AODA Alliance
ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE
NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Blind Voter David Lepofsky Will Argue This Thursday 930 AM at the Human Rights Tribunal that Elections Ontario Violated His Human Rights By Not Ensuring He Can Vote Independently and in Private – Get Zoom Link to Watch Closing Argument
October 27, 2026 Toronto: After battling for 27 years to win the right to independently and privately vote in Ontario elections, blind voter and disability rights advocate David Lepofsky finally gets his day in court this Thursday. The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario will hold a virtual hearing to receive closing arguments from Lepofsky, from Elections Ontario, and from the CNIB and Alliance For Equality of Blind Canadians who are supporting Lepofsky. Anyone can contact the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (as quickly as possible) to get a link to watch the October 29, 2026 Zoom hearing from 9:30AM to 5 PM. Tribunal hearings are open to the public, but the Tribunal does not livestream its hearings on YouTube or its own web page. Email HRTO.Registrar@ontario.ca to ask for the Zoom link as soon as possible to observe Lepofsky v. Elections Ontario
Lepofsky filed this human rights complaint over seven years ago. He asks the Tribunal to find that:
(a) For years, Lepofsky repeatedly asked ELECTIONS ONTARIO to effectively accommodate his disability in connection with voting and repeatedly told ELECTIONS ONTARIO that the measures it offered blind voters do not effectively accommodate his disability;
(b) ELECTIONS ONTARIO never offered an effective option for voting that ensures that a totally blind voter can consistently and reliably mark, verify and cast their ballot independently and in private;
(c) ELECTIONS ONTARIO knew for years of the inadequacies of its offered voting accommodations for blind voters;
(d) ELECTIONS ONTARIO did not sufficiently investigate and pilot alternative voting options;
(e) ELECTIONS ONTARIO has not proven that it would have been impossible for it to do more to accommodate Lepofsky, as a blind voter, in the voting process, and to investigate and pilot truly accessible voting options, without the Crown in right of Ontario suffering undue hardship; and
(f) Lepofsky amply fulfilled his duty to cooperate in the accommodation process by advocating for years to get Elections Ontario to fix this.
The straw that broke the camel’s back for Lepofsky came in 2018 when he tried to vote using Elections Ontario’s assistive voting terminal for voters with disabilities, only to have his marked ballot end up falling to the floor. A poll worker saw who he voted for, violating ballot secrecy. Elections Ontario did not dispute those facts and apologized to Lepofsky, but the voting barriers for blind voters persist to this day.
“Elections Ontario, a provincial Crown agency, should not put any voter through an ordeal like I’ve suffered just so we can consistently and reliably enjoy the basic democratic right to vote in secret,” said Lepofsky, who is Chair of the AODA Alliance, a visiting professor of disability rights at the law schools at Queen’s, Western and the University of Ottawa and host of “Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast.”
At this hearing, the parties will argue whether Elections Ontario has violated Lepofsky’s right under the Ontario Human Rights Code to equal treatment with respect to services and facilities without discrimination because of Lepofsky’s disability, total blindness. Lepofsky will argue that Elections Ontario failed to fulfill its duty to accommodate his disability. Elections Ontario has the burden to prove that it was impossible to do more to accommodate blind voters like Lepofsky without suffering undue hardship. Elections Ontario is vigourously defending this claim. It denies that there has been any human rights violation.
At this hearing, the Tribunal will only consider whether Elections Ontario has violated Lepofsky’s human rights. If it rules in favour of Lepofsky, a later hearing will be held for the Tribunal to decide what remedy to order. If the Tribunal rules against Elections Ontario, Lepofsky will ask the Tribunal to order Elections Ontario to develop an action plan that the Tribunal approves to ensure accessible voting for voters with vision loss like Lepofsky, and to appoint an Official Monitor to oversee the process.
Twenty years ago, Lepofsky fought and won two successive cases at the Human Rights Tribunal to force the TTC to consistently and reliably announce all subway, bus and streetcar stops to accommodate blind riders like him. TTC, like Elections Ontario, fought him every step of the way, using public money.
Contact: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, aodafeedback@gmail.com
Twitter: @davidlepofsky or @aodaalliance
For background, check out:
- The June 1, 2018 AODA Alliance Update which describes the violation of AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofskys right to independently mark his ballot in secret and verify his choice in the 2018 Ontario election.
- The AODA Alliance website’s elections accessibility page which spells out the coalitions efforts for many years to ensure accessible voting in Ontario for voters with disabilities.