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
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Catching Up on Recent Media Reports on Accessibility Barriers that Still Plague People with Disabilities
December 17, 2024
SUMMARY
Amidst the blizzard of media attention that our issues have gotten over the past months, a few stories slipped between the cracks of our recent AODA Alliance Updates. Before year’s end, we wanted to be sure we caught you up on them.
Here is a batch of four diverse media reports in recent weeks. They are worthy of your perusal:
- On December 3, 2024, CBC Radio Toronto’s Here and Now afternoon program included an 8-minute item on the International Day for People with Disabilities. It is only in audio format at this point on the CBC website.
- On November 28, 2024, CP24 included a report about yet another appalling incident on Air Canada where a passenger with a disability was seriously mistreated.
- On September 9, 2024, the Toronto Star published an article about a hotel refusing service to a woman accompanied by a guide dog. This illustrates how Ontario’s Customer Service Accessibility Standard is failing to ensure accessible customer service in Ontario.
- On October 4, 2024, the Toronto Star included an article describing slow progress on accessibility despite innovative technology improvements.
There are only 15 days left until the deadline set by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act for Ontario to have become accessible to people with disabilities. These articles show how far behind we still are.
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Tell the media about disability barriers you face . Individual stories about unfair disability barriers can lead to great media coverage. This helps our grassroots campaign for accessibility for people with disabilities.
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CP24 November 28, 2024
Originally posted at
Toronto woman injured after falling out of wheelchair provided by Air Canada, husband says
By Phil Tsekouras
Vito and Sheila Rizzuto are seen in this image taken on their recent trip to Miami. (Supplied)
What could have possibly been Sheila Rizzuto’s last vacation ever was ruined after she fell out of an Air Canada-provided wheelchair and badly injured herself, according to her husband.
Vito Rizzuto told CTV News that Miami has always held a special place in the hearts of the Toronto couple and their kids. So months after Sheila was diagnosed with glioblastoma — an aggressive form of brain cancer—they booked what they thought might be one of their final visits together to their beloved city.
The Nov. 5 flight from Pearson International Airport marked the first time the couple had been on a plane since February, when two surgeries left Sheila partially paralyzed on her right side. She now uses a wheelchair and has vision and speech impairments.
When they were disembarking in Miami, Vito said, Air Canada agents attempted to place Sheila in an aisle chair — a narrower version of the wheelchair she was travelling with — to get her off the plane. But when the agents couldn’t successfully buckle Sheila into the mobility device, Vito said, they transported her to the bridge unrestrained.
When the couple got off the plane, the two agents who had been assisting Sheila “just left her sitting there,” Vito recalled, as they waited nearly 10 minutes for her wheelchair.
“I spoke to the lady from Air Canada that was standing there, and I said, ‘Where is our wheelchair?’ And they weren’t aware that we had a wheelchair. I was like, ‘Okay, how can you not be aware?’”
That’s when she fell.
“I was distracted, and all of a sudden she fell. She was on the floor, fell onto her right side, which is her weak side, which is the no mobility side,” Vito said. “It was a horrible experience for her. She was in shock when it happened, hyperventilating, you know?”
Sheila was left bleeding from a cut on her leg and large black and blue bruises would later develop on her ribs, as well as on her arm and leg, Vito said.
Sheila Rizzuto sustained injuries to her ribs, arm, leg, and ankle as a result of the fall. (Supplied)
The couple initially declined Air Canada’s offer to have emergency services attend the scene, but eventually checked into hospital on Nov. 8 as a precaution.
Vito suspected that Sheila’s ribs were broken, and although an X-ray didn’t find any fractures, he said the emergency room doctor they spoke with said broken ribs can be difficult to identify in a scan.
“Basically, all our plans got kiboshed. We didn’t go for any dinners. We ended up ordering into the room and so on,” Vito explained.
Sheila remained in pain for most of the trip, but Vito said the couple was able to make the most of their last two days in Florida before they flew back.
Vito says he’s sharing his story now to prevent this from happening to anyone else who lives with a disability.
“I haven’t experienced having to take care of somebody in my wife’s position except for the last nine months now. And obviously I’m more aware of the challenges that they face and that we face, because she can’t get around on her own, you know. So it’s a matter of awareness and taking care of people that are in this position and hopefully stop this from happening again,” he said.
Since the incident, Vito said he has been in touch with Air Canada, which apologized and offered him a $500 travel voucher.
Air Canada calls incident ‘concerning’
In a statement to CTV News Toronto, Air Canada said it was aware of the incident and confirmed that Sheila did sustain an injury from a fall “while being transferred to her wheelchair.”
“This matter is concerning and is now being reviewed by our claims department,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
However, they alleged that Vito did “not want our agent to touch his wife in the manner required to secure the belt” based on a “preliminary review” of the incident.
“The use of this belt would have likely prevented the injury,” the airline wrote.
Vito rebuffed that suggestion and said he was “furious” about their claim while speaking with CTV News Toronto. He added that his wife struggled to get to her seat with her walker when they boarded in Toronto, not knowing that an aisle chair was available.
“Someone is trying to cover things up about the sequence of events in both Toronto and Miami,” he wrote in a subsequent email.
Air Canada added that they will continue to be in contact with Vito and his wife to come to a “mutually agreeable” solution.
Vito and Sheila Rizzuto are seen with their two sons in this undated image. (Supplied)
Little being done to address accessibility issues on Canadian flights: advocate
Last year, the CEO of Air Canada was summoned to Ottawa following a number of high-profile incidents involving passengers with accessibility needs, including a B.C. man who was forced to drag himself off a flight in Las Vegas.
Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau apologized at that time for its barriers to accessibility and promised to speed up its three-year plan to make air travel more accessible.
In May, at the first-ever Canadian Air Accessibility Summit, airline executives, federal ministers and accessibility advocates gathered in Ottawa to discuss the issue. Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities of Canada Kamal Khera acknowledged that while only some stories have made headlines, “they represent a small number of the instances that do occur.”
“We can, and we must, do better,” she said at the time.
But according to David Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, little progress has been made on making Canadian air travel more accessible since then.
“Let’s put it this way, they’ve not told us of anything. So if something has happened, it’s not been communicated to us,” he said in an interview with CTV News Toronto.
The visiting professor of disability rights at Western Law and at the University of Ottawa said the federal government and Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), an independent regulator, are effectively “sitting on their hands” in the absence of strong enforcement against airlines in this country.
Lepofsky, who is legally blind, suggests that Canada should, among other things, act on two recommendations immediately to address the issue: the first being introducing an air passengers with disabilities bill of rights that is enshrined into law and “vigorously enforced” and the second being on-site, rapid response supports at airports when accessibility challenges arise.
Ottawa previously passed the Accessible Canada Act in 2019 with the goal of making travel more accessible. Then, in 2022, the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations, was introduced. But accessibility advocates say that despite those changes airlines rarely face punishment for breaching Canadian disability regulations.
“These incidents keep recurring and airlines and the government keep saying that, you, know it’s important to do better. But if you keep trusting them to do better, under the present circumstances, nothing’s going to get better,” he said.
CTA investigating incident
In an email to CTV News Toronto, the CTA confirmed it was investigating Sheila’s fall, adding that it’s closed 176 accessibility related complaints through its mediation or adjudication processes since May 2024.
“Even if a complaint is not filed with it, if the CTA is made aware of an incident (e.g., through media reports), its enforcement team reviews the incident and may conduct a full investigation, leading to Notices of Violation (NOVs) and administrative monetary penalties (AMPs),” a spokesperson said.
The CTA also said that in December 2023, it launched a pilot project in which enforcement officers shadowed passengers with accessibility needs on domestic and international flights to better understand the challenges they face during air travel.
“The CTA is currently in the process of applying lessons learned from this pilot project to develop an ongoing program to ensure that it has a broader understanding of the lived experience of persons with disabilities who access the national transportation system, and are able to effectively apply that knowledge when conducting future inspections and investigations,” the CTA said.
With files from Annie Bergeron-Oliver and The Canadian Press
Toronto Star September 9, 2024
Originally posted at https://www.google.ca/search?q=toronto+star+Hotel+refused+guide+dog,+woman+says
Hotel refused guide dog, woman says
Manager says hockey player didn’t give documentation until after requesting refund
Mark Colley Toronto Star
A Sudbury para-athlete says a Toronto hotel refused to let her stay there with her guide dog – an alleged violation of Ontario law that the woman says left her feeling “almost not human.”
Canadas Best Value Inn, located just off the Gardiner in Etobicoke, denies the woman’s version of events.
Amanda Provan, a winger for Canada’s national blind hockey team, had driven from Sudbury on Sept. 19 with her mother, Lisette Bogoslowski, for an appointment with a low-vision specialist. After Bogoslowski checked in and had been charged a $200 deposit, she told the hotel employee they were travelling with a guide dog, she said.
“He said, ‘We don’t allow dogs. We don’t allow pets,'” Bogoslowski recalled.
She said she explained the dog was a service animal for her blind daughter, not a pet. According to Bogoslowski, the employee held firm – even after he called his manager and she offered to provide documentation for the dog, Ivan.
Bogoslowski said she told the employee it was a human rights violation and asked for her deposit back. The hotel complied.
“It makes you feel humiliated,” Provan said. “Like, I can’t stay at this hotel because I’m blind and my mobility aid happens to be a dog. It makes you feel almost not human.”
Bogoslowski said she and Provan later went into the hotel with Ivan and an identification card from the attorney general. At that point, Bogoslowski said, she had given up on getting the room – but wanted to show the hotel employee the Blind Persons’ Rights Act, printed on the back of the identification card.
“It was just to educate them,” Bogoslowski said. “It was really to show them that she did have the card, she had the vest (on Ivan).”
Provan, who instead stayed with friends in the city, is now in the process of filing a human rights complaint against the hotel, Bogoslowski said.
Provan said she contacted both Toronto and Sudbury police about the incident. Toronto police confirmed they received a call, and said Provan was instructed to report to police in Sudbury. “That police service would then forward the report to Toronto to investigate, however, we don’t have any report on file.”
She emailed Sudbury police but still hasn’t received a reply, she said.
The hotel tells a different version of the story.
General manager Karan Dhawan said Bogoslowski checked in, then left and returned with a dog. A hotel employee then asked for documentation to prove it was a service animal, which the mother didn’t provide until after she asked for a refund and her request had been processed, Dhawan said.
“If she would have just showed the card, we would have just come up with the resolution,” he said.
Dhawan said guests sometimes try to get around the hotel’s no-pet policy by claiming to have a service animal – and because the daughter wasn’t there at the time, “it’s just a valid question to ask for valid paperwork.”
“The case is being made that we’re sort of discriminating. That’s not true,” Dhawan said. “We abide by the local laws and all we were asking (for) is just the paperwork.”
Under Ontario law, any service provider – including hotels – cannot deny access to a blind person accompanied by a guide dog, according to Graciela Flores Méndez, a staff lawyer at the Toronto-based ARCH Disability Law Centre.
The law says that either providing documentation from a health-care official or having the animal be easily identifiable with a visual indicator, such as a vest or harness, is enough to qualify a dog as a service animal, Flores Méndez explained.
Provan said her guide dog was wearing a harness with a handle when they entered the hotel.
“Hotels, service providers, they have a legal obligation under the human rights code,” Flores Méndez said. “Failing to do that would be considered discrimination.
“There’s an obligation also to train your employees on human rights law,” she said. “There’s red flags everywhere here, just regarding their training, their obligations under the law.”
Provan has encountered minor issues at other hotels in the past, where staff ask for documentation, assign her to a pet room or ask for a pet fee.
Provan travels a lot. She’s a track cyclist and the first woman on the national blind hockey team. Ivan, the guide dog, is “the most incredible thing,” she said.
The difference between a guide dog and using a cane is astounding, she explained. With a cane, you have to find objects to avoid them. With a dog, they find the objects for you.
“I knew getting him would have an impact on my life, but I didn’t realize just how much it would,” she said. “The bond we have is incredible. He’s essentially a part of me.”
But now she worries she’ll be denied future hotel rooms, she said.
“It has unlocked a new fear for me,” Provan said. “Any time I stay at a hotel, I now have to worry about being denied access.”
Toronto Star October 4, 2024
Originally posted at https://www.thestar.com/business/mars/tech-update-using-tech-to-improve-accessibility-for-ontarians-with-disabilities/article_1d4cb274-7f45-11ef-8260-bb1ff14e940f.html
Tech Update: Using tech to improve accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities
Plus, a big boost for clean hydrogen and new investment flows to carbon removal
Innovative solutions such as Braze Mobility’s blind spot sensors for wheelchairs can bolster independence for people with mobility challenges — even when they’re navigating barrier-filled environments.
Steve McCann
By Junaid Ahmed
October marks Disability Employment Awareness Month in Canada, a time to recognize the importance of inclusivity in workplaces so that people with disabilities have equitable opportunities to find meaningful, sustainable work.
Unfortunately, recent assessments suggest the province — and the country as a whole — may be slacking on the job.
In September, advocacy group Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance presented a brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of People with Disabilities, highlighting an overall lack of action in dismantling barriers that were laid out in 2019’s Accessible Canada Act.
This assessment comes a little more than a year after an independent review of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) itself, which cited surveys that suggest 25 per cent of persons with disabilities have no or limited access to experiences in public places and work settings, while 75 per cent report having negative experiences. Given that AODA legislation has been in effect for nearly two decades, reviewers deemed the lack of progress in this area “a crisis.”
As these independent analyses demonstrate, infrastructure and policy changes can often move at a relatively glacial pace. And as persons with disabilities are left to grapple with the imperfections of existing systems, tech solutions can help provide crucial workarounds.
Toronto-based Braze Mobility, for instance, has developed innovative blind spot sensors for wheelchairs, which allow people with mobility issues to navigate tight spaces, such as small apartment kitchens or narrow entrances. The company’s tech can also be used by people with vision impairments — its audio and vibration cues signal when objects are in the way.
Braze Mobility founder Pooja Viswanathan drew on her experience exploring computer vision algorithms at Honda to develop Braze’s blind spot sensor for wheelchairs.
Braze Mobility founder Pooja Viswanathan believes accessible technology is a human right, but she also took inspiration from a somewhat unlikely source: the automotive industry. Viswanathan drew on her experience exploring computer vision algorithms at Honda, working on tech involved in blind spot sensors in cars. With the advent of more cost-effective ultrasonic sensors in cars, she says, this tech has become more viable for wheelchairs.
But adapting the solution for people with disabilities comes with distinctive considerations: unlike the automotive industry, which is laser-focused on self-driving vehicles, “wheelchair users really prefer to stay in control,” says Viswanathan. Her company developed an app that allows users to tweak the detection distances of the sensors based on their preferences.
Braze Mobility is part of the inaugural cohort in the Mobility Unlimited Hub, a partnership between the Toyota Mobility Foundation and MaRS Discovery District that launched this past June with the aim of helping startups bring their solutions to market. (Other participants developing tech that could improve workplace accessibility include Deaf AI, which uses AI to provide real-time voice-to-sign language interpretation and Richmond Hill–based Cheelcare, which specializes in wheelchair power add-ons and rehab mobility.)
There is an unequivocal ethical imperative to improve accessibility, but this kind of tech also represents a vital business opportunity. According to StatsCan data from 2022, 27 per cent of Canadians aged 15 and older report that they are living with at least one disability — and it is estimated that at least a million more people will join that group by 2040. So it should come as no surprise that some experts suggest that investments in workplace accessibility could increase GDP by as much as $16.8 billion by 2030.
Junaid Ahmed writes about technology for MaRS. Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, has partnered with MaRS to highlight innovation in Canadian companies.