New Captioned Video Gives a Helpful Blueprint and Roadmap on How to Make Education in Kindergarten to Grade 12 Schools Barrier-Free, Accessible and Inclusive for All Students with Disabilities

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update

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/
October 6, 2022

SUMMARY

There are one third of a million students with disabilities in Ontario’s publicly funded schools. They face too many disability barriers. These barriers impede these children and youth from fully participating, being fully included in, and fully benefitting from all that our school system has to offer.

Here’s a new captioned video by AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky that explains how to fix this problem. You can watch this video by visiting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goIOu8WWFLI

This easy-to-follow 1-hour captioned video 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. In it, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky 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.

The final report described in this video is by far the most thorough, top-to-bottom review of Ontario’s K-12 education system from the perspective of students with disabilities in decades. David Lepofsky was a member of that Committee, which had equal representation from the disability community and the education sector.

Below we tell you the topics covered in the video. We list ways you can use this video to help advance improvements in Ontario’s education system for students with disabilities. We also point you to further background.

This captioned video will be helpful for you if you are:

  • A student with disabilities.
  • A parent, guardian or other family member of a student or students with disabilities.
  • A teacher or other education staff.
  • A school principal or vice principal.
  • A school board’s director of Education or other school board senior management official, whether or not you have lead responsibility for special education.
  • A member of a local Accessibility Advisory Committee or Special Education Advisory Committee.
  • People working at a government’s ministry of education, or working anywhere in the accessibility field.
  • People working for or associated with a disability community organization.
  • Anyone teaching in a Faculty of Education, or now studying in a Faculty of Education or Early Childhood Education.
  • Any accessibility consultants in the public or private sector.

This video will be informative for anyone inside or outside Ontario who wants disability barriers rooted out of your school system. In this video, David Lepofsky is speaking for the AODA Alliance. He is not speaking on behalf of the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee.

How do you like this video? Send your feedback to us at aodafeedback@gmail.com Help us use this video to improve opportunities for students with disabilities.

MORE DETAILS

How Can I Jump Right to Specific Topics in this Video?

This video is one hour long. Some might only want to watch part of it. To help with this, here are links to each major heading or topic in the video. You can just jump right to the part that you find most helpful.

  1. Introduction — What’s this all about?
  2. What is the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee?
  3. What is the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act? What is an accessibility standard?
  4. Why do we need an Education Accessibility Standard?
  5. What did the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee recommend in its initial report? Review of the 20 major themes in the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee recommendations.
  6. Tips on how to use the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee’s report, to get action to help students with disabilities
  7. Conclusion and Further resources for more information.

Who is Presenting in this Captioned Video?

This video presentation is by AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky. On behalf of the AODA Alliance, David Lepofsky has led the grassroots non-partisan campaign since 2009 to get the Ontario Government to agree to enact an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA. He is also:

  • A member of the Ontario Government’s K-12 Education Standards Development Committee.
  • The Visiting Professor of Disability Rights and Legal Education at the Osgoode Hall Law School.
  • A member and past chair of the Special Education Advisory Committee of the Toronto District School Board.

 

How Can You Use this Captioned Video to Help Students with Disabilities?

Here are great ways for you to use this new captioned online video to help us get Ontario’s K-12 education system to become barrier-free and fully accessible for students with disabilities, so that students with disabilities can benefit from full participation and inclusion in all that Ontario schools have to offer:

  • Send this video to your school board’s Director of Education and senior management officials responsible for special education. Urge them to watch it, and to do whatever your school board can to implement the final report and recommendations of the Government-appointed K-12 Education Standards Development Committee described in this video.
  • Send this video to the chair and members of your school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee. Encourage them to pass a formal recommendation that the school board should implement as much as it can of the final report and recommendations of the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee, described in this video.
  • Send this video to your member of the Ontario Legislature. Urge them to press Ontario Premier Doug Ford to act swiftly to fully implement the final report and recommendations of the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee, described in this video.
  • Send this video to candidates in your community for school board trustee. Ask them to commit, if elected, to press the school board to implement as much as possible of the final report of the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee, described in this video.
  • If you teach in any teacher’s college or other program that trains education workers, put this video on your student’s must-watch list!
  • Publicize this video on social media and encourage others to watch it.

How Can You Get More Background?

This video refers to various helpful resources for you to check out if you want more information. Below is a list of these resources, with links to them.