AODA Alliance
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
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Another Blizzard Brings More Human-Created Disability Barriers – Where is the Ford Government When We Need it?
January 18, 2026
SUMMARY
On Thursday, January 15, 2026, southern Ontario experienced a major snowstorm, the kind Ontarians are used to experiencing. Yet again, local government efforts at clearing the snow created more avoidable accessibility barriers for people with disabilities. CBC News reported on this in its evening news broadcast in Toronto on January 16, 2026. On January 17, 2026, it posted a detailed online news report, which you can read below.
We cannot legislatively ban snow, but we can legislatively require cities and towns to prevent the human creation of more snow barriers impeding people with disabilities. Yet no accessibility standard has been enacted under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act by the Ontario Government to set provincial standards in this area. Each municipality is once again left to wastefully reinvent the same accessibility wheel or harmfully create more disability barriers.
This has a cruel “Ground Hog Day” feel to it. Disability advocates have been raising the same objections year after year. For example, the AODA Alliance’s February 22, 2025 news release bore the headline: “Calling Snap Election in Snowy February Creates New Barriers to Accessible Voting for Voters with Disabilities.”
How You Can Help
- Take photos of ridiculous human-created snow barriers that hurt people with disabilities. Post them on social media. Use the hashtag #AODAFail” which the AODA Alliance invented a decade ago. Email these photos to your local media.
Take videos of these barriers and post them on TikTok. Tag @aodaalliance.
- Send these photos to your member of the Ontario Legislature. Demand provincial action under the AODA.
- Get helpful action tips on how to advocate on this and other disability issues by listening to the 7 episodes available so far on “Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast.” You can get it wherever podcasts are found.
- The AODA Alliance is now posting on TikTok, not just Twitter and Facebook. Please follow @aodaalliance on TikTok. Like our posts and share them on TikTok.
MORE DETAILS
CBC News January 17, 2026
Disability advocates urge Toronto, province to plan ahead for winter accessibility challenges
City says sidewalk snow clearance a priority this year, will address 311 requests as quickly as possible
Arrthy Thayaparan CBC News
Picture of woman in wheelchair by the side of a snowy road.
Disability advocate and social worker Emily Chan says snow removal is an equity issue that impacts how people navigate their community. (Mehrdad Nazarahari/CBC)
With city crews still working away to clear the snow buildup from Thursday and more flurries in the forecast for this weekend, disability advocates in Toronto say there’s not enough support during winter weather events.
Snowstorms lead to natural and human-made barriers that impact how people with disabilities navigate the city, said David Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Alliance.
Accumulated snow on sidewalks, bus stops and at the edge of roads are examples of human-made barriers that people often overlook, he said.
Stepping over a pile of snow to get onto a bus is simple for those who can walk, but that’s not the case for people with mobility aids or wheelchairs, said social worker Emily Chan.
“The bus ramp can’t even go down over that pile of snow, so that also renders that form of transportation inaccessible,” she said.
Lepofsky said the province is way overdue to create a regulatory accessibility standard for all municipalities, as agreed upon through the creation of the AODA in 2005.
He’s also calling on the city to plan ahead by creating a registry of people with disabilities and how best to help them during winter storms.
“[A registry will] ensure that [the city] either doesn’t create these barriers in these particular locations or that they move rapidly to remove them,” he said, adding right now people are able to call 311 to get snow clearance support, but that it’s not always done properly.
The province did not respond to requests for comment.
This year Toronto is prioritizing the clearance of sidewalks, right after roads and bike lanes, a city spokesperson told CBC Toronto Friday.
“We have over 1300 people working around the clock to clear roads, sidewalks, bike lanes and transit stops in a prioritized sequence,” they said, adding urgent snow clearing requests to 311 will be addressed as quickly as possible.
Toronto is expecting a chance of flurries Saturday with a high of 1 C and a low of -10 C overnight, which will feel closer to -20 with wind chill. Sunday’s forecast shows signs of snow with a high of -4 C that will feel more like -17.
Snow removal is an equity issue: advocate
In a news release Friday, the city said snow clearance of roads and sidewalks is expected to take several days due to the forecast and “significant” accumulation this week.
In an updated news release Saturday, the city said crews will focus on “enhanced sidewalk clearing, plowing and salting” and removing snow from prioritized areas, such as hospitals, throughout Saturday. The city also said snow removal work began earlier than usual on Friday evening.
Chan says snowstorms make regular spaces inaccessible, impacting people needing to get to work, school, and even medical appointments.
“It’s one thing for somebody to choose to stay home that day, but it’s another thing when somebody is forced to stay home because of inaccessible circumstances,” she said.
But Lepofsky said snow also becomes a safety concern when it starts to get icy, adding it’s “disproportionately dangerous for people with disabilities.”
“You’ve got to remember, especially for seniors, a fall can mean broken hips, [which] can have dramatic and drastic health consequences.”
Chan says she wants city officials to know that snow removal is an equity issue that changes how people participate in their community.
“I recognize that there are time constraints, resource constraints,” she said. “My hope is that sidewalks and curb cuts are prioritized as an area of focus.”