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
Twitter: @aodaalliance
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aodaalliance
AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky to Appear on TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” This Monday – and – 33 Organizations Have Now Signed Open Letter to Ontario Parties
February 21, 2025
SUMMARY
As we enter the final week of Ontario’s snap election campaign, here is the latest information from the non-partisan grassroots disability advocacy trenches!
1. AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky is Scheduled to Address the Ontario Election’s Disability Issues on Monday, February 24, 2025 at 8 and 11 pm EST on TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”
As in each of the past Ontario elections, TVO’s influential public affairs program “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” will include an interview with AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky on Monday, February 24, 2025 at 8 and 11 pm EST. It is also expected to stream live on the X (previously Twitter) feed and Facebook page of “The Agenda with Steve Paikin.” It will later be archived on the program’s YouTube channel. This interview will address disability issues in the current Ontario election.
2. An Impressive 33 Community Organizations Have Now Signed an Open Letter to Ontario Party Leaders Urging Them All to Make the Accessible Ontario Pledge
On February 11, 2025, the AODA Alliance made public an open letter to all Ontario party leaders. It calls on all parties to make the Accessible Ontario Pledge. Since then, even more community organizations have signed up. Now, fully 33 organizations are signatories. These reflect a broad diversity of disabilities and of Ontario’s broad geographic expanse.
We set out this letter again, below. It includes the list of the 33 organizations that have signed on.
To date, only the Ontario Conservative Party has declined to answer our request for election commitments on tearing down accessibility barriers in Ontario that hurt 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities. The Liberals, NDP, and Greens have each made commitments to us.
3. How You Can Help
- Encourage voters you know to watch the recorded video of the February 19, 2025 Ontario Election Candidates’ Debate on Disability issues. Publicize the link to this video on social media and on the web. Only the Ontario Tories declined to take part in this debate. The link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEqhe2Akems We regret that the live feed of this debate did not stream live as we had planned, due to a technical failure that we are still trying to identify.
- Encourage voters to watch AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky’s interview on TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” on Monday, February 24, 2025.
- Circulate the AODA Alliance’s new action kit with tips on how to raise disability issues in this Ontario election. Use those action tips and urge others to do the same.
- Circulate AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky’s February 16, 2025 disability issues column in the Toronto Star’s Metroland publications around Ontario.
4. For More Background on This Election’s Disability Issues
- The text of the Accessible Ontario Pledge sought by the AODA Alliance.
- The Ontario Green Party’s response to the AODA Alliance request for the Accessible Ontario Pledge.
- The Ontario New Democratic Party’s response to the AODA Alliance request for the Accessible Ontario Pledge.
- The Ontario Liberal Party’s response to the request for the Accessible Ontario Pledge.
- The online video of the January 6, 2025, AODA Alliance news conference at Queen’s Park, unveiling the Accessible Ontario Pledge.
- A list of candidates in the 2025 Ontario election assembled by AODA Alliance volunteers.
- A timeline of major events over the past 30 years in the grassroots campaign for accessibility in Ontario.
- For the AODA Alliance’s work from 2005 to the present, visit aodaalliance.org
MORE DETAILS
Text of the February 11, 2025 Open Letter to Ontario Party Leaders by Disability Organizations With Updated List of Signatories
To: Ontario Political Party Leaders and Candidates
The undersigned organizations and groups urge all parties and candidates to make the January 6, 2025 Accessible Ontario Pledge in order to lead this province to become accessible to 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities. In so doing, we also recognize that there are other important disability issues that merit the commitments of all parties, and which individuals and organizations will raise with the parties and their candidates.
Signed:
- Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance
- ARCH Disability Law Centre
- Ontario Disability Coalition
- Accessible Hamilton Alliance
- Ontario Autism Coalition
- Accessible Housing Network
- Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians
- Ontario Parents of Visually Impaired Children
- Thunder Bay Family Network
- CNIB
- Canadian Council of the Blind
- Citizens with Disabilities Ontario
- Toronto Visionaries
- Ontario Parents for Education Support
- March of Dimes Canada
- Physicians of Ontario Neurodevelopmental Advocacy (PONDA)
- DeafBlind Ontario Services
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder – Elgin London Middlesex Oxford (FASD-ELMO) Network
- Independent Living Resource Centre Thunder Bay
- Independent Living Resource Centre Corp Sudbury Manitoulin (ILSM)
- Community Living Ontario
- Ontario Agencies Supporting Individuals with Special Needs (OASIS)
- Family Alliance Ontario
- Ontario Independent Facilitation Network (OIFN)
- Spinal Cord Injury Ontario
- Community Living Huntsville
- Canadian Hard of Hearing Association, Sudbury
- Electromagnetic Pollution Illnesses Canada Foundation
- Community Living Central York
- Ethan Vida Organization
- Community Living Toronto
- New Society Institute
- Autism Ontario