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
Fourth Article in CBC Series on Ontario’s Inaccessibility Crisis Drills into the Changes 2.9 Million Ontarians with Disabilities Need the Ford Government to Make Now
January 11, 2024
SUMMARY
On January 6, 2024, CBC News published its fourth and final report in its ground-breaking series on the inaccessibility crisis facing 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities. It focuses on what steps the Ford Government needs to take now to try to fix Ontario’s inaccessibility crisis.
We set out that article below. We also encourage you to read the first, second and third articles in this excellent series by reporter Vanessa Balintec.
We respond to these two statements by the Ford Government, reported in this article:
- “In an email to CBC Toronto, the Ministry of Seniors and Accessibility said its currently analyzing recommendations contained in these reports and is developing a “comprehensive plan for 2025 and beyond.””
- “Scarborough-Rouge River MPP and Minister of Seniors and Accessibility Raymond Cho’s office says it’s working on breaking down barriers in the built environment, raising awareness on accessibility issues and increasing funding to making Ontario barrier free.”
Our response? First, the Ford Government has already had fully 219 days, or seven months, to analyze the short, clear, easy-to-read final report of the Rich Donovan Independent Review of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. It has had 316 days, or over 10 months, to analyze the Rich Donovan AODA Independent Review’s Interim Report. It has had 1,818 days, or almost five years, to analyze the final report of the 3rd AODA Independent Review conducted by former Lieutenant Governor David Onley.
We’re still waiting for a comprehensive plan to implement any of those Government-commissioned reports. Usually, when a Government-appointed review concludes that the Government has a crisis on its hands, as did the Rich Donovan Independent Review, one would expect the Government to move quickly, and not continue to drag its feet.
Second, the Ford Government’s claim in this news report that it is “working on breaking down barriers in the built environment” does not create any optimism. The Ontario Government has been told that the built environment is a priority area by three successive AODA Independent Reviews, the first of which reported almost a decade ago. Yet, the Ford Government, like the Wynne Government before it, responded with delays and more delays. In the meantime, the Government continues to create new barriers in the built environment, using public money.
Here again, we’ve seen too much foot-dragging. The Government did not appoint a new Design of Public Spaces Standards Development Committee, as it was required to do, until over four years past the AODA’s deadline for it to do so. We and the public have seen no recommendations, including any draft recommendations, from that Standards Development Committee.
AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky had made it clear to the Government that he wanted to serve on that Standards Development Committee. However, the Government held no public process to apply for a seat.
What can you do? We always try to offer you action tips. Today we invite you to send this Update to five friends or family members. Encourage them to sign up to get AODA Alliance Updates. They just have to go to the AODA Alliance website, click on the sign-up link, and insert their email address. Help us get more supporters and followers!
MORE DETAILS
CBC News January 6, 2024
Toronto
Ontario has an accessibility gap. Here’s how to start closing it, according to advocates
Province admits more needs to be done, vows to continue dismantling barriers for people with disabilities
Vanessa Balintec · CBC News · Posted: Jan 06, 2024 4:00 AM EST | Last Updated: January 6
Two men and a woman, in separate photos, look at the camera for a photo. The photos are edited together in a composite.
Advocates in the disability community Dean Mellway (left), Rabia Khedr (middle) and David Lepofsky (right) say the Ontario government can act on a number of things in its control if it wants to close the province’s accessibility gap. (Submitted by Dean Mellway and CBC file photos)
CBC Toronto is breaking down accessibility in Ontario in four stories: the progress made so far, how legislation is enforced, if the province can reach its 2025 goal and what accessibility looks like in cities, zooming in on Toronto.
Diagnosed with polio at the age of two, Dean Mellway remembers what it was like to grow up in Ontario as someone with a disability.
The 74-year-old recalls not being able to get into many buildings for much of his early life as they weren’t wheelchair-accessible and says he didn’t see a lot of people like him graduate with degrees or make it into the workforce.
It’s been almost two decades since Ontario sought out to make the province accessible to every person with a disability. Through the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), two Liberal governments and the current Progressive Conservative party were tasked with removing all barriers for people with disabilities by 2025.
WATCH | Where Ontario stands on accessibility, according to a life-long advocate:
Life-long disability advocate on Ontario’s path to accessibility
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act aims to make the province fully accessible by 2025. Ahead of the deadline, CBC’s Vanessa Balintec speaks to Tracy Odell, former president of the advocacy group Citizens With Disabilities Ontario, on her experiences as a wheelchair user and life-long advocate for accessibility for all.
As that deadline approaches, Mellway says the province is years away from achieving full accessibility, but that it has come a long way.
“I think it was unrealistic to believe that in one generation, you could change attitudes,” said Mellway, an accessibility advisor for Carleton University’s Accessibility Institute.
Still, advocates like Mellway say the province should aim, in the time remaining, to close the gap by implementing current and previous recommendations, passing two standards that have been left in limbo for years and keeping the spotlight on accessibility beyond 2025.
“The sooner we actually implement the laws and require people to meet them, the quicker that change will appear.”
- Ontario accessibility in ‘crisis,’ says report quietly released by Ford government
- An accessible Ontario by 2025? Here’s where the province stands on its goal
Implement new standards faster
Under the AODA, there are five areas the province requires that organizations make accessible: customer service, design of public spaces, transportation, employment and information and communication.
The province has been working on standards for two other areas since 2017: one for health care, such as in hospitals and patient care; and another for education, on teaching a barrier-free curriculum for students from kindergarten to Grade 12 and those in post-secondary school.
A button people who use wheelchairs can push to open doors.
Ontario hasn’t acted on a number of recommendations to improve its implementation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, advocates say. (Michael Wilson/CBC)
Matthew Shaw, the committee chair for the province’s Accessibility Standards Advisory Council and founder of consultancy firm Disability Solutions Canada, says schools and hospitals have many accessibility barriers.
“Those are both environments that are in desperate need of additional support,” said Shaw, who has Usher Syndrome, a degenerative condition that causes hearing and vision loss and leads to blindness.
- People with disabilities ‘left out’ of Ontario’s pandemic response
- This mom sits outside her child’s school all day. She wants more help for students with disabilities
Both areas rose to the forefront of disability advocacy after the COVID-19 pandemic, with advocates saying people with disabilities were left out of the province’s emergency response plan and children with disabilities faced barriers going to school without proper supports.
They were flagged as early as 2014, when a second, legislated review of the AODA recommended they be looked at by the provincial government. But progress has been stalled for years, with the government sitting on a recommendation reports for health care and similar reports for education in 2022.
In an email to CBC Toronto, the Ministry of Seniors and Accessibility said its currently analyzing recommendations contained in these reports and is developing a “comprehensive plan for 2025 and beyond.”
“I would like to see them instituted as soon as possible,” said Shaw.
WATCH | What it’s like to navigate Toronto transit while hard of hearing:
What it’s like taking transit in Toronto when you’re hard of hearing
8 days ago
Duration 3:05
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act aims to make the province fully accessible by 2025. Ahead of the deadline, CBC’s Vanessa Balintec speaks to one disability advocate about existing barriers on Toronto transit for people who are hard of hearing.
Beyond the standards, Shaw says accessibility looks different for everyone. That’s why there needs to be an overall focus on changing cultural attitudes and day-to-day experiences for people with disabilities, rather than working through solely a legislative lens, he said.
“It was never clear by what metrics that would be measured,” he said.
Act on recommendations
Monique Taylor, the NDP critic for children, community and social services, says the Ford government needs to immediately work on implementing the latest legislated review’s recommendations evaluating the progress on the AODA.
“The government needs to do better and start saying sorry to the people in this province who need the accessibility measures implemented,” said Taylor.
A man smiles away from the camera.
Scarborough-Rouge River MPP and Minister of Seniors and Accessibility Raymond Cho’s office says it’s working on breaking down barriers in the built environment, raising awareness on accessibility issues and increasing funding to making Ontario barrier free. (Chris Young/The Canadian press)
There’s still a host of other recommendations from previous reviews the province could benefit from too, say some.
David Lepofsky, the chair of the main advocacy group on the file AODA Alliance, has been urging the province to implement the late lieutenant governor David C. Onley’s recommendations following his review in 2019, which slammed the government for its “glacial” progress.
“There’s not a single indication that they’re even thinking about it,” said Lepofsky.
In a written statement to CBC Toronto, Wallace Pidgeon, director of communications for the Minister of Seniors and Accessibility Raymond Cho, said the province has taken “important” steps toward implementing Onley’s review. Cho denied an interview request for this series.
“This includes breaking down barriers in the built environment, growing awareness and understanding about accessibility, increasing participation in the economy for people with disabilities, and increasing funding to programs to make Ontario barrier free,” said Pidgeon.
“We know that more needs to be done. That’s why we will continue our efforts to improve the lives of those living with a disability for them to live a better, barrier-free life.”
Bringing spirit of AODA into other laws
Although the goal is accessibility by 2025, work needs to continue well beyond that deadline, say advocates, particularly as politicians use the AODA as the basis of new, intersecting legislation.
The AODA has helped lay the groundwork for similar legislation in British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador. It’s also credited as a pillar of the federal Accessible Canada Act, which aims to prevent similar barriers Canada-wide by Jan. 1, 2040.
- Ontario cities need help — and cash — to meet 2025 accessibility deadline, advocates say
- Honour late lieutenant-governor David Onley by making Ontario accessible, advocates, friends say
That’s why Ontario will need to be mindful of how federal policies and provincial policies can often be contradictory to one another, said Rabia Khedr, the national director of the community organization Disability Without Poverty.
She points to inadequate provincial social funding programs like the Ontario Disability Support Program keeping people with disabilities below the poverty line, and the increased use of the federal medical assistance in dying program as an alternative to making do with today’s supports.
“Core principles of the AODA are respect, dignity, independence and equality of opportunity,” said Khedr.
“We need a champion behind the law who’s going to make sure that the intent of the law is achieved.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vanessa Balintec
Reporter
Vanessa Balintec is a reporter for CBC Toronto who likes writing stories about labour, equity and community. She previously worked for stations in New Brunswick and Kitchener-Waterloo. You can reach her at vanessa.balintec@cbc.ca and on Twitter at @vanessabalintec.