During National AccessAbility Week (May29-June 4), Will Doug Ford Finally Break His Silence and Make Commitments to Tear Down Disability Barriers Facing Over 2.6 Million Ontarians with Disabilities?

ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE

NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

During National AccessAbility Week (May29-June 4), Will Doug Ford Finally Break His Silence and Make Commitments to Tear Down Disability Barriers Facing Over 2.6 Million Ontarians with Disabilities?

 

May 30, 22 Toronto: Ontario’s June 2 election is right in the middle of National Accessibility Week May 29 to June 4, 2022. During this important week, over 2.6 million Ontarians with disabilities, Hundreds of thousands of whom are voters, keenly await to see if Doug Ford’s Tories will at last break their silence and make some…any… commitments to tear down any of the numerous disability barriers impeding them from competitive jobs, housing, education, transit and health care.

 

The job of Ontario’s next premier, for which party leaders are competing, includes responsibility to lead Ontario to be accessible for Ontarians with disabilities by 2025, as Ontario’s Disabilities Act requires. In 2005, all parties unanimously supported that legislation. People with disabilities tenaciously campaigned from 1994 to 2005, to win its passage.

 

“What a blistering irony that in the middle of National AccessAbility Week, one of the candidates for Premier has no plan to fulfil his legal duty to lead Ontario to become accessible, and won’t even answer our request for commitments,” said David Lepofsky, chair of the non-partisan grassroots coalition that campaigns for accessibility for people with disabilities. “We’ll campaign up to the last possible minute to get Doug Ford to make election commitments on accessibility, like his major rivals have all done.”

 

Disability advocates are undeterred by this uphill battle because they have repeatedly stared down similar challenges. The AODA Alliance is buoyed by the fact that Ford flip-flopped early in the campaign, and came forward with last-minute commitments to increase ODSP, after excellent election blitzing by ODSP advocates.

 

“We want the premier to promise that in all the new schools, hospitals and transit he announces, he’ll ensure that these are designed to be fully accessible to people with disabilities, a commitment he’s previously refused to make,” said Lepofsky. “It is irresponsible to use public money to create new barriers facing people with disabilities, but the Tories have nothing in place to avert this from happening again.”

 

In a May 2018 video seen thousands of times, the AODA Alliance depicted how new transit stations built by previous governments were replete with entirely-avoidable accessibility barriers. The Ford Government did nothing in the last four years and promised nothing in this election to stop this hurtful history from repeating itself.

 

Disability issues are omnipresent at the grassroots in this election, even though some pundits and columnists are preoccupied with the distraction of parsing polls, prognosticating on horse-races and dissecting campaign trail gaffs. The AODA Alliance’s call on all parties for strong commitments to tear down disability barriers resonates with many. At the same time, parents of kids with autism are demonstrating around Ontario against Ford’s destructive doubling of the waitlist for desperately-needed services. Housing advocates are decrying the crisis-level shortage of accessible housing where people with disabilities can live. ODSP advocates protest the poverty in which so many people with disabilities are left to languish. Mental health advocates are demanding an overdue effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s lingering impact.

 

 

Contact: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, aodafeedback@gmail.com Twitter: @aodaalliance

 

For background:

  1. The April 6, 2022 letter to the AODA Alliance from the Ontario New Democratic Party, setting out that party’s 2022 Ontario election commitments on accessibility for #pollwatch.

 

  1. The March 22, 2022 letter to the AODA Alliance from the Ontario Green Party, setting out that party’s 2022 Ontario election commitments on accessibility for #pollwatch.

 

  1. The May 1, 2022 letter to the AODA Alliance from the Ontario Liberal Party, setting out that party’s 2022 Ontario election commitments on accessibility for #pollwatch.

 

  1. The AODA Alliance’s November 22, 20221 letter to the party leaders, listing the election promises on disability accessibility that they are asked to give.

 

  1. The May 17, 2022 Ontario provincial candidates debate on disability issues, moderated by AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky.

 

  1. The May 11, 2022 edition of TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin on the Ontario election’s disability issues.

 

  1. The April 18, 2022 AODA Alliance Update’s review of the Ford Government’s record on disability issues: “During Its Four Years in Power, Ford Government Made Ontario a More Dangerous Place for Vulnerable People with Disabilities.”

 

  1. The April 29, 2022 AODA Alliance Update’s analysis of the Ford Government’s 2022 budget: “The Ford Government’s 2022 Ontario Budget is a Slap in the Face for 2.6 Million Ontarians with Disabilities.”