On Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Disability Advocates Press Reporters to Cover Accessibility Issues in The Most Important Ontario Election for Ontarians with Disabilities in Almost Two Decades

ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE

NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

On Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Disability Advocates Press Reporters to Cover Accessibility Issues in The Most Important Ontario Election for Ontarians with Disabilities in Almost Two Decades

 

May 19, 2022 Toronto: A major disability coalition turns a spotlight on the Ontario media today, Global Accessibility Awareness Day #GAAD, pressing reporters to ramp up coverage of the Ontario election’s disability accessibility issues. For over 2.6 million Ontarians with disabilities, this is the most important Ontario election in two decades. The next government must remedy the fact that Ontario will reach 2025 without becoming disability-accessible, the deadline set by Ontario’s Disabilities Act. The next Government must create accessibility for people with disabilities to jobs, education, housing, transit and health care.

 

“A small number of media outlets have given this issue some coverage, with TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin’s May 11 edition by far in the lead, but the vast majority of news outlets have not,” said David Lepofsky, Chair of the non-partisan volunteer AODA Alliance which has pressed these issues in every Ontario election since the Legislature unanimously passed Ontario’s landmark Disabilities Act in 2005. “Everyone has a disability now or is bound to get one later. As the minority of everyone, we are all voters and all the media’s listeners/readers/viewers! We should never be left behind!”

 

The media’s potential for impact is proven by commendable early media coverage of another important disability issue, Ontario’s cruel sub-poverty ODSP rate. Ontario’s Tories were driven to pledge the first ODSP increase in almost four years, just days after their pre-election Budget included no ODSP hike.

 

Here are important, interesting and immediate newsworthy facts that voters deserve to hear about:

 

  • The NDP, Greens and Liberals each make significant commitments on accessibility for people with disabilities (links provided below to their letters to the AODA Alliance). They vary in detail from party to party. In every Ontario election since 1995, any party’s detailed pledges on disability accessibility were announced in letters to the AODA Alliance and to its predecessor, the ODA Committee, before 2005.

 

  • Ford’s Tories is the only major party that has made no election promises to Ontarians with disabilities to tear down accessibility barriers impeding their access to jobs, transit, schools, health care and other necessities.

 

  • This is the first election in almost two decades in which the Ontario PCs refused to respond to our request for election commitments on accessibility for people with disabilities. The PCs wrote in response to our requests for disability promises in the 2007 election, 2011 election, 2014 election and 2018 election.

 

  • On May 17, 2022, a provincial candidates’ debate was held virtually and in person to address disability issues. Only the PCs refused to send a candidate. That candidates’ debate can be viewed online at any time.

 

  • Throughout his term in office, Premier Ford refused to meet with any AODA Alliance representatives since taking power. Again, this is the first time in almost two decades that an Ontario Premier has refused to meet us. In the 2018 election, Doug Ford promised us that our issues “are close to the hearts of our Ontario PC Caucus and Candidates.”

 

The AODA Alliance’s goal in this campaign is to get Doug Ford’s Tories to make strong election commitments on accessibility for people with disabilities, meeting or exceeding the other parties. We do not endorse, support or oppose any party or candidate.

 

“No news organizations should give Doug Ford’s PCs a free pass by not covering this issue and by never questioning Ford or his candidates about their refusal to make any commitments on accessibility for over 2.6 million Ontarians with disabilities,” said Lepofsky. “We ask the media to spend less time having pundits tell us what issues they say we care about and spend more time reporting on disability policy and platform issues!”

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 its 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 its 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 its 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.”