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 Disability Rights Column in the Toronto Star’s Metroland Publications Talks About the Stupidest Ramp in the World, and Metrolinx’ Failure to Justify It
August 21, 2026
SUMMARY
In his monthly column for August 2026 in the Toronto Star’s many Metroland publications around Ontario, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky lets readers know about the stupidest ramp in the world, which Metrolinx built at the newly renovated Finch West subway station. Watch the 5-minute AODA Alliance video that reveals this accessibility blunder.
How You Can Help
- Get even more people to watch the AODA Alliances viral “Stupidest Ramp in the World” video, and share it on social media.
- Write Premier Doug Ford at premier@ontario.ca and let him know what you think of the story in this column. Send him the column and ask him what he thinks about it.
- Contact Metrolinx to report any disability barriers on transit lines it runs or built. All the contact information you need is in the June 25, 2026 AODA Alliance Update.
MORE DETAILS
York Region August 20, 2026
Originally posted at: https://www.yorkregion.com/life/ontario-laws-not-improving-accessibility/article_e94173b9-b845-5a74-a282-43d0011e1bb4.html
Missing elevator at new TTC station creates uphill battle for transit riders with disabilities
Ramp longer than 747 jet built instead of elevator, David Lepofsky writes.
By David Lepofsky
Thursday, August 20, 2026
David Lepofsky is the chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance.
When the Ford government recently opened two new Toronto light rail transit lines, it subjected Ontarians to entirely preventable accessibility blunders.
My column last month highlighted one — a screw-up with way-finding floor marking to help us blind people find our way through the new labyrinthine stations.
Here’s another equally ridiculous one: The government failed to include an obviously necessary elevator at the renovated Finch West station for transit riders with disabilities to go up one floor from the new Finch West LRT line to the pre-existing north-south subway line.
The two transit lines intersect at that station.
Instead, riders with disabilities must try to get up an absurd 261-foot-long ramp. That is longer than a 747 jumbo jet.
Check out my new five-minute online video of this masterpiece of terrible design. We call it “The Stupidest Ramp in the World!” Thousands of people have already watched that video.
This video reveals a serious accessibility bungle for public transit passengers with mobility disabilities on Toronto’s new Finch West transit line. It focuses on the newly renovated Finch West subway station. Your narrator is Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act alliance Chair David Lepofsky. This is only one of the accessibility problems on this new transit line.
This is the latest in the Ontario Government’s mishandling the design and construction of public transit stations, from the perspective of disability accessibility. Learn more at www.aodaalliance.org/transportation
A person in a wheelchair or using a walker would need a Paralympian’s upper body strength to power themselves up this exhausting ramp.
There are two landings along the way up this ramp, which don’t have enough room for a power wheelchair to make the turn.
A fellow disability advocate demonstrated this bungled design during a TV station interview as he had to keep backing up, turning a bit, backing up and then turning more.
This station’s design was an irresponsible misuse of the public’s money. The ramp creates the illusion of accessibility, but not the reality of accessibility.
It shows when it comes to tearing down disability barriers, the province’s claims to lead by example is bogus.
The Ontario government committed new transit lines would be accessible. The Toronto Transit Commission’s website boasts all stations have elevators to get from a subway platform up to street level.
Their clever wording masks the reality that at the Finch West station, there is no elevator to get up from the new east-west line to the older north-south line.
The province knew of the need for an elevator there. It correctly installed an elevator for switching between intersecting transit lines on Toronto’s new Eglinton Crosstown LRT line.
I gamble you are wondering why the government didn’t include an elevator at the Finch West station to transfer between the intersecting transit lines.
That question cries out for an answer. Last month I asked that very question in writing, addressed to the CEO of the government’s Metrolinx organization (that designed these stations).
So far, I’ve gotten no response.
Several media outlets also asked Metrolinx this question. They got an evasive standardized non-answer. It talks about Metrolinx’s commitment to accessibility, and how they are still learning.
We’ve called on Metrolinx to have an independent accessibility audit conducted of Toronto’s two new LRT lines, and to make public any findings and recommendations. We’re waiting for an answer to that, too.
When the province boasts of building new transit infrastructure around Ontario, you can expect that it will repeat these debacles in or near your community, unless something is done to prevent this.
We know what needs to be done. Under Ontario’s landmark Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, the government has the duty to enact strong accessibility regulations setting accessibility standards to achieve accessible public transit.
An extremely limited Transportation Accessibility Standard was enacted in 2011. It desperately needs to be updated. The province received recommendations to reform it in the spring of 2018, but has been sitting on those recommendations since it took office over eight years ago.
We’re eager to supplement those recommendations.
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.