in sight.” David Onley concluded that progress on accessibility under this law has been “highly selective and barely detectable.”

 

The Onley Report found “…this province is mostly inaccessible” and that:

 

“For most disabled persons, Ontario is not a place of opportunity but one of countless, dispiriting, soul-crushing barriers.”

 

The Onley report in substance found that there has been a protracted, troubling lack of Government leadership on this issue, even though two earlier Government-appointed AODA Independent Reviews had called for renewed, strengthened leadership.

 

Four years later, the March 1, 2023, interim report of the Fourth Independent Review of the AODA and its June 6th final report, conducted by Mr. Rich Donovan spoke in even stronger terms. The Donovan Interim Report found:

 

“Despite 17 years since the AODA has come into force, People with Disabilities (PWD) still consistently face barriers in their everyday experiences, from navigating city streets, to applying for jobs, to accessing public transit and government services.”

 

This has led to “frustration, anger, resignation, and disappointment with the state of accessibility in Ontario.”

 

That report concluded:

 

“The current experience for many people with disabilities in Ontario is poor. This stems from design flaws in services, products, technology, buildings, infrastructure, careers, processes, and human imagination.”

 

The Donovan Interim report described the implementation of the AODA over 17 years as “a series of failures and missed opportunities.” He found it “utterly shocking” that the Ontario Premier and Cabinet have no plan to achieve an accessible Ontario for people with disabilities. His report found that both the Government and private sector organizations “have not prioritized disability in their operations.”

 

Donovan concluded that “…there is an urgent need for action.” His report called for accessibility for people with disabilities to urgently be made a greater priority. The Donovan report concluded that among disadvantaged groups in society, no others experience the same severity of exclusion.

 

Like the three prior AODA Independent Reviews, Donovan’s interim report determined that there has been a failure of needed leadership on accessibility:

 

“It is the assessment of the 4th Reviewer that leadership on accessibility – and the AODA – has been absent for 17 years. Without leadership, progress on this file is impossible.”

 

The Donovan report identified the Government of Ontario and all political parties as sharing responsibility:

 

“It is the obligation of the government of the day to serve the population. It has failed to do so for 22% of that population. Opposition parties have failed to hold governments of the day accountable for this lack of service. These failures are shared by all of Ontario’s political parties.”

 

Mr. Donovan, like the two immediately prior Independent Reviews, determined that the failure to make more progress on accessibility was also due in no small part to the lack of meaningful enforcement of the AODA.

 

Despite these official findings and the many obvious serious accessibility barriers in plain sight all around Ontarians, the Ford Government has not strengthened or accelerated the AODA’s implementation or enforcement. It has not shown the new revitalized leadership on this issue that Ontarians with disabilities need. Instead, progress has slowed even more.

 

For example, the Ford Government has not enacted any new accessibility standards under the AODA since it took office over eight years ago. It has not strengthened any existing accessibility standards, all of which are too weak and limited. Instead, the Ford Government has sat for years on eight reports from different Government-appointed AODA Standards Development Committees. These address disability barriers in education, health care, transportation, the built environment, customer service, employment and information and communication.

 

What We Ask of You

 

We want the next Ontario Liberal Party leader builds upon the Liberal Party’s past commitments on disability accessibility.

 

  1. We welcomed face-to-face meetings with Premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne to discuss accessibility issues (in addition to face-to-face meetings with different cabinet ministers, successive Secretaries of Cabinet, and other senior government officials). We regret that Premier Ford has never agreed to meet with us. His Accessibility Minister has not met with us in years.

 

If you become your Party’s leader, will you maintain your party’s past practice of personally meeting with us to discuss accessibility issues, in addition to our meetings with your appropriate caucus members? As part of this, will you meet with us within 90 days of becoming your party’s leader, so that we can brief you on these issues? If your Party is elected to form the Government, will you as Premier agree to periodically meet with us, in addition to our meeting with appropriate cabinet ministers?

 

  1. Under your leadership, will your Party make it a priority to press the current Government to keep its commitments and fulfil its duties on accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities?

 

  1. Will you continue your party’s practice in every Ontario election since 1995 of making written election commitments to us on the issue of achieving an accessible province for persons with disabilities?

 

  1. Under your leadership, will the Liberal Party fully maintain the implementation of the AODA and not weaken or reduce any AODA provisions, AODA regulations or Government policies that implement the AODA’s goals?

 

  1. Four Government-appointed mandatory AODA Independent Reviews have examined the Government’s implementation of the AODA (in 2009-2010 by Charles Beer, in 2013-2014 by Mayo Moran, in 2018-2019 by former Lieutenant Governor David Onley and in 2022-2023 by Rich Donovan). Each called on the Government to revitalize and breathe new life into the implementation of the AODA, and to show strong new leadership on this issue. The Moran, Onley, and Donovan Reports each identified the pressing need for Ontario’s Premier to show strong new leadership on accessibility.

 

If you become Ontario’s Premier, will you show new, strong leadership on accessibility for people with disabilities and breathe new life into and revitalize the Government’s implementation and enforcement of the AODA?

 

  1. Each premier sends Mandate Letters to their cabinet ministers, assigning their priorities. In your Mandate Letters, will you direct cabinet ministers, the Secretary of Cabinet and other senior public officials to implement your Government’s duties and commitments on disability accessibility?

 

  1. Ontario missed the 2025 deadline to become accessible to people with disabilities. If you become Ontario’s premier, will you commit to work with us and the disability community to establish a comprehensive multi-year plan of action and to institute measures that will ensure that Ontario becomes accessible as soon as possible? Will you commit not to re-open the AODA. We ask that its provisions be treated as sacrosanct.

 

In very troubling ways, the Ford Government has created new barriers facing Ontarians with disabilities. Will your multi-year comprehensive plan of action include measures to remove new disability barriers that the Ford Government has created?

 

  1. Students with disabilities continue to face serious disability barriers in Ontario’s K-12 and post-secondary education systems. Patients with disabilities continue to face serious disability barriers in Ontario’s health care system. The previous Liberal Ontario Government promised to enact a Health Care Accessibility Standard and an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA to eliminate those barriers. The Ford Government has not implemented the 2022 final reports of the Health Care Standards Development Committee, the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee or the Post-Secondary Education Standards Development Committee.

 

If you become Ontario’s Premier, will your Government enact an effective Health Care Accessibility Standard and an effective Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA?

 

  1. Students with disabilities face too many barriers in the education system. You cannot get a good job without a good education.

 

The K-12 Education Standards Development Committee’s final report demonstrated a pressing need for major reform to Ontario’s education system beyond enacting a strong AODA Education Accessibility Standard.

 

If you become Ontario Premier, will your Government undertake a comprehensive reform of Ontario’s education system as it relates to students with disabilities to remove disability barriers in the education system? Will this include reforming the funding formula for students with disabilities in order to ensure that it meets their needs and that funding is based on the actual number of students with disabilities in a school board?

 

  1. The Moran and Onley reports expressed a concern that public money has been used to create new accessibility barriers against people with disabilities. Will you commit that under your leadership, public money will not be used to create or perpetuate barriers against people with disabilities?

 

  1. Ontario voters and candidates with disabilities still face too many barriers in provincial and municipal elections. Under you as premier, will the Government bring forward new measures, including new legislation, to ensure that provincial and municipal elections in Ontario are fully accessible to voters and candidates with disabilities?

 

  1. When people with disabilities suffer unlawful discrimination, the dysfunctional, backlogged process for filing a human rights complaint and getting a hearing at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario can take 5 years or more. The entire system is broken and replete with unfair barriers. It needs substantial reform.

 

If you become Ontario Premier, will you reform the process for enforcing the Ontario Human Rights Code to make it fair, effective and faster?

 

Who Are We?

 

A volunteer, grassroots, non-partisan community coalition, the AODA Alliance does not seek to get any party or candidate elected. We do not endorse or oppose any candidate for leadership of any party.

 

Founded in 2005, we united to achieve a fully accessible Ontario for over 1.7 million Ontarians with disabilities, through the prompt and effective implementation of the AODA. Our supporters include persons with disabilities, people who have not yet gotten a disability, and community organizations concerned with the rights of persons with disabilities in Ontario.

 

Our predecessor coalition was the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee (ODA Committee). From 1994 to 2005, the ODA Committee spearheaded a province-wide accessibility campaign. It led to the enactment of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act 2001 (passed by the Mike Harris Government), and later, the AODA 2005 (passed by the Dalton McGuinty Government).

 

Our leadership on the issue of accessibility for people with disabilities, as well as that of our predecessor coalition, has been repeatedly recognized by all parties in the Ontario Legislature, as well as by the media. We have been identified as a leading non-partisan grassroots voice in Ontario that advocates to make Ontario a fully disability-accessible province.

 

Beyond Ontario, we have given our input on these issues to the Federal Government, and to those addressing these issues in Manitoba, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Our input has also been sought from others outside Canada, including in Israel, New Zealand and the European Union.

 

The Ontario Liberal Party’s Past Commitments on Accessibility For Ontarians With Disabilities

 

Starting in 1995, the Ontario Liberal Party has made written election commitments on accessibility legislation for persons with disabilities in each of the past nine Ontario general elections. These commitments were set out in letters from the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party to the ODA Committee in the 1995, 1999, and 2003 elections. After the ODA Committee wound up in 2005 with the passage of the AODA that year, the Ontario Liberal leader made these commitments in letters to its successor coalition, the AODA Alliance, in the 2007, 2011, 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2025 Ontario general elections.

 

On October 29, 1998, the Ontario Legislature unanimously passed a landmark and historic resolution setting out eleven important principles that a strong and effective Disabilities Act should fulfil. That resolution was introduced into the Legislature by Liberal MPP Dwight Duncan, at the request of our predecessor coalition, the ODA Committee. Right after that resolution was passed, Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty took part in a Queen’s Park news conference with ODA Committee Chair David Lepofsky. At that news conference, Mr. McGuinty, then Ontario’s Opposition leader, committed that a Liberal Government would implement a Disabilities Act that fulfilled that resolution.

 

To see the Ontario Liberal Party’s election commitments on disability accessibility in the 1999 Ontario election, visit http://www.odacommittee.net/letters/march26-99.html

 

To see the Ontario Liberal Party’s election commitments on disability accessibility in the 2003 Ontario election, visit http://www.odacommittee.net/news80.html#letter

 

To see the Ontario Liberal Party’s election commitments on disability accessibility in the 2007 Ontario election, visit https://www.aodaalliance.org/whats-new/newsub2011/liberal-party-writes-aoda-alliance-with-election-commitments-regarding-disability-accessibility/

 

To see the Ontario Liberal Party’s election commitments on disability accessibility in the 2011 Ontario election, visit https://www.aodaalliance.org/whats-new/new2011/read-the-ontario-liberal-partys-august-19-2011-letter-to-the-aoda-alliance-setting-out-its-2011-election-commitments-on-disability-accessibility/

 

To see the Ontario Liberal Party’s election commitments on disability accessibility in the 2014 election, visit https://www.aodaalliance.org/whats-new/new2015-whats-new/may-14-2014-letter-from-liberal-party-leader-premier-kathleen-wynne-on-her-partys-2014-disability-accessibility-election-pledges/

 

To see the Ontario Liberal Party’s election commitments on disability accessibility in the 2018 election, visit https://www.aodaalliance.org/whats-new/read-the-may-14-2018-letter-from-the-liberal-party-to-the-aoda-alliance-setting-out-its-2018-election-commitments-on-accessibility/

 

To see the Ontario Liberal Party’s election commitments in the 2022 Ontario general election, visit https://www.aodaalliance.org/whats-new/read-the-may-1-2022-election-commitments-on-disability-accessibility-by-the-ontario-liberal-party/

 

To see the Ontario Liberal Party’s election commitments in the 2025 Ontario general election, visit https://www.aodaalliance.org/whats-new/bonnie-crombies-liberals-make-election-commitments-to-lead-ontario-to-become-accessible-to-2-9-million-ontarians-with-disabilities-only-doug-fords-tories-have-not-made-commitments/

 

In Conclusion

 

We would appreciate a response to these questions by October 27, 2026. We will make responses public as soon as possible after each is received.

 

Please send your response by email to aodafeedback@gmail.com and please attach it as an accessible MS Word file. Do not send it as a PDF. PDF presents accessibility problems. We would be delighted to give you and your team any briefing and background information on this issue that you request.

 

We look forward to working with the leaders and members of all Ontario’s political parties now and in the future on the shared goal that all the major parties have endorsed, of achieving a fully accessible Ontario.

 

Sincerely,

 

David Lepofsky, CM, O.Ont,

Chair AODA Alliance