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
Is the Ford Government in Denial About the Accessibility Crisis in Ontario?
November 17, 2024
SUMMARY
It’s great that the media is increasingly focusing on the fact that the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act’s 2025 deadline is under two months away. That’s when the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act requires the Ontario Government to have led this province to be accessible to 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities. The November 12, 2024 report by CBC Sudbury, set out below is a great example of this media attention.
The Ford Government’s formulaic response to the CBC is very disturbing. It does not acknowledge that Ontario is in an accessibility crisis, as was declared on June 6, 2023 by Rich Donovan. He is the person that the Ford Government hand-picked to conduct the mandatory 4th Independent Review of the AODA.
Once again, the Ford Government gave CBC the same misleading boilerplate response that it has given other media outlets time and again. The CBC article states in part:
“In an email to CBC News, Wallace Pidgeon, director of communications for Seniors and Accessibility Minister Raymond Cho, said ‘Ontario is meeting, achieving, or exceeding the AODA standards across the province.’”
The Government was told over a decade ago by the 2nd AODA Independent Review that the accessibility standards that have been enacted under the AODA are far too weak. Let’s assume for the moment that this claim is true, even though we would question it. For the Government “to meet or exceed” those weak and limited standards achieves very little for people with disabilities. Those standards don’t address or rectify the majority of barriers that people with disabilities face.
In this article, the Ford Government ventured further into inaccurate and misleading statements when it claimed as follows, according to the CBC report:
“Pidgeon said in the email that under the current government, Ontario has had ‘historic spending’ on infrastructure to improve accessibility, which includes school upgrades, new and retrofitted hospitals and long-term care facilities, as well as public transit upgrades including over 2,200 new accessible buses being delivered province-wide.”
The AODA Alliance revealed last August that a brand new billion-dollar criminal courthouse in Toronto that the Government built is replete with serious disability barriers. The AODA Alliance made this public in an online video that has been seen several thousand times and that the media has widely covered.
As well, the Ford Government can hardly claim credit for new accessible busses being deployed. It was the NDP Ontario Government under Premier Bob Rae that established this requirement some three decades ago.
What You Can Do to Help
- Urge your local media to cover the ongoing accessibility barriers that people with disabilities face in your community, as the January 1, 2025 AODA accessibility deadline approaches. If Sudbury CBC can do this, so can local media around the province.
- Remember to sign up to attend in person or watch online the AODA Alliance’s exciting celebration of the 30th anniversary of the birth of Ontario’s grassroots non-partisan movement to win a strong Disabilities Act. It looks like all the speaking slots have been taken by people who already signed up. We will keep a waiting list, so there’s still hope for others who want to speak at this event. Check out the November 2, 2024 AODA Alliance Update for details about this program. You can sign up for it online. Of course, you are welcome to come in person (space permitting) or watch online, even if you don’t want to speak to the hearings that we are holding from 2 to 4 p.m. on November 25, 2024. We’ll reach out to those who signed up, closer to the event, with all the details they’ll need.
MORE DETAILS
CBC News November 12, 2024
Originally posted at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/accessibility-standards-ontario-1.7380451
Sudbury
Ontario is supposed to be fully accessible by Jan. 1, but advocates say it’s ‘nowhere close’
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act outlines standards in 5 areas of daily life
Jonathan Migneault CBC News
A municipal bus with a wheelchair ramp.
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) includes a standard on transportation, which would ensuring municipal buses are wheelchair-accessible. (Sarah MacMillan/CBC)
In the new year, Ontario is supposed to be fully accessible for disabled people, but advocates say the province is “nowhere near” meeting standards it created 20 years ago.
In 2005, the Ontario Legislature enacted the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). It set a 20-year goal to meet standards in five areas that affect everyday life: information and communication, employment, transportation, customer service and the design of public spaces.
“We are nowhere close to being accessible by 2025 and we’ve been warning the government about this for years,” said David Lepofsky, chair of the AODA Alliance.
Lepofsky was part of the group of disability advocates that lobbied Dalton McGuinty’s government to enact the AODA in 2005.
Since then, he’s continued the fight to have standards fully implemented by Jan. 1, 2025.
Those standards cover everything from accessible transportation, including having wheelchair-accessible buses and taxis, to accessible buildings with sufficient elevators, automatic doors and wheelchair ramps.
The legislation applies to all organizations and businesses with 20 employees or more.
Failure to meet standards can result in a fine of up to $100,000 per day for a business or organization, and up to $50,000 a day for a director at that organization.
David Lepofsky, of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, says the aides that school boards provide to students with disabilities are a right not a privilege.
David Lepofsky chairs the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance. He’s been a longtime advocate for better accessibility in Ontario. (Mike Smee/CBC)
Outside of physical accommodations for disabled people, the legislation also outlines equitable hiring practices and implementing accessible technology within an organization.
That technology extends to websites, where things like alternative text, which describes photos, and compatibility with screen readers are part of the standard.
The customer service standard means organizations need to train their staff to properly accommodate people with disabilities.
“You want to treat them like equals. Don’t talk down to them,” said Nadine Law, a disability advocate from Sudbury.
Their [Ontario government] record is abysmal.
– David Lepofsky
Lepofsky argues that in addition to falling short on meeting the five existing standards under the legislation, there should be others.
“We’ve pressed for reforms in the area of health-care,” he said.
“Patients with disabilities face too many barriers in the health-care system, just as students with disabilities face too many barriers in the education system. So we pressed for the government to enact a health-care accessibility standard.”
But despite recommendations from two independent reviews to both strengthen existing standards and add new ones – such as health and education – Lepofsky says Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government has sat on its hands.
“Their record is abysmal,” he said.
Portrait of a man.
Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre says the city plans to fully involve its accessibility panel from the start on future decisions around new developments and programs. (Maxime Beauchemin/Radio-Canada)
In an email to CBC News, Wallace Pidgeon, director of communications for Seniors and Accessibility Minister Raymond Cho, said “Ontario is meeting, achieving, or exceeding the AODA standards across the province.”
Pidgeon said in the email that under the current government, Ontario has had “historic spending” on infrastructure to improve accessibility, which includes school upgrades, new and retrofitted hospitals and long-term care facilities, as well as public transit upgrades including over 2,200 new accessible buses being delivered province-wide.
He added that all 444 municipalities in Ontario must have accessibility plans in place to meet the AODA standards.
In Timmins, city council will vote Tuesday evening to approve its five-year accessibility plan which touches on the five standards.
The plan outlines things the city has already done to improve accessibility, such as redesigning its transit building to make it more accessible. And it includes future plans to improve accessibility, such as a redesign of the local arena, the McIntyre Community Centre in 2025.
Nadine Law is a Sudbury resident living with a physical disability and the regional client services coordinator for Spinal Cord Injury Ontario. She is pushing for the city to consider replacing the Accessibility Advisory Panel with a municipal accessibility advisory committee.
In Sudbury, city council is voting on Tuesday to approve an accessibility consultation policy.
The policy would require the city’s accessibility panel to consult on any new municipal buildings, upgrades or programs to make sure they meet AODA standards.
“What I’m hearing is that they’re happier that they’re not brought in midway through a project, but at the beginning of the project,” Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre said about the city’s accessibility panel.
But disability advocate Nadine Law argues the city should have an accessibility committee, as opposed to a panel.
“With a committee everything is transparent,” she said.
“You’ve got minutes that are taken and they should be available on the website for the public to see.”
Other cities in northeastern Ontario, including North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins have accessibility committees.
Lefebvre said the city’s clerk is currently exploring the benefits of a committee instead of a panel.
“I think we’ll always be focused on the result of what we’re getting,” he said. “Certainly the way that we get there is important as well.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jonathan Migneault
Digital reporter/editor
Jonathan Migneault is a CBC digital reporter/editor based in Sudbury. He is always looking for good stories about northeastern Ontario. Send story ideas to jonathan.migneault@cbc.ca.