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
September 8 is the 30-year Anniversary of the Struggle to get the Toronto Transit Commission to Audibly Announce all Subway, Bus and Streetcar Stops to Accommodate Passengers with Vision Loss
September 7, 2024
SUMMARY
As we approach January 1, 2025, we highlight major milestones during our long non-partisan disability advocacy campaign. That’s the deadline set in 2005 by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act for the Ontario Government to lead this province to be accessible to 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities. Here’s a significant one.
Thirty years ago, on September 8, 1994, the seemingly endless battle began to get the Toronto Transit Commission to consistently and reliably announce aloud all public transit route stops for the benefit of passengers with disabilities such as those with vision loss. Months before the formal movement began, David Lepofsky, acting on his own as a blind individual, secured an interview on CBC Radio 1 Toronto’s flagship public affairs program Metro Morning to call for TTC to audibly announce all subway stops. That day he also filed a human rights complaint against TTC.
Thirteen years and two human rights cases later, he won. TTC has been under orders from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario to consistently and reliably announce aloud all subway, bus and streetcar stops. To the public, including many people with disabilities, it seemed absurd that anyone should have to fight so long and hard for such an obvious, easy and cost-free accommodation. Making this worse, David Lepofsky later used a Freedom of Information application to unearth TTC’s legal bills. TTC spent some $450,000 to defend these cases. How often has TTC complained that it needs more money?
This saga is just one illustration of battles that people with disabilities have had to wage to try to tear down disability barriers. The AODA was passed to remove the need to fight such individual battles. Because the Ontario Government has done such a poor job of implementing and enforcing the AODA, we are headed to a January 1, 2025 when Ontario will still be full of far too many disability barriers. In 2011, the Ontario Government enacted the Transportation Accessibility Standard. It requires all public transit authorities to audibly announce all route stops. However, the Government has not provided effective enforcement of this requirement.
To mark this anniversary, we invited CBC’s Metro Morning program to do an interview as a retrospective on this battle. We hoped that CBC’s Metro Morning would be especially interested, since it was that program that broke the story three decades ago. Its September 8, 1994 interview was admitted as important evidence at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario hearing on Lepofsky v. TTC#1.
We regret that so far, Metro Morning has not responded to our emails. There’s still time!
Only 116 days remain until January 1, 2025! Where’s the Ontario Government?
David Lepofsky acknowledges with deep gratitude the tremendous and generous assistance that was provided to him pro bono on Lepofsky v. TTC #1 by the Paul Cavalluzzo law firm, and on Lepofsky v. TTC #2 by the Lax, O’Sullivan and Scott law firm.
What You Can Do to Help
Contact your local media, including CBC. Urge them to do a retrospective on the 30 year anniversary of the start of the long battle to get public transit stops audibly announced in Ontario.
If you want to contact CBC’s Metro morning, their email is MetroMorning@CBC.ca
How to Learn More
Below we set out:
A more detailed explanation of the saga of Lepofsky v. TTC and its aftermath.
David Lepofsky’s November 22, 2007 guest column in the Toronto Star, which revealed how much TTC spent on lawyers to oppose his human rights claims, and
A transcript of the September 8, 1994 CBC Radio Metro Morning interview that kicked off this long battle.
For more information we invite you to check out:
A captioned recording on YouTube of the September 8, 1994 interview on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning where David Lepofsky first publicly called on TTC to audibly announce all subway stops.
A 2014 talk by AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky at the Osgoode Hall Law School on his use of the Ontario Human Rights Code to get TTC to audible announce all public transit stops.
- The various rulings in Lepofsky v. TTC #1 (regarding the effort to get TTC to audibly announce all subway stops) include:
- Interim Decision of Hon. Alvin B. Rosenberg dated April 18, 2005: Lepofsky v. Toronto Transit Commission, 2005 HRTO 12 (CanLII) available at this link.
- Interim Order of Hon. Alvin B. Rosenberg dated June 30, 2005: Lepofsky v.
- Toronto Transit Commission, 2005 HRTO 20 (CanLII), available at this link.
- Interim Order of Hon. Alvin B. Rosenberg dated July 7, 2005: Lepofsky v.
- TTC, 2005 HRTO 21 (CanLII), available at this link.
- Final Decision of Hon. Alvin B. Rosenberg dated September 29, 2005: Ontario Human Rights Commission v. Lepofsky, 2005 HRTO 36 (CanLII) available at this link.
- The various rulings in Lepofsky v. TTC #2 2007 (regarding the effort to get TTC to audibly announce all bus and street car stops) include:
MORE DETAILS
Background to Lepofsky v. TTC #1 and #2
When David Lepofsky launched his public battle to get TTC to announce all subway stops thirty years ago, he had no idea that the battle would take so long, or be so frustrating. He also did not then know that just over two months later, on November 29, 1994 (unconnected with the start of this public battle with TTC), the organized movement for Ontario accessibility legislation for persons with disabilities would be born.
It is always hard to predict in advance whether a single media interview will trigger action. Lepofsky’s interview on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning program thirty years ago (September 8, 1994) resulted in TTC calling Lepofsky within hours to ask for a meeting. At that meeting, held days later, TTC caved, and agreed to order its subway operators to announce all station stops. As a result, Lepofsky decided not to proceed any further with his initial human rights complaint.
However, when the TTC subway stop announcements on the subways started in early 1995, they were not consistent or reliable. After six more years of trying to get TTC to keep its word, David Lepofsky decided in 2001 that he had to go back to the Human Rights Commission for action. His case came before the Human Rights Tribunal in 2005. After a hotly-contested hearing, the Human Rights Tribunal ruled in Lepofsky’s favour in Lepofsky v. TTC #1. It concluded that TTC had been violating the human rights of Torontonians with vision loss for at least a decade. The Tribunal ordered TTC to consistently and reliably announce all route stops.
Shortly before that Human Rights Tribunal hearing, Lepofsky also asked TTC to have its drivers audibly announce all bus stops. TTC refused. TTC said its drivers would only announce major stops, and passenger-requested stops. Lepofsky had to again resort to a human rights complaint. His second case came before the Human Rights Tribunal in 2007. After a second hotly-contested hearing, the Tribunal again ruled in his favour. In Lepofsky v. TTC #2, the Tribunal ordered TTC to direct its drivers to audibly announce all bus and street car stops.
In both cases, TTC argued that it planned to eventually install automated stop announcements, but should not have to get its drivers or crews to make the announcements themselves in the meantime. In both cases, this argument failed.
After winning these two cases, Lepofsky brought a freedom of Information application to find out how much TTC spent on its legal defence of these cases. The total bill of $450,000 was revealed. There has never been a public accounting from TTC of who authorized this, and why. That money could have funded a lot of accessibility, had it not been used to fight against accessibility.
Also after these rulings, the Ontario Human Rights Commission surveyed all Ontario public transit providers to see what their plans were to call all route stops, as the Human Rights Code requires. Of those that eventually complied, several only went along with this ruling, with their feet dragging.
Under the AODA, the Ontario Government appointed a Transportation Standards Development committee to develop proposals for a Transportation Accessibility Standard. It initially recommended that municipal transit services be given a ludicrous 18 years to start providing this basic accommodation. We objected that this was far too long.
Eventually, in June 2011, the Government enacted the Integrated Accessibility Standard Regulation. Section 52 of that regulation required that those announcements start on July 1, 2011.
That winning this simple accommodation required twelve years and two separate cases before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, illustrates so much about our long, arduous campaign to make Ontario fully accessible for all persons with disabilities. It again shows why we need strong, effective accessibility legislation with strong accessibility standards and effective enforcement, so that an individual doesn’t have to take on such battles on their own. The AODA was enacted in 2005 so that persons with disabilities would not have to fight accessibility barriers one at a time, via individual human rights complaints.
The Toronto Star November 22, 2007
Opinion
Waste of public funds to oppose accessibility
Graphic: Vince Talotta star file photo Blind lawyer David Lepofsky won two human rights rulings ordering the TTC to announce subway, bus and streetcar stops.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, I’ve unearthed how much of your money the TTC spent on lawyers, opposing my effort to get crews to announce subway,
bus and streetcar stops. We blind people need stops announced to know when we reach our destinations. In 2005, I won a human rights ruling ordering TTC crews to announce all subway stops. Despite this, the TTC refused to direct bus drivers to announce all stops. I had to sue again.
Most can’t believe the TTC fought the subway case. Once I won it, no one can believe the TTC then fought the bus case. If the Human Rights Code requires the TTC to announce all subway stops for blind passengers, the TTC obviously must also announce all bus stops.
The TTC’s law firm bills total $450,000. Of that amount, $268,000 was spent fighting the subway case, even though internal documents revealed the TTC knew the Human Rights Code required announcing all subway stops, and new crews weren’t consistently doing this. Another $182,000 went to fight the legally simple bus stops case at a shorter six-day hearing.
This huge waste of public money has important implications. First, the TTC boasts it is gradually instituting automated subway and bus stop announcements. I never asked for automated announcements. The costless option of drivers announcing each stop is sufficient. Each driver has a mouth and should know their stops.
Second, after recent city tax and TTC fare hikes due to budget woes, city council should hold accountable whoever condoned this waste of almost half a million dollars. Last year, then TTC chair Howard Moscoe told the CBC he didn’t know how much the TTC spent fighting my subway case. He admitted it was scandalous I had to fight for a decade for that accommodation. Yet he defended the TTC opposing my bus stops request.
Third, city council should institute a vigorous policy to stop its agencies from using public funds to oppose disability accessibility. If they won’t spend more to advance accessibility, they must stop using our money to oppose it.
This incident isn’t unique. Recently, city heritage officials wasted public resources generating a report to city council obstructing and delaying efforts to make Ontario’s highest courthouse at Osgoode Hall more accessible. That report misstates and dilutes the duty to make such places fully accessible.
It describes as sufficiently accessible the long, labyrinthine routes that mobility-impaired people must endure to access this courthouse. Installing a ramp to the front door won’t deface Osgoode Hall. A courthouse isn’t just a pretty building to gaze at. It’s an important institution that constitutionally must be fully accessible to all.
Wasting public funds hurts everyone. The TTC’s route stop announcements help sighted and blind passengers. Osgoode Hall’s inaccessible main door impedes persons with disabilities and lawyers without disabilities hauling heavy bags filled with law books.
Fourth, it will soon be even harder for discrimination victims to battle organizations that spend huge sums opposing human rights. Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals recently enacted Human Rights Code changes many of us opposed. These largely privatized human rights enforcement. When I fought the TTC, the Human Rights Commission was public investigator and prosecutor. Starting next July, discrimination victims must investigate their individual cases and find lawyers
to prosecute. McGuinty’s new legal clinic to help discrimination victims with this will only get a paltry quarter of the budget he now gives the underfunded Human Rights Commission. If that legal clinic matched dollar for dollar what the TTC spent against me (an unrealistic dream), it could only fight six such issues annually.
Fifth, the Human Rights Commission should promptly launch complaints and vigorously enforce the law against each Ontario transit authority disobeying Lepofsky v. TTC. It should conduct proceedings and settlement discussions in close consultation with the blindness community, whose rights are in jeopardy. The Liberals pledged the Human Rights Commission would be freed up to aggressively bring such public interest proceedings.
Finally, transit accessibility recalcitrance isn’t limited to the TTC or to announcing stops. While they’ve made some progress on accessibility over the years, Ontario transit providers opposed strong new transit accessibility standards under the new Disabilities Act that I and others campaigned hard for.
They cry poor despite federal and provincial announcements lavishing billions on them. Governments must rein in these transit providers, whose obstinacy hurts those of us with disabilities, and the rest of you who’ll get one later. No one should suffer what the TTC unapologetically spent $450,000 putting me through twice.
David Lepofsky
David Lepofsky is a Toronto lawyer and activist for reforms to protect the rights of persons with disabilities.
Transcript of the September 8, 1994 Interview on CBC Radio 1 Toronto Metro Morning
I – Interviewer
DL – David Lepofsky
GB – Gerry Brolley
I: So tell me something, when you hop on the subway perhaps later on this morning, how do you know you’ve reached your stop? You know you look out the window, or you look at that map above your seat, but what if you couldn’t see those things? David Lepofsky is a Toronto lawyer, he’s visually impaired, and he’s been campaigning to get the TTC to announce the upcoming stops. He’s on the line this morning. Also on the line is Gerry Brolley. He’s general manager of service delivery for the TTC. Good morning to you both.
Mr. Lepofsky, before you tell me exactly what you want the TTC to do, how in the world do you know now whether you’ve reached your stop?
DL: Well the best you can do if you’re blind like myself, is that you try to memorize the number of stations, try to keep a headcount, hope nobody starts talking to you while you’re on the train so you don’t lose your count, and if you’re doing a new route, particularly a long trip along the Danforth line where there are many stops, it can be quite a challenge, and frankly, you can make mistakes.
I: So it’s not uncommon for you to lose your way?
DL: I travel a sufficiently short route enough of the time that its not frequent that I make mistakes, but you have you have to engage in a high level of concentration, and hope that you don’t have one of those lovely TTC breakdowns where you’re standing at one stop for a long period of time.
I: As you try to keep in mind your count.
DL: Exactly. I mean there’s no other passenger on the TTC who has to spend their time memorizing and counting stations except for those of us who are blind.
I: Now what exactly do you want the TTC to do?
DL: Well what I’d like them to do is actually quite simple, common sense, and I’m sure, to your listeners, obvious. Each TTC train has a driver, each driver has a PA system and a microphone so they can simply do what’s done in New York, in Washington, in Boston, and in many other cities I’m sure, which is the driver, as they come to each station, simply pick up the microphone and say, “Lawrence station, next stop”. I think that would be of great assistance not only to blind passengers like myself, but to sighted passengers as well.
I: Mr. Brolley, why not?
GB: We don’t disagree with the intent here, and certainly have supported that and are working towards achieving that end, of having the stations announced. We have a program in place now to purchase and install a station announcement program. The reason we are concerned about using the suggestion that Mr. Lepofsky has suggested, that the guard or motormen make the announcements, is the quality of the announcement that we get. The equipment that’s on the train is multi purposed, it’s used for conversing with transit control, our main control centre, and also for guard – motormen conversations. The system is designed in the 60’s, it is running out of its useful lifespan, the quality of the announcements on the trains are not what they should be and we found that having the guard try and use that to make station announcements does not provide a consistent or quality message to the customers. In fact, we’re in the process now of upgrading the public address speakers on the trains, at one and a quarter million dollars, which should be completed sometime next year which should give us some improvement in that area and we have a 4.6 million dollar program in place to develop a station stop announcement program over the next couple of years.
I: We’ve covered a lot of ground there, let me take them in parts, starting with quality, what do you mean quality, that people can’t understand when the operator says what the next stop is or just that it doesn’t sound like your top of the line CBC announcer?
GB: No, it’s that the train line – the announcement is run through one car through a series of train lines to get to the other cars. The speaker systems are not designed for constant public address, they’re for emergency announcements, the quality is not always good from one car to the other, the volume is difficult to control so its louder in one car than in another, and the entire process of making that announcement results in a very poor quality announcement of the train.
I: Mr. Lepofsky?
DL: I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but everybody who’s listening who’s ridden the TTC and who has heard announcements in the car knows that the PA system is certainly clear enough that an announcement can be made that’s understandable and while it might not be the high tech audio that we would all love to get, all we want to know is what station we’re at and its not unreasonable to say use what you’ve got. The fact of the matter is that I’ve been advised that they’re looking at spending, I gather from these figures, millions to buy some wiz-bang high tech system which, if they wanted to spend that money to get automated computerized announcements, they can go ahead but I understand its going to be at least a year if not two years till all of that’s in place, and in the meantime they’ve got the drivers, they’ve got the microphones, and with respect to the fellow from the TTC, the speakers seem to work well enough, they sure work well enough to tell us all to pile off the train at Eglinton when they’re switching trains or whatever, they could I’m sure work well enough to let us know what station we’re at, and I don’t think its really a fair answer to blind and visually impaired people in Toronto who rely heavily on the TTC since we don’t drive ourselves to say, they may not be the best quality of announcements in the world but they’re going to be intelligible. But we’re not going to do it just because its not good enough quality.
I: Mr. Brolley, this new system that Mr. Lepofsky talked about, he said he understands it could be a year or two. When exactly would be this new automated system be in place?
GB: We are currently looking at sometime in late 96 or 97.
I: 97? Why would it take what, three years to do that?
GB: Because we have a very large system, and in order for it to work we have to have the equipment at the track level and so forth to verify the train’s location before the stop announcement is made. We also have to retrofit the fleet with the equipment and we have over 600 subway cars that are in-service daily and so we have to do them a few at a time, so it takes a considerable amount of time to design, purchase, and install the equipment on the trains.
DL: Matt, my response to that would be simply, they can take as must time as they wish to put in this wiz-bang top-of-the-line stuff if they feel that’s the way they want to do it, but in the meantime, what they’re doing right now in my view, violates the Human Rights Code. The Human Rights Code guarantees that services and facilities, like the TTC, must be provided equally to people notwithstanding their disability. I have a disability and part of the guarantee of human rights under the Human Rights Code is they have a duty to accommodate the needs of people with disabilities up to the point of undue hardship. I think that a reasonable accommodation in the interim would be, while they spend their two to three years trying to put in one of these multi million dollar systems, and by the way I’m not asking for them to put in a multi million dollar system, I myself am contented with the good old PA system that is there now, but in the meantime there’s no undue hardship, there’s no hardship at all in just picking up that microphone, you don’t need any additional staff or whatever, just get on with it.
I: And I just want to bring something up before I let both of you go, sorry David. Mr. Brolley, did you not say though that you’re in the process of upgrading the PA system now before you get to this, what’s been called a “whiz-bang” system? If you’re going to do that why can’t you just then have the operators, in the meantime, make their announcements on the new improved PA system?
GB: We could certainly test that thesis. We did test the announcements a number of years ago in the subway in conjunction with the CNIB and after about a month we had to pull it off because of the number of complaints we were receiving regarding the announcements and the problems with the system. So this is not an untried suggestion, we did try it several years ago.
DL: They tried it in the 70’s, and then when they pulled it off because of customer complaints, and I might add nobody explained to the customers why the announcements were being made. I think the good people of Toronto if they knew, even if the system’s imperfect, that the announcements were being made to accommodate the needs of blind people and visually impaired people, I’m sure that the good people of Toronto would be quite willing to accept those announcements. It was a matter of TTC not adequately explaining it, but back then in the 70’s, its my recollection that they then said when they pulled them off that they were going to look into alternatives. It’s been over 10 or 15 years, and I think it’s frankly long enough; we don’t need to wait for all this new equipment.
I: On that note I’m going to have to wrap it up. I want to thank you both, and I know we’ll hear more about it as Mr. Lepofsky goes to the Human Rights Commission. Thanks again.
DL: Thank you.
GB: Thank you.
I: David Lepofsky is a Toronto lawyer. He is also blind. Gerry Brolley is the General Manager of Service Delivery for the TTC.
Interview #2 (December 9, 1994)
I – Interviewer
DL – David Lepofsky
GB – Gerry Brolley
I: Back in September, we brought you one man’s fight with the TTC. David Lepofsky is a Toronto lawyer who’s blind. He wanted the TTC to ask its conductors to announce subway stops over the PA system to help people like him get around, but the TTC said no. Well, guess what’s happened now, the TTC has changed it’s mind. We have David Lepofsky on the line. Also joining us this morning is the TTC’s head of service delivery, Gerry Brolley. Good Morning to you both. Now they are with us I think. Mr. Brolley can you hear me?
GB: Yes I can.
I: When we spoke a few months ago you said the TTC wouldn’t announce subway stops, now I understand that’s going to start in the new year. Why the change?
GB: A number of things I guess. In two words, David Lepofsky is the catalyst in the initiative. We had a plan that was agreeable to the CNIB and other agencies and we’re proceeding on that basically to provide safety features in the subway as a first priority, the yellow edge markings and so forth in the stations. As David brought to our attention the need for the stop announcements, we had a number of concerns from past experience about that, we met with David and went over our concerns and his requirements, and between resolving a number of those and also the fact that we have completed the installation of a new subway car speaker system which overcame a lot of the previous, we believe will overcome a lot of the difficulties we had. We have agreed to do that.
I: So what exactly will we hear in the new year?
GB: The crew on the train will be announcing as they leave the previous station the name of the next station, so as an example you would hear “Jane, next station” a pause and then “Jane”.
I: David Lepofsky, what difference will this make to you now?
DL: I think that for myself and for other blind and visually impaired subway users, this will make the use of the subway much easier, and in fact will assist in putting us in the same footing as sighted subway patrons so that we will be able to use the subway, to ride it, to know what stop we’re coming up to, without having to memorize and hold in our head all the names of the subway stations and hope that you don’t lose count.
I: You must be quite gratified this morning. Mr. Brolley was crediting you with this change.
DL: Personally I’m pleased. I’m pleased that the TTC gave the matter a second thought after we sat down and had a discussion and I think as well, credit goes to, frankly, Matt to you and the CBC for having given this issue some attention back in June because as a result of the interview I did on your show, there was a tremendous amount of public response. I know to me, and I know to your program, and I suspect to the TTC in that it frankly helped assist the TTC in reflecting on the issue again, and to their credit changing their mind and agreeing to direct their drivers to go ahead with this.
I: Mr. Brolley when we did talk on the program last September, you were saying then that you planned a new high-tech audio system, but it wouldn’t be in place until late 96 or 97. Is that still in the works?
GB: Yes, that is still in the works, we hope to have the first part of the system up by the middle of next year, 1995, and have it fully installed by the fall of 96.
I: What triggered the change, beyond what we did hear on the program, and David’s crusade, because that was in place when we spoke in September, was there a single event, a single phone call, what exactly made you say, okay, enough is enough, we’ve got to change our plan.
GB: As I said back in September, we had a number of concerns both with the ability to make the announcements consistently, because our system is not designed specifically for that purpose, and any communication with the control centre can interfere with the ability to do that. When we sat down with David Lepofsky, he indicated that he could live, and the visually impaired community could live with stations not being called because of circumstances and that we were under the feeling that we had to be fairly consistent in the announcement of those stops. We also talked, went out at that time and sort of polled our operators to see what their reaction. Most of their concerns to undertaking that was the speaker system. As I said previously we have now completed a reinstallation of new subway car speakers and so that should take care of that concern.
DL: Matt just to elaborate, when we sat down after we did the interview on your program I made it clear that everybody understands that if the driver gets busy and they can’t call a particular station we’ll survive, we can’t expect perfection but we appreciate the TTC making its best efforts. I think another concern that had been raised previously was that how would the ridership react. When the TTC tried this about 20 years ago, they got a certain number of complaints from some, and I suspect a minority of the members of the public who said, why do we have to listen to these announcements? As a result of the interview that I did on your program, I was absolutely struck by the number of people who said they have absolutely no objection to these announcements being made on the subway, in fact they kind of wondered why they weren’t being done already, and I’d like to just like to take this opportunity to say directly to the pubic, this will be a change for you, this will be a new thing, when you’re riding on the subway, or when you’re reading your paper, whatever, but its important that the public understand the reason these are being announced is to assist blind and visually impaired subway riders, to assist sighted subway riders who don’t read English and therefore can’t read the posted signs, and frankly to assist everybody on the train during rush hour who can’t see out to window to see what the names of the stops are posted on the wall, and we welcome the good people of Toronto’s indulgence with this change, but its being done for an important reason, and a reason I think the public will accept.
I: Well David, I suspect most of the people, if not all the people listening this morning were happy to hear this announcement, so thanks to you and thanks to Mr. Brolley for joining us this morning.
DL Thank you.
GB: Thank you.
I: David Lepofsky is a Toronto lawyer who is blind. Gerry Brolley is the TTC’s general manager of service delivery.