Check Out New Captioned Video Series on how and Why to Tear Down Disability Barriers in the Education system that Impede Students with Disabilities

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance

United for a Barrier-Free Society for All People with Disabilities

 

Web: www.aodaalliance.org

Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com

Twitter: @aodaalliance

Facebook: www.facebook.com/aodaalliance/

 

Check Out New Captioned Video Series on how and Why to Tear Down Disability Barriers in the Education system that Impede Students with Disabilities

 

December 21, 2022

Summary

 

What needs to be done to tear down the many accessibility barriers that impede students with disabilities from fully participating in and fully benefitting from our education system? The AODA Alliance has been advocating on this issue for well over a decade. We today make public a new resource to help with our campaign.

 

Here is a series of captioned videos that all address this important topic. We have made these videos public in the past. However, for the first time, we are compiling them together in a handy and easy-to-use package.

 

This first video series tells the story about the campaign for accessibility in the Ontario education system. From TV interviews to lectures to a news conference, this series highlights accessibility issues in education and the need for Ontario to swiftly enact a strong and effective Education Accessibility Standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

 

Below, you will first find a quick guide to the video series. It lists the titles of all the videos. Next, we give you a detailed video-by-video guide. For each video, we give you the title, a description of it, the link to the video, and a list of helpful resources for those who would like more information about it.

 

You can enjoy and use these videos, whether or not you are in Ontario or even in Canada, and whether or not you know much about disability issues.

 

These videos will interest you if:

 

  • You work in any capacity in the education system, such as teachers, principals, professors, managers or administrators at a school board, college or university. This also includes government officials, such as those who work at a Ministry of Education or a Ministry of Colleges and Universities.

 

  • You want to learn about disability rights, disability advocacy or the history of our disability rights movement.

 

  • You want to advocate on disability rights, or on the rights of students with disabilities, and want to see this advocacy in action, to learn how it is done.

 

  • You are a member of a Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) at a school board.

 

  • You are a lawyer, law student, or future lawyer or law student, who wants to learn about disability rights legal issues.

 

  • You work in the field of disability accessibility.

 

  • You work at a disability community organization of any sort.

 

  • You are involved in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion work, and want your efforts to fully include people with disabilities as an equality-seeking group.

 

  • You teach education, psychology, law, politics, public or social policy, disability issues, human rights and discrimination, social justice, social work, history, or political science.

 

Some of our videos have been used in schools, and in college and university courses. We invite anyone teaching in schools, colleges or universities to use all or part of these videos, in courses you teach. If you are looking for added reading materials for a lesson, check out the related resources we identify for each video.

 

We encourage you to:

 

  • Watch any of these videos that may interest you and encourage others to do so.

 

  • Circulate this list of our video series to any organization, politician, or media that you think would benefit from them. Encourage teachers and professors to use them in courses.

 

  • Send us your feedback. We always like to hear what people have to say, and how they use resources like these. Write us at aodafeedback@gmail.com

 

These videos are just part of the much larger collection of online videos in which we have been involved, and which, in combination have been viewed over 100,000 times as of late 2022. Look for them, for additions to this education video series, and for future video series as we release them, by visiting the AODA Alliance website’s videos page.

 

Learn more about our campaign for a barrier-free and accessible education system by visiting the AODA Alliance website’s education page.

Quick Guide

  1. Special Education Update – David Lepofsky’s Interview on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” March 3, 2016

 

  1. Why Ontario Needs an Education Accessibility Standard Enacted under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act November 29, 2016

 

  1. The Need to Train All School Teachers to Be Able to Teach All Students, Including Students with Disabilities January 30, 2017

 

  1. Accessibility Problems at the Centennial College Culinary Arts Centre November 29, 2016

 

  1. Accessibility Problems at Ryerson University’s New Student Learning Centre October 29, 2017

 

  1. January 30, 2019 Queen’s Park Toronto News Conference by the AODA Alliance and Ontario Autism Coalition on Power of School Principals to exclude Students from School

 

  1. Summary of the 2021 Draft K-12 Education Standards Development Committee report & How & Why to Give Feedback on It

 

  1. Blueprint to Make Ontario K-12 Education Barrier-Free & Accessible for Students with Disabilities

 

  1. Practical Tips for Parents of Students with Disabilities on How to Advocate For Your Child’s Needs at School

 

  1. First of 3 Virtual Town Hall Meetings on Meeting the Urgent Needs of People with Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic Held by the AODA Alliance and Ontario Autism Coalition

 

  1. Second of 3 Virtual Town Hall Meetings on Meeting the Urgent Needs of People with Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic Convened by the AODA Alliance and the Ontario Autism Coalition Focusing on Education Barriers during COVID-19 facing Students with Disabilities

 

  1. Third of 3 Virtual Town Hall Meetings on Meeting the Urgent Needs of People with Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic Convened by the AODA Alliance and the Ontario Autism Coalition Focusing on Education Barriers during COVID-19 facing Students with Disabilities

 

  1. The Agenda with Steve Paikin – “A Disaster”: Online Learning in Ontario for Students with Disabilities

 

  1. Introduction to the Duty to Accommodate People with Disabilities

 

Detailed Guide

 

Video 1)        Title: Special Education Update – David Lepofsky’s Interview on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” March 3, 2016

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p00EN6Z7GOM

Description: In this interview on TVOntario, David Lepofsky addresses the need to substantially reform the way education is provided in Ontario to students with special education needs and to all students with disabilities. He draws on his role as AODA Alliance chair, and as chair of the Special Education Advisory Committee of Canada’s largest school board, the Toronto District School Board.

Related resources

  • The AODA Alliance’s long campaign to get the Ontario Government to enact an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA, available at this link.
  • The work and recommendations for reform of the Special Education Advisory Committee of the Toronto District School Board, available at this link.
  • Later in this video series, David Lepofsky’s November 29, 2016 lecture on why Ontario needs to enact an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA (link here), and his January 30, 2017 lecture on why all teachers should be trained to teach all students, including students with disabilities (link here). See also the background documents listed under those two videos.

 

Video 2)        Title: Why Ontario Needs an Education Accessibility Standard Enacted under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act November 29, 2016

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zFmybyl9ew&t=54s

Description: In this captioned lecture, David Lepofsky describes the many disability accessibility barriers that impede students with disabilities in Ontario’s education system. He explains why Ontario needs to enact an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA. This lecture was delivered to the Osgoode Hall Law School course on Disability Rights. It was delivered one week before Ontario’s premier, Kathleen Wynne, agreed on December 5, 2016 that the Ontario Government would create an Education Accessibility Standard.

Related resources

  • To download the November 21, 2016 AODA Alliance Discussion Paper on what an Education Accessibility Standard should include, visit this link.
  • To download the November 9, 2016 AODA Alliance analysis of KPMG’s 2015 report to the Ontario Government on disability accessibility barriers in Ontario’s education system, visit this link.
  • The December 5, 2016 open letter to the Ontario Government, from 22 disability community organizations, calling for the enactment of an Education Accessibility Standard (link here), and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s December 5, 2016 statement in the Ontario Legislature, agreeing that the Ontario Government would develop an Education Accessibility Standard (link here).

 

Video 3)        Title: The Need to Train All School Teachers to Be Able to Teach All Students, Including Students with Disabilities January 30, 2017

Link to video: https://youtu.be/zY6Asm605UU

Description: David Lepofsky gave this captioned lecture to student teachers, studying at York University’s Faculty of Education. This lecture explores the disability accessibility barriers facing students with disabilities in our school system and the need for the next generations of teachers to be trained to be able to teach all students, including students with disabilities. This includes being trained in the principles of “Universal Design in Learning” (UDL). All teachers, all those studying to be teachers, all others working in our education system, and those who teach in teachers’ colleges should watch this video.

Related resources

  • The AODA Alliance’s multi-year campaign to win the enactment of an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA, available at this link.
  • David Lepofsky’s November 28, 2016 lecture, included earlier in this video series, on why Ontario needs to enact an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA, and the related documents listed with that lecture, available at this link.

 

Video 4)        Title: Accessibility Problems at the Centennial College Culinary Arts Centre November 29, 2016

Link to the 6 minute version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRmVBmOy6xg&t=28s

Link to the 18 minute version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgfrum7e-_0&t=87s

Description: In this widely-viewed captioned video, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky narrates a tour of significant accessibility problems in the brand-new Centennial College Culinary Arts Centre. This shows why Ontario needs strong accessibility provisions on the accessibility of the built environment in the Ontario Building Code and AODA accessibility standards. This video has secured great media coverage.

Related resources

  • The November 29, 2016 AODA Alliance Update, unveiling this video, on the 22nd anniversary of Ontario’s grassroots accessibility movement, available at this link.
  • Media coverage of this video in the Toronto Star (link here), and on CBC national TV news (link here).
  • The February 7, 2017 lecture by David Lepofsky and Thea Kurdi, later in this video series, at the University of Waterloo Faculty of Architecture, on disability barriers in the built environment (which included this video), available at this link.

 

Video 5)        Title: Accessibility Problems at Ryerson University’s New Student Learning Centre October 29, 2017

Link to the 12 minute version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oe4xiKknt0&feature=youtu.be

Link to the 30 minute version: https://youtu.be/uqUZ6gK9N9k

Link to the 2.5 minute version: https://youtu.be/O9gCG33icCA (Edited by the Toronto Star)

Description: In this widely-watched captioned video, released on October 29, 2017, David Lepofsky takes viewers on a narrated tour of serious accessibility problems at h Ryerson University’s new Student Learning Centre. This video, along with the video described earlier in this video series regarding the accessibility problems at the new Centennial College Culinary Arts Centre, shows that Ontario needs to strengthen the accessibility provisions regarding the built environment in the Ontario Building Code and AODA accessibility standards. This video has secured great media coverage and a great number of views on the internet.

Related resources

  • The October 29, 2017 AODA Alliance news release, announcing this video on the 19th anniversary of the Ontario Legislature’s landmark October 29, 1998 resolution, available at this link. That resolution unanimously adopted the disability movement’s 11 principles for a strong Ontario accessibility law.
  • CITY TV’s October 29, 2017 news report on the AODA Alliance video on the Ryerson Student Learning Centre, available at this link.
  • The Toronto Star’s November 2, 2017 article on the AODA Alliance video on the Ryerson Student Learning Centre, available at this link.
  • The November 3, 2017 Global TV news report on the AODA Alliance Ryerson Student learning Centre video, available at this link.
  • The AODA Alliance’s November 29, 2016 video on disability accessibility barriers at the new Centennial College Culinary Arts Centre, included earlier in this video series, and available at this link.
  • The February 7, 2017 lecture, earlier in this video series, by David Lepofsky and Thea Kurdi at the University of Waterloo Faculty of Architecture on designing an accessible built environment, available at this link.

 

Video 6)        Title: January 30, 2019 Queen’s Park Toronto News Conference by the AODA Alliance and Ontario Autism Coalition on Power of School Principals to exclude Students from School

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uJFOVHySyQ (Audio only)

Description: On January 30, 2019, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance and the Ontario Autism Coalition teamed up to hold a news conference (captioned) at the Media Studio of the Ontario Legislature building, queen’s Park, Toronto. They addressed the need for the Ontario Government to rein in the arbitrary power of school principals in Ontario to refuse to admit a student to school, also called exclusion from school. This power has been disproportionately used to exclude some students with disabilities. Speaking at this news conference was AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, Ontario Autism Coalition president Laura Kirby-McIntosh and legal counsel at the ARCH Disability Law Centre, Luke Reid.

Related resources

  • AODA Alliance website’s education web page, at this link.
  • Joint OAC AODA Alliance January 30, 2019 news release on AODA Alliance website, at this link.
  • July 23, 2020 AODA Alliance report on the power of school principals to refuse to admit students to school (on AODA Alliance website, at this link).
  • July 24, 2020 report of the COVID-19 subcommittee of the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee on school-reopening during the COVID-19pandemic, on the AODA Alliance website, at this link.
  • MS Word format the AODA Alliance’s June 18, 2020 finalized brief to the Ontario Government on what needs to be done to meet the needs of students with disabilities during the transition to school re-opening, at this link.
  • May 4, 2020: Virtual Townhall on Students with Disabilities During COVID, at this link.

 

 

Video 7)        Title: Summary of the 2021 Draft K-12 Education Standards Development Committee report & How & Why to Give Feedback on It

Link to video: https://youtu.be/yjQgOjRTZJ8

Description: In the summer of 2021, the Ontario Government was holding a public consultation on a draft report and recommendations on how to make Ontario’s K-12 school system accessible and barrier-free for all students with disabilities. The Ontario Government had appointed the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee to identify the disability barriers in Ontario’s school system, and to make recommendations on what the Government should include in an Education Accessibility Standard, to be enacted under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, to tear down those barriers.

In this captioned video, AODA Alliance chair and Osgoode Hall Law School Visiting Professor of Disability Rights and Legal Education David Lepofsky explains what the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee’s draft report and recommendations include. He was a member of that Standards Development Committee.

Related resources

 

Video 8)        Title: Blueprint to Make Ontario K-12 Education Barrier-Free & Accessible for Students with Disabilities

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goIOu8WWFLI

Description: David Lepofsky provides a blueprint and roadmap on how to tear down the many barriers in Kindergarten to Grade 12 education in Ontario schools that impede students with disabilities, and how to make that education system barrier-free and accessible for those students. He is a Visiting Professor of Disability Rights and Legal Education at the Osgoode Hall Law School, the Chair of the AODA Alliance, and a member and past chair of the Special Education Advisory Committee of the Toronto District School Board.

This presentation describes the 2022 final report and recommendations of the independent advisory committee that the Ontario Government appointed to advise on what to include in an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA, to make education accessible to students with disabilities. David Lepofsky was a member of that Committee, which had equal representation from the disability community and the education sector. He led the campaign to get the Ontario Government to agree to enact an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA.

Related resources

 

Video 9)        Title: Practical Tips for Parents of Students with Disabilities on How to Advocate For Your Child’s Needs at School

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtadvCvcGC0

Description: Osgoode Hall Law School Visiting Professor David Lepofsky gives practical tips to parents of students with disabilities in Ontario or other Canadian provinces on how to advocate for your child’s needs at school.

Related resources:

 

Video 10)     Title: First of 3 Virtual Town Hall Meetings on Meeting the Urgent Needs of People with Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic Held by the AODA Alliance and Ontario Autism Coalition

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ23it9ULjc

Description: The AODA Alliance and the Ontario Autism Coalition teamed up just three weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic to hold the first of three town halls, to offer constructive recommendations on how the Government can meet the urgent needs of people with disabilities during the pandemic. This first virtual town hall included interviews by AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky and OAC President Laura Kirby-McIntosh with ten disability experts. They foresaw hardships facing people with disabilities in access to health care, to income security and to education, to safe housing, to goods and services and offered practical recommendations on how to address them. Their predictions sadly all came true.

Related resources:

 

Video 11)     Title: Second of 3 Virtual Town Hall Meetings on Meeting the Urgent Needs of People with Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic Convened by the AODA Alliance and the Ontario Autism Coalition Focusing on Education Barriers during COVID-19 facing Students with Disabilities

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phdtibf5DbM

Description: For a second time, the AODA Alliance and the Ontario Autism Coalition teamed up, this time around 10 weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic to hold the second of three town halls, to offer constructive recommendations on how Government can meet the urgent needs of people with disabilities during the pandemic. This second virtual town hall specifically identified the many barriers facing students with disabilities during distance learning. It offered practical recommendations from experts on how front-line teachers and parents can creatively address these barriers. Experts were interviewed by AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky and OAC President Laura Kirby-McIntosh. Ontario Assistant Deputy Minister for special education, Jeff Butler, was invited to respond to these recommendations. Among other things, this town hall made public serious accessibility problems with online courses provided by TVO, (include link to home page), owned and operated by the Ontario Government.

Related resources:

 

Video 12)     Title: Third of 3 Virtual Town Hall Meetings on Meeting the Urgent Needs of People with Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic Convened by the AODA Alliance and the Ontario Autism Coalition Focusing on Education Barriers during COVID-19 facing Students with Disabilities

Link to video: https://youtu.be/ZB78Wt9TJGk

Description: For a third time in 2020, the AODA Alliance and the Ontario Autism Coalition teamed up, this time around five months into the COVID-19 pandemic to, hold the second of three town halls, to offer constructive recommendations on how Government can meet the urgent needs of people with disabilities during the pandemic. This third virtual town hall focused on the barriers students with disabilities continue to face during distance learning, and the barriers they were anticipated to face in the fall, when schools re-open for in-person attendance. It offered practical recommendations on how to address these barriers. Speaking during this virtual town hall included a discussion between AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky and OAC President Laura Kirby-McIntosh and Robert Lattanzio, executive director of the ARCH Disability Law Centre.

Related resources:

 

Video 13)     Title: The Agenda with Steve Paikin – “A Disaster”: Online Learning in Ontario for Students with Disabilities

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO0MDM54gnA&feature=youtu.be

Description: In this second of the two interviews that include Osgoode Hall Law School visiting professor and AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, Ontario’s flagship public affairs program, The Agenda with Steve Paikin, presented a panel on the hardships facing students with disabilities in Ontario schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, both those engaged in distance learning and those attending re-opened schools. On the panel in addition to David Lepofsky were Laura Kirby-McIntosh (parent of two children with autism, a high school teacher, and president of the Ontario Autism Coalition) and Paula Boutis (parent of a child with disabilities, member of her community school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee, and president of Integration Action Now. This panel presented a very different picture from the perspective of students with disabilities than the rosy picture of distance learning in Ontario that had earlier been presented by a different panel in the November 13, 2020 edition of The Agenda with Steve Paikin, available at https://www.tvo.org/transcript/2627590/online-learning-during-covid-19.

Related resources:

 

Video 14)     Title: Introduction to the Duty to Accommodate People with Disabilities

Link to video: https://youtu.be/y32XvjWmDAQ

Description: Osgoode Hall Law School Visiting Professor of Disability Rights and Legal Education and AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky provides this one hour, captioned presentation that explains the content, meaning, and limits of the duty to accommodate people with disabilities in employment, goods, services and facilities, under human rights/anti-discrimination legislation and under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This is aimed at people who don’t know much if anything about the details of the duty to accommodate people with disabilities.

Related resources