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
Please Spread the Word about the New AODA Alliance Video that Reveals Many Accessibility Blunders at the New Toronto Courthouse
August 10, 2024
SUMMARY
Two days ago, the AODA Alliance release its brand new online video. It reveals many accessibility blunders at the new Toronto Courthouse, opened last year, a building which cost taxpayers almost a billion dollars. Last year, the Ford Government hired two separate accessibility consulting firms, Human Space and Quadrangle, to make recommendations on how to fix the accessibility barriers at this new building. The Government has in effect recognized that this new courthouse has accessibility problems.
If you haven’t yet watched this video entitled “Billion Dollar Accessibility Bungle,” give it a view now! You can watch either the 14 minute version or the more detailed 49 minute version at any time.
After you do watch it, you’ll probably want to do something about it. This Update Gives you ideas on what to do. Help us get more people to watch this video and to learn about this billion dollar accessibility bungle!
MORE DETAILS
A Good Start!
Our video has already gotten good media attention. On August 8, 2024, City TV aired a great story about it. It is available on the City News website. On Friday, August 9, 2024, CBC Radio included a great report on it on its local morning newscast. We have not found a link to that online, we regret.
Why Did We Make This Video?
A year in the making, we created this video through volunteer effort for three important reasons.
First, we want to identify a number of the accessibility blunders in this mega-courthouse to enable public officials and design professionals like architects to learn from it and, hopefully, to avoid similar mistakes. The AODA Alliance’s earlier videos revealing accessibility blunders at the Metropolitan University Student Learning Centre, the Centennial College Culinary Arts Centre, and new and renovated Toronto-area public transit stations have been used in this way. We received great feedback on them as a tool for that purpose.
Second, we want to put pressure on the Ontario Government to substantially revamp how it spends billions of the public’s infrastructure dollars on major new projects like this. This new Courthouse’s accessibility blunders are a result of that seriously deficient process. We have been advocating for reform in this area for well over 15 years, as is documented on the AODA Alliance’s built environment page and its public money page. This concern has also been identified in the Third AODA Independent Review by David Onley in 2019. We believe that public money should never be used to create or perpetuate disability barriers.
Over five and a half years ago, the final report of the Government-appointed David Onley AODA Independent Review gave the Ford Government this advice, about which the Government has done nothing:
“Everyone seems to agree it makes sense to improve accessibility in the public sector first, but in fact the opposite is happening as inaccessible facilities are still being built with public funds. In Thunder Bay, for example, the Review learned of a viewing tower for a new bridge that was designed with no elevator. A man who uses a wheelchair was particularly annoyed that he could not use a structure paid for with taxpayer dollars.
Participants in the Review were adamant that public money should not be used to create new barriers and many felt developers should be required to exceed minimum accessibility requirements where government funds are involved. Some called for a monitoring process to see that no new barriers are built, bringing the right people to the table to review plans through an accessibility lens.
Going into more detail, an advocacy group proposed substantial reform of the way public sector infrastructure projects are managed and overseen, including major changes at Infrastructure Ontario. Accessibility advice should be obtained on all major projects at the beginning – during master planning, feasibility studies and functional programming. This should be based in part on consultation with people with disabilities. The accessibility recommendations should be made public and any decisions to reject them should be tracked and publicly reported, identifying who made them and why. Post-project accessibility inspections should also be done, with the builder responsible for fixing any deficiencies uncovered. As well, the Provincial Auditor should audit accessibility practices at Infrastructure Ontario and recommend reforms to the way the agency approaches planning for accessibility in infrastructure projects.”
Third, we want to motivate design professionals to get it right. They won’t want a project they design to end up in one of our videos!
How You Can Help
The more people who watch our new video, the more impact it will have. Please do whatever you can to encourage others to watch it. You might wish to:
- Send emails to your family, friends and co-workers to send others the AODA Alliance’s August 8, 2024 news release announcing the video, or just send them the links to the video:
Short 14-minute version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6XNVMoUmB8
Longer 49-minute version: https://youtu.be/zvo9jYIUvSc
August 8, 2024 AODA Alliance news release: https://www.aodaalliance.org/what’s-new/disability-advocates-powerful-new-video-reveals-serious-accessibility-problems-at-new-downtown-Toronto-mega-courthouse-a-billion-dollar-accessibility-bungle-shows-Ontario-falling-further-behind-sc/
- Post links to the video and to the AODA Alliance’s August 8, 2024 news release on your website.
- If you are connected to a disability or other community organization, get them to post these on their website.
- Send the AODA Alliance’s August 8, 2024 news release and the links to this video to your local media. Urge them to watch the video and cover this story.
- If you know anyone who has a podcast, encourage them to cover this story in their podcast.
- Email or phone your MPP. Tell them about this billion-dollar accessibility bungle by the Ontario Government.
- Post links to this video on Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, Whats App or whatever social media you use.
Let us know what you try. Email the AODA Alliance at aodafeedback@gmail.com
The AODA requires the Ontario Government to lead Ontario to become accessible to people with disabilities by 2025. That is only 144 days away. We’re still waiting for Premier Doug Ford to agree to meet, to discuss what he should do to fulfil this duty. Where’s his plan of action to address the “accessibility crisis” in Ontario that the Government-appointed Rich Donovan AODA Independent Review declared in its final report, which the Ford Government received on June 6, 2024, fully 431 days ago?