Please Email the Ford Government’s Design of Public Spaces Standards Development Committee to Support the AODA Alliance’s Brief on How to Tear Down Disability Barriers in the Built Environment

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

Please Email the Ford Government’s Design of Public Spaces Standards Development Committee to Support the AODA Alliance’s Brief on How to Tear Down Disability Barriers in the Built Environment

September 16, 2024

SUMMARY

On September 13, 2024, the AODA Alliance submitted a very comprehensive brief to the Ford Government’s Design of Public Spaces Standards Development Committee (DOPSSDC). It makes 66 recommendations on what the Government needs to do to tear down disability barriers in the built environment.

You can download and read the AODA Alliance’s September 13, 2024 brief to the Design of Public Spaces Standards Development Committee. Below, you can find a summary of our position, and the list of our 66 recommendations which are set out in our brief’s Appendix 2.

How You Can Help

Please email the Design of Public Spaces Standards Development Committee to support our brief. You can write the Design of Public Spaces Standards Development Committee at this email address: DOPSreviewSDC@ontario.ca
Get disability organizations with which you are connected to email the Design of Public Spaces Standards Development Committee to support the AODA Alliance’s September 13, 2024 brief.
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MORE DETAILS

Summary of the AODA Alliance’s September 13, 2024 Brief to the Design of Public Spaces Standards Development Committee

We agree with a number of the disability barriers in the built environment that the Initial Report identifies, and a number of reforms that it recommends. We also respectfully disagree with some of the Initial Report’s recommendations either in whole or in part. We focus this brief primarily on aspects of the Initial Report that we urge the DOPSSDC to make. In summary, this brief recommends as follows:

The DOPSSDC needs to hear directly in person or virtually from more voices in the disability community.

The “Design of Public Spaces Accessibility Standard” should be renamed as the “Built Environment Accessibility Standard”.

The entire Ontario Building Code needs to be revamped, not just tweaked.

Built environment accessibility requirements must ensure that the designs meet the Ontario Human Rights Code’s “undue hardship” standard.

Obligated organizations and people with disabilities need one-stop shopping to find all built environment legal accessibility requirements.

Effective measures should be imposed to prevent yhe disability barriers depicted in the five widely viewed AODA Alliance built environment videos.

Avoid the dangers and distractions of harmonizing Ontario built environment accessibility requirements with other Canadian jurisdictions.

Avoid Creating a massive duplication of work and downloading major burdens onto volunteer members of municipal Accessibility Advisory Committees or others.

Remove duplicative public consultations for design requirements.

Don’t reinvent the accessibility wheel.

Set minimum requirements for accessibility professionals and other design professionals.

Strengthen the Design of Public Spaces Accessibility Standard’s long-term objective.

Strengthen proposals for portable ramps.

Substantially strengthen the Initial Report’s recommendations regarding bike paths.

Strengthen recommendations regarding accessible pedestrian signals.

Strengthen recommendations regarding parking pay kiosks and on street parking.

Strengthen requirements for service areas.

Strengthen sidewalk repair and maintenance requirements.

Strengthen recommendations on narrowing exemption provisions to prevent arbitrary decisions.

Strengthen accessible door operator requirements.

Increase the required percentage of barrier-free units in new multi-unit residential buildings.

AODA accessibility standards for the built environment and the Ontario Building Code must require retrofits in all existing buildings, not just in major renovations.

Substantially strengthen enforcement of all built environment accessibility requirements.

Revamp how public infrastructure is designed to ensure it is accessible.

Set specific additional built environment accessibility requirements such as prohibiting stramps, hangout steps, cut-outs from stairs, obstructions on curb ramps, and destination elevators.

List of the AODA Alliance’s Recommendations to the Design of Public Spaces Standards Development Committee

#1 The DOPSSDC should now convene open in person and virtual hybrid public consultation sessions to get input on its Initial Report from the public, including holding roundtables of sector experts and leading advocates.

#2 The accessibility standard should be renamed as the “Built Environment Accessibility Standard.”

#3 The Ontario Building Code should be redesigned from top to bottom, with accessibility requirements to be built into the requirements throughout the Ontario Building Code, not segregated from them.

#4 All provisions of both the AODA Design of Public Spaces Accessibility Standard and the Ontario Building Code should all set accessible design requirements that ensure buildings and spaces will remove and prevent disability barriers except where it is proven that to do so would cause undue hardship as per the Ontario Human Rights Code, and, where applicable, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

#5 The Initial Report should be revised to recommend that all provincial accessibility requirements be included in a comprehensive AODA Built Environment Accessibility Standard, even if some or all of them are also set out in other laws such as the Ontario Building Code and/or the Fire code.

#6 The Ontario Building Code should be amended to incorporate the AODA Built Environment Accessibility Standard by reference.

#7 The AODA Built Environment Accessibility Standard requirements should be fully enforceable not only under the AODA’s enforcement provisions, but under the enforcement powers available under the Ontario Building Code.

#8 A construction plan should not be able to obtain site plan approval and/or a building permit unless it is found to comply with all accessibility requirements created in AODA Accessibility Standards and not just those in the Ontario Building Code.

#9 The DOPSSDC should review the AODA Alliance’s five online videos on built environment accessibility problems and make specific recommendations to forbid all of these barriers.

#10 The Design of Public Spaces Accessibility Standard should be revised to address all disability barriers inside buildings, whether or not they are otherwise covered by the Ontario Building Code and whether or not the building is new or undergoing a major renovation.

#11 The DOPSSDC should strengthen all its recommendations to ensure that they effectively address all the accessibility needs of the full spectrum of people with disabilities, using this brief’s recommendations for the DOPSSDC to undertake a broad community consultation now.

#12 The Initial Report’s Recommendation 12 and all other like recommendations should be revised to remove any recommendation that Ontario harmonize its built environment accessibility requirements with any other jurisdictions.

#13 The Initial Report’s discussion and recommendations should be revised to eliminate any suggestions that Ontario should endeavour in any context to be “consistent with other jurisdictions.”

#14 The DOPS Standards Development Committee should draw on the strongest accessibility requirements in any municipal Facilities Accessible Design Standards (FADS) if they are found to exceed current provincial requirements and be sufficient to ensure accessibility.

#15 Recommendation 4 of the Initial Report should be revised to:

Require a fair and effective process for municipal staff to vet new projects for accessibility, and to provide for openness and accountability for their work by requiring it to be publicly posted and reported to municipal Accessibility Advisory Committees for their oversight.

Municipal Accessibility Advisory Committees should then be free to add their own experience to any accessibility assessment.

#16 The review of any plans or proposals for land development that a municipal Accessibility Advisory Committee conducts should be held at a public meeting, with minutes, and with the Committee’s feedback on the plan to be publicly posted. The municipality should be required to give written reasons if it rejects any of that feedback, with those reasons to be made public.

#17 Municipal staff who are assigned to review site plans should be required to take training and pass proficiency tests on accessible design.

#18 Wherever the Initial Report delegates to each obligated organization a responsibility to address something in their Multi-Year Accessibility Plan, the Initial Report should be revised to instead set specific substantive accessibility requirements that must be met.

#19 Duplicative, redundant, and wasteful consultation requirements should be eliminated from the Design of Public Spaces Accessibility Standard and replaced by specific, detailed and enforced built environment accessibility requirements.

#20 The DOPSSDC should endorse the built environment recommendations in the final report of the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee, set out in Appendix 1, as usefully applying to the built environment more broadly, and not only to school buildings and grounds.

#21 The DOPSSDC should obtain from the Ontario Government the final report of the earlier Built Environment Standards Development Committee, make it public for feedback, and incorporate into its own report anything in those earlier recommendations that would help make Ontario’s built environment accessible.

#22 All post-secondary education design faculties should be required to be trained in equity, disability justice, and practical accessibility principles, and to include accessible design in their curricula.

#23 All currently licensed design professionals should be required to complete rigorous accessible design training, such as the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s “Introduction to Successful Accessible Design” course. The Rick Hansen Foundation’s course should not be considered sufficient.

#24 A regulated certification process should be established for accessibility professionals, ensuring that only those who meet rigorous standards, including extensive training and practical experience, can claim this title.

#25 To be trained and licensed to work as a design professional in Ontario, such as an architect, landscape designer, municipal planner or interior designer, individuals should be required to take sufficient mandatory training on accessible design so that they know how to design barrier-free built environments. This should include far more than training on the Ontario Building Code and current AODA accessibility standards, since those fall far short of ensuring that the built environment is accessible.

#26 Existing design professionals should be required to take professional development training on how to design an accessible built environment.

#27 When the DOPSSDC submits its final report to the Ontario Government, it should not use terms like “making Ontario more accessible” or “improving accessibility.” It should instead in all cases echo the AODA’s goal of making Ontario accessible, and nothing less.

#28 The Initial Report’s Recommendation 1 should be strengthened to specify that the long-term objective of the accessibility standard in question is to ensure the achievement of an accessible built environment in Ontario, including buildings, structures and premises, by 2025 or as soon after 2025 as is reasonably possible.

#29 the Initial Report’s Recommendation 35 should be revised to impose detailed province wide requirements for temporary or portable ramps. These should make it clear that such ramps are allowed and should substantially limit municipal officials for demanding that they be removed, rather than leaving this to be addressed by each municipality’s bylaws.

#30 The Initial Report’s Recommendation 36 should be replaced with a recommendation that an accessibility standard be enacted that sets mandatory requirements for the design of bike paths, to ensure that they don’t endanger people with disabilities, including such things as:

The bike path may not be built at sidewalk level.
“Floating bus stops” must be banned as endangering people with disabilities.

#31 The Initial Report’s Recommendation 37 should be revised to require that audible pedestrian signals must operate automatically, without people with disabilities having to find them and push a button to turn them on.

#32 Recommendation 46 of the Initial Report should be expanded to stipulate technical requirements for accessibility features in parking electronic pay kiosks, such as requirements for large print, voice output (e.g. for drivers with dyslexia) and other standard features for accessible electronic kiosks.

#33 The DOPS Accessibility Standard should be revised to set specific accessibility requirements for on-street parking.

#34 Provincial accessible parking spot requirements should be expanded to set requirements to create “Type C” parking spots, which are no larger than typical spots, but which are reserved near a building’s entrance for people with disabilities with a disability parking permit and whose vehicle fits in a regular-sized parking spot.

#35 The DOPS Accessibility Standard should be revised to set a specific height for an accessible customer service counter, and to fix specific accessibility requirements for public service queuing guides.

#36 Each of the exemptions to the DOPS Accessibility Standard requirements addressed in this brief should be substantially narrowed to require the obligated organization show that compliance would constitute an undue hardship within the meaning of the Ontario Human Rights Code or should be eliminated.

#37 The Initial Report’s Recommendation 98 should be revised to add that there must be accessible signage immediately adjacent to power door operators, e.g. in large print and Braille.

#38 Power door operators should be located within a required minimum distance from the door. For entrances to a building, automatic doors rather should be available wherever possible.

#39 The Initial Report’s Recommendation 113 should be amended to require that new residential buildings have at least 40% of their units be accessible.

#40 The Initial Report’s Recommendations 121 and following should be expanded to require, as a start, that readily achievable accessibility retrofits to existing buildings should be required as a first step, even if the building is undergoing no major renovation, with more significant retrofits to be required as well along longer time lines, consistent with the duty to accommodate people with disabilities up to the point of undue hardship in the Ontario Human Rights Code and, where applicable, the Charter of Rights.

#41 The Initial Report’s Recommendation 126 should be revised to substantially qualify public subsidies for accessibility retrofits of any business, to instead make these low interest loans, to prioritize non-profit obligated organizations, and to tie such loans to higher and swifter accessibility expectations (including expanding employment opportunities for people with disabilities) for recipients of those loans.

#42 The Initial Report should categorically call for far stronger enforcement of built environment accessibility requirements by requiring that:

A proposed building or project must comply with all accessibility requirements, including those under any laws such as AODA accessibility standards and the Ontario Building Code, before a project can get site plan approval or a building permit.

Buildings and other projects must be inspected for compliance after construction before they can be approved.
AODA inspectors and directors be empowered to enforce all accessibility requirements, by ensuring that all are incorporated in a comprehensive Built Environment Accessibility Standard.

#43 The Ontario Government should adopt and broadly publicize a cross-government policy that public money may never be used to create or perpetuate accessibility barriers against people with disabilities.

#44 The Government should set standards for, implement, widely publicize, monitor, enforce and publicly report on a comprehensive strategy to ensure that public money is never used by anyone to create or perpetuate barriers against people with disabilities, for example, in capital or infrastructure spending or through transfer payments to the Ontario Government’s transfer partners. A senior public official within the Ontario Public Service should be designated with lead responsibility and authority for this effort.

#45 In any Government strategy to ensure that public money is not used to create or perpetuate accessibility barriers, it is not sufficient for the Government to make it a condition that a recipient of public money merely obey the AODA and AODA accessibility standards. It should require that recipients of public money comply with accessibility requirements in the Ontario Human Rights Code, and where applicable the Charter of Rights. It should require, among other things, that the recipient organization’s specific capital project or goods, services or facilities be fully disability accessible or require a commitment to remediate these to become fully accessible by timelines to be set out in the grant, loan or other terms of payment of public money.

#46 Any Government contract for infrastructure or for increased housing should include a mandatory, enforceable term that requires the recipient of the public money to remediate any accessibility barriers that the recipient allows to be created or perpetuated at the recipient’s expense.

#47 The Government should make it a condition of transfer payments and capital or other infrastructure funding to municipalities, hospitals, school boards, public transit providers, colleges, universities, and transfer partners that these recipient organizations adopt comparable initiatives to ensure that their procurement and infrastructure spending do not create, exacerbate or perpetuate barriers against people with disabilities. The Government should make public a resource guide to assist those transfer partners to know how to effectively implement this requirement.

#48 The Government should promptly establish a process for monitoring and enforcing the recommended comprehensive strategy to ensure that public money is not used to create, perpetuate or exacerbate accessibility barriers. It should not be left to each ministry to do as little or as much as it wishes to implement Government policy and procedures on this topic, and to have to re-invent the wheel in this area.

#49 The Government should widely and prominently publicize as soon as possible to any organization that seeks Ontario infrastructure or procurement funds that they must prove in their applications that they will ensure that public money isn’t used to create, perpetuate or exacerbate barriers against persons with disabilities.

#50 The Government should establish and widely publicize an avenue for the public to report to the Government on situations where public money is used to create, perpetuate or exacerbate disability accessibility barriers.

#51 The Provincial Auditor should audit the Government to ensure compliance with recommendations on ensuring that public money is not used to create, perpetuate or exacerbate disability accessibility barriers. As one example of this, the Provincial Auditor should audit the accessibility practices at Infrastructure Ontario, and provide a report to the public, including on any recommended reforms to how that Government organization approaches the planning for accessibility in infrastructure projects.

#52 It should be a mandatory Government policy that when an accessibility consultant is retained on an infrastructure project to which Ontario public funds are contributed, whether that consultant is working for a government office or a contractor that is hired using public money the accessibility consultant should report directly to the Ontario Government, with the consultant’s advice being made promptly public.

#53 When a public infrastructure project is undertaken involving any Ontario Government funds, the Project Specific Output Specifications (on disability accessibility PSOS) for the project should be made public well before the competition process, and subject to public input. These should not be kept secret until after the bid competition is completed.

#54 When a government-funded infrastructure project is undertaken, successive plans in progress for the project should be made public on a real time basis, for crowd-sourced input on accessibility.

#55 Where a public official or private contractor project team member, paid out of the public purse, vetoes or decides against an accessibility measure that an accessibility consultant recommends, the identity of that public official or private contractor should be recorded and made public, when successive plans for the project are made public, with an explanation of what the accessibility feature is that was excluded from the project on the decision or advice of that public official or private contractor.

#56 Stramps should be impermissible.

#57 Hangout steps should not be permitted.

#58 Elevator lobby call buttons should not be located in a corner with no floor clearance to allow a person using a mobility device to reach the call button.

#59 Inside an Elevator, the panel of buttons must be located in a position with clear floor space to allow a person using a mobility device to reach the call button. For examples, these should not be placed in the corner or by the elevator doors where the elevator does not have the space for a user to turn to use the buttons independently.

#60 Elevators should be equipped to provide accessible emergency call and 2-way communication systems, e.g. for people with hearing loss or who are non-verbal.

#61 Destination elevators should not be permitted.

#62 Any leaning columns that protract into a pedestrian’s path of travel or other protruding hazards that present an undetectable hazard must be removed or remediated to prevent a danger of injury.

#63 No outdoor stairs can have any area cut out from them, e.g. to allow water to drain, except if it is under handrails and therefore unable to constitute a tripping hazard for anyone.

#64 No permanent or temporary obstacle, such as a traffic light pole, may be located on a curb ramp.

#65 Where the Initial Report recommend that the Ontario Government conduct research on built environment technical issues, this should be revised to call for the Government to retain independent built environment accessible design experts to conduct the research, free from Government dictating the results to be reached, with the resulting work product to be made public.

#66 A comprehensive new Built Environment Accessibility Standard should include detailed requirements that:

Modernize Anthropometrics used in design standards, i.e. the key size, space and reach dimensions used by designers.

Establish indoor Air Quality requirements to protect people with environmental sensitivities.

Fix waiting room accessibility requirements, including space for mobility devices, sufficient room for turning, effective accessible communication supports.

Create updated lighting requirements in public buildings, with lighting design and positioned so as not to create glare.

Modernize accessible signage requirements.

Prescribe accessible built environment requirements for workspaces in places of employment, because the Employment Accessibility Standard does not address this.

Ensure accessibility of passenger loading zones outside buildings and in parking garages, to minimize the distance from the door to the vehicle and to ensure that the rout to the vehicle has no barriers.

Require in large open spaces in public buildings, such as a lobby, to include colour-contrasted tactile wayfinding on the floor to assist people with vision loss.

Set accessibility requirements for atriums in public buildings to minimize glare and echoes.

Require accessibility of electric vehicle charging stations.

Require accessible wheelchair and other mobility device charging stations in public buildings.

Detail accessibility features to be required in outdoor and indoor playgrounds including splash pads, such as specific features in playground equipment, colour/tonal contrast, accessible ID signage for each play area, level access to enter, exit and move around in the entire playground rest area seating for parents and caregivers to monitor children when playing.

Set specific requirements for outdoor performance areas, including accessible stage and backstage areas.

Fix mandatory provincial requirements for restaurant, bar & cafe sidewalk patios/serving areas, such as ensuring that they are accessible, that no signage or other obstructions protrude into paths of travel, and providing a clear path of travel for the public to by-pass the outdoor serving area.

Set stronger requirements to ensure that public washrooms and employee staff washrooms are accessible.

Require large public buildings to have an outdoor service animal relief area, as close as possible to the exit, with level access and other key accessibility requirements, as illustrated in the AODA Alliance’s video about the new Toronto Armoury Street courthouse.

Establish accessibility requirements for indoor and outdoor pool areas and change rooms.

Mandate accessibility requirements for accessible breast-feeding rooms.