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
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aodaalliance
Twitter: @aodaalliance
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aodaalliance
TikTok @AODAAlliance
In a News Report on Disability Barriers in New Eglinton Crosstown Line, Metrolinx Gives Evasive Defence to CTV News
June 9, 2026
SUMMARY
In its 6 PM news broadcast on June 8, 2026, CTV included an excellent report on the AODA Alliance’s new online video. That video reveals one of the serious disability barriers in the new Eglinton Crosstown transit line that the Ontario Government’s Metrolinx organization designed and built using taxpayers’ money. Read that news report below.
The video shows that to assist transit riders with vision loss to navigate through the huge multi-floor transit stations on that line, Metrolinx commendably installed cane-detectable “tactile walking surface indicators” on the floors. These are meant to assist with wayfinding through large open spaces.
However, they only guide transit riders with vision loss to the elevators. They don’t show the way to stairs or escalators. Metrolinx wrongly decided for transit riders with vision loss that they should only use the elevators, which are notorious for breaking down.
CTV asked Metrolinx to respond to the AODA Alliance’s criticism of the station design. This news report includes the following evasive Metrolinx response:
“In a statement, the agency said in part that it is “dedicated to building a transit system that is safe, accessible, and inclusive for all customers.”
“Through public consultation with people with disabilities, Metrolinx works to ensure transit infrastructure and services meet the needs of the broadest range of users possible. We are continually looking for opportunities to enhance accessibility across the network and improve the customer experience,” Metrolinx said.”
This, sadly, is a classic governmental non-response. By not directly answering the criticism, Metrolinx in effect concedes it has no real answer. This further calls into question why Metrolinx should ever again be entrusted with spending billions of the taxpayers’ dollars to design and construct new public transit systems and stations.
We await a response to the AODA Alliance’s June 8, 2026 letter to the Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay.
How You Can Help
- Urge as many people as possible to watch the AODA Alliance’s new video about the Eglinton Crosstown line’s Chaplin station. Publicize it on social media.
- Use your smart phone to make your own video about disability barriers in any Ontario public transit station, like those on the Eglinton Crosstown transit line. We received word from Darren Parberry that he is creating an entire series of videos on YouTube about accessibility at each of the Eglinton Crosstown stations. Check it out on YouTube. If you want tips on how to do this, email us at aodafeedback@gmail.com
- Write Ontario Premier Doug Ford at premier@ontario.ca to ask him why the Ontario Government did not keep its commitment to ensure that all of the Eglinton Crosstown stations would be accessible to transit riders with disabilities.
- Learn more about the AODA Alliances advocacy on accessible public transit by visiting the AODA Alliance website’s transportation page.
MORE DETAILS
CTV News June 8, 2026
Originally posted at: https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/bungled-design-work-disability-advocate-calls-out-metrolinx-for-inaccessibility-on-new-eglinton-crosstown/
‘Bungled design work’: Disability advocate calls out Metrolinx for inaccessibility on new Eglinton Crosstown
By Joanna Lavoie and John Musselman
It’s only been open for a few months but there are calls for changes to the layout of some of the stations on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. John Musselman reports
A prominent disability advocate is calling out Metrolinx for its failure to ensure the new Eglinton Crosstown fully accessible.
David Lepofsky, a retired lawyer who has been blind for most of his life, says he’s frustrated and angry, and he wants answers from the provincial transportation agency over what he calls “bungled design work” affecting riders with disabilities on the new light rail transit line.
“I’ve been riding the TTC for 50 years. I don’t want to have to find the elevators, which may not be working periodically,” he told CTV News Toronto on Monday.
“I just want to be able to find my way to the stairs or the escalator, and Metrolinx decided when they designed these stations they would only provide us blind people with guidance to get to the elevators, not the escalators or stairs.”
Lepofsky said he and a friend recently shot a video inside the new Chaplin Crosstown station at 574 Eglinton Ave. to highlight the problem.
He says the tactile walking surface indicators in the station only lead to the elevator, adding that there should really be more of them and on every level.
In the video, Lepofsky shows how he needs to be guided by an exterior wall just find the escalator.
“There should be proper tactile warnings on the floor, not just to the elevator, but also the stairs and escalators, so that is easier and straightforward to find our way around these stations,” he said.
CTV News Toronto reached out to Metrolinx about Lepofsky’s concerns.
In a statement, the agency said in part that it is “dedicated to building a transit system that is safe, accessible, and inclusive for all customers.”
“Through public consultation with people with disabilities, Metrolinx works to ensure transit infrastructure and services meet the needs of the broadest range of users possible. We are continually looking for opportunities to enhance accessibility across the network and improve the customer experience,” Metrolinx said.
Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay speaks at a news conference in North York Monday December 1, 2025.
Lepofsky, meanwhile, says he has a written a letter to the CEO of Metrolinx and is asking for a face-to-face meeting to address this issue. He says people with disabilities continue to face far too many barriers in public transit.