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
Toronto Star is the Latest Media Outlet to Press TTC on Whether It Will Force WheelTrans Passengers to be Subjected to the Unfair “Family of Services,” which Requires Part of Paratransit Ride on the Conventional Transit System
December 11, 2024
SUMMARY
As the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act’s (AODA’s) 2025 deadline for Ontario to become accessible to people with disabilities gets closer and closer, the disability barriers that Ontarians with disabilities must confront are continuing to rear their unfair heads. A powerful December 6, 2024, Toronto Star report that appeared on Page A-3 of the print newspaper drilled into the question whether the Toronto Transit Commission will force any passengers with disabilities to use their dreaded “Family of Services” approach to providing accessible public transit. This would entitle TTC to direct a passenger who is qualified for WheelTrans paratransit that they must take part of their ride on the conventional bus and subway system and a WheelTrans vehicle for the other part of their journey. Below is the Toronto Star report.
In 2011, the Ontario Government enacted the Transportation Accessibility Standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. It allows a paratransit service to impose this “Family of Services” mess on people with disabilities if they wish. TTC has claimed it will never force it on an unwilling passenger. In this article, skepticism is again voiced by disability advocates, including AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky. A September 9, 2024 City TV News report focused on this same issue. It is not going away.
We have repeatedly called on the Ontario Government for well over a decade to amend the Transportation Accessibility Standard so that paratransit services will never have the power to force any passengers with disabilities to be subjected to this unfair “Family of Services” regime, which makes public transit worse for people with disabilities. We need public transit for people with disabilities to be made more, not less, accessible for Ontarians with disabilities.
In this article, TTC reportedly is going to undertake an “equity” analysis of Family of Services. The equity analysis is simple. Family of services is solely targeted at and unfairly treats transit passengers with disabilities.
How You Can Help
Tell your member of the Ontario Legislature to amend the Transportation Accessibility Standard enacted under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act to provide that no public transit authority in Ontario may force any passengers with disabilities to be subjected to Family of Services if they qualify for paratransit.
Tell TTC and all Ontario public transit authorities that Family of Services is a friendly-sounding practice that is very unfair to passengers with disabilities and should not be used.
Learn more about our effort to advocate for a barrier-free public transit system for all people with disabilities by visiting the AODA Alliance website’s transportation page.
MORE DETAILS
Toronto Star December 6, 2024
Originally posted at https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/my-life-would-stop-ttcs-wheel-trans-disability-rules-raise-riders-fears-equity-concerns/article_1c506de2-034a-11ef-9a64-c74cbf783766.html
‘My life would stop’
TTC’s Wheel-Trans reassessments raise fears for riders
Mahdis Habibinia Toronto Star AbO’Brien Toronto Star
Jane Field has relied on TTC’s Wheel-Trans door-to-door service for the past 34 years. As a quadriplegic, she says her powerchair makes navigating the conventional transit system difficult.
“When I did try to use the subway, my wheels got caught between the platform and the train,” said Field, 65. “It was only by the grace of God there were a couple of strong guys nearby who manhandled me onto the platform. I still have nightmares about that.”
But under a rule change, Field had to re-register with the transit agency so her eligibility for the door-to-door service offered by Wheel-Trans at the cost of a regular fare could be reassessed.
The reassessment is part of a move by the TTC that began in 2017, asking users of its paratransit service to re-register so they could be classified in categories of eligibility – unconditional, conditional or temporary – to conform to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) guidelines.
“Unconditional” means they could never use conventional transit, while “conditional” means they may sometimes qualify for door-to-door service, but other times a Wheel-Trans vehicle might drop them off at an accessible subway station – what the TTC calls a Family of Services trip.
Despite three doctor’s letters – from her family physician, neurologist and psychiatrist – Field’s status was changed to a customer who may be able to use conventional transit for all or part of her trip under the Family of Services program.
“There is no way I feel comfortable using the subway and the regular TTC,” said Field of her reclassification. “I would be isolated, unable to attend my community choir practices, my church. My life would stop.”
This week, the TTC board asked staff to do an equity analysis of Family of Services, after advocates and riders expressed heightened concerns about shifting more and more Wheel-Trans users onto this program since 2019, as the conventional system becomes more accessible.
Although riders classified to use Family of Services can still opt to use door-to-door service, advocates worry the TTC might make the program mandatory as a cost-saving measure, as York and Durham regions have done.
“The costs aren’t going to go down,” said TTC board member Coun. Josh Matlow. “That’s reality. You either fund it adequately or you make cuts. But (the TTC) is strapped for cash.”
With 41,481 registered customers, Wheel-Trans costs the TTC about $164 million to operate annually. According to the TTC’s five-year accessibility plan and Wheel-Trans transformation program update, the Family of Services model “addresses pressures due to a growing customer base,” saved the TTC $123 million over the past seven years.
The TTC has embarked on a program to make its system more accessible, with 57 of its 70 subway stations currently meeting AODA standards. The TTC reported last year that it would not be able to meet the province’s target of full accessibility by 2025: six more subway stations are planned to be accessible next year, with another six in 2026. There is no target date yet for Old Mill station. The agency’s buses and streetcars are accessible with ramps.
Shelagh Pizey-Allen, executive director at TTCriders, pointed to data obtained by her transit advocacy group suggesting restrictions to door-to-door service would “disproportionally impact low-income and racialized neighbourhoods” – in particular Malvern, Lawrence Heights and Rexdale.
“If the program becomes mandatory, this is where more trips are being booked and these are the people affected,” said Pizey-Allen.
“Lower income groups are more affected – but remember, people with disabilities already disproportionately live below the poverty line,” said David Lepofsky, chair of the AODA alliance, a disability consumer advocacy group. The TTC’s Family of Services “victimizes the most vulnerable, period. That’s all the equity analysis you need.”
TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said the transit agency has “no plans” to make Family of Services mandatory “unless the board directs it.”
Lepofsky said he isn’t “consoled” by this, because “we’ve already seen exactly how much we can rely on their accessibility commitments when they pledged to make (the TTC) accessible by 2025.”
Matlow said the emphasis on cost savings at this week’s meeting was cause for concern that, without adequate funding from other levels of government, “the TTC will eventually look to scale back the support it provides to disabled Torontonians and we need to get ahead of that.” The TTC board voted at Tuesday’s meeting to ask the province for more funding for Wheel-Trans.
Although the transit agency said it “strongly encourages” riders who disagree with their classification to appeal their status, Field, who successfully appealed hers, said it’s a major equity barrier because the process is a “daunting, frustrating and stressful” one.
“Many people do not understand it. They don’t know how to get support or may not qualify for legal aid,” said Field. “They may not have the strength, stamina, resources or language skills necessary to fight.”
Figure:
Jane Field waits to board a Wheel-Trans vehicle. Field, who is a quadriplegic, says a reassessment of her disability status would have forced her to use conventional transit for some or all of her travel – something she insists she can’t do safely in her powerchair. Steve Russell Toronto Star