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’s 25 Metroland Online Publications Publish 30-Year Timeline of Ontario’s Grassroots Campaign for an Accessible Province for People with Disabilities
December 7, 2024
SUMMARY
On Monday, December 2, 2024, the eve of the International Day for People with Disabilities, the Toronto Star’s 25 Metroland online publications published a detailed 30-year timeline of the non-partisan grassroots campaign for an accessible province for 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities. This is the latest media following on the AODA Alliance’s successful 30th anniversary events at Queen’s Park on November 25, 2024. You can read a wonderful collection of earlier media coverage of it in the November 30, 2024 AODA Alliance Update.
We applaud Metroland for bringing this to their readership across Ontario. The Metroland timeline is set out below. It documents our non-stop tenacity, despite instance after instance of delay by the Ontario Government.
How You Can Help
- Post this published 30-year timeline on the web and on social media. Do what you can to get others to read it.
- Encourage as many as possible to sign up for AODA Alliance Updates by going to the AODA Alliance website’ and clicking on the sign-up link.
There are now only 25 days left until 2024, the deadline set by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act for the Ontario Government to lead this province to become accessible to people with disabilities. It’s too late for us to reach that deadline, but it’s not too late for the Ford Government to announce a bold new plan of action to get Ontario to that goal as soon as possible after that legislated deadline passes.
MORE DETAILS
Toronto.com December 2, 2024
Originally posted at https://www.toronto.com/news/aoda-timeline-highlights-key-moments-in-ontarios-quest-to-build-a-barrier-free-province/article_c45da859-bc40-5685-b4a2-c45d655a2a49.html
The battle for the AODA has stretched over 30 years | News | toronto.com
AODA timeline highlights key moments in Ontario’s quest to build a barrier-free province
Accessibility advocates have said they won’t give up despite deadline of Jan. 1, 2025 advancing quickly and goal of barrier-free Ontario far away
BY TIM KELLY
A remarkable 20-year struggle for disabled rights
David Lepofsky, a lawyer and fierce disability rights advocate, has been at the centre in the battle for accessibility in Ontario for more than 30 years.
The Toronto retired lawyer, who is blind, is never afraid to speak truth to power.
By Andrew Francis Wallace Toronto Star file photo
A barrier-free Ontario was the purpose of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), unanimously passed by MPPs in 2005. With the province’s 20-year deadline for the implementation of accessibility standards looming on Jan. 1, 2025, Restricted Access: Will Ontario meet its barrier-free goals?
explores this quality-of-life issue for the millions of people living with disabilities — a demographic that’s expected to skyrocket as the population ages.
As Ontario inches toward its Jan. 1, 2025 deadline for the implementation of accessibility standards under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), the following timeline, compiled by the advocacy group ADOA Alliance and edited for length, highlights moments on the province’s 20-year journey.
Key dates include the passage of the act itself in May 2005, and important independent reports provided to the provincial government in 2010, 2015, 2019 and 2023 that uniformly indicated progress on accessibility in Ontario was not satisfactory.
By 2019 and 2023, the reports described the situation on accessibility in Ontario as “soul-crushing,” “glacial” and finally “a crisis.”
1982
Ontario Legislature amends the Ontario Human Rights Code to make it illegal to discriminate because of physical or mental disability.
Charter of Rights enacted, including right to equality for people with mental or physical disabilities.
Read the history of the fight for the disability amendment to the Charter in David Lepofsky’s
“Swimming Up Niagara Falls! The Battle to Get Disability Rights Added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Spring 1994
NDP backbench MPP Gary Malkowski introduces a private member’s bill at Ontario legislature, the proposed Ontarians with Disabilities Act. It’s the first such bill in Ontario.
Nov. 29, 1994
Public hearings on Malkowski’s bill begin in the Ontario legislature. Ontarians with Disabilities Act (ODA) Committee is spontaneously formed in a meeting room at the Ontario legislature.
Nov. 23, 1999
Ontario legislature unanimously passes a resolution, proposed by the ODA Committee and introduced by Liberal MPP Steve Peters, calling on the government to enact the Disabilities Act within two years.
Dec. 13, 2001
Ontario Conservatives pass the Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2001. Liberals and NDP vote against it, citing it is too weak, doesn’t cover the private sector, and lacks enforcement.
Spring 2003
Party leaders Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) and Howard Hampton (NDP) each make an election campaign promise that, if elected, they would enact a Disabilities Act that fulfilled the ODA Committee’s 11 principles. These promises are in letters to the ODA Committee.
Oct. 12, 2004
Liberal Citizenship Minister Dr. Marie Bountrogianni introduces Bill 118 into the legislature, the Liberals’ proposed Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton McGuinty, who was premier in 2005 when the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act was passed unanimously in the legislature, was in office during the early heady days of the AODA.
By Blair Gable photo
May 10, 2005
Ontario legislature unanimously passes Bill 118. MPPs unanimously give standing ovation to this historic event after the vote.
August 2005
The ODA Committee winds down, having secured enactment of the AODA. It is replaced by its successor coalition, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, with a mission to get the AODA effectively implemented and enforced.
Summer 2007
The province enacts the Customer Service Accessibility Standard, the first accessibility standard established under the AODA.
May 2010
Bill 231 is enacted to modernize Ontario elections. It includes some of the amendments the AODA Alliance sought to remove voting barriers facing voters with disabilities.
May 31, 2010
Ontario government makes public the final report of the first independent review of the AODA’s implementation, which the government appointed Charles Beer to conduct. Report called for the government to show new leadership on the AODA and to revitalize and breathe new life into its implementation. Most of its recommendations are not implemented.
June 3, 2011
Ontario government enacts the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation, an accessibility standard under the AODA to address barriers in employment, transportation, and information and communication.
June 24, 2011
The province releases Building Together, a long-term infrastructure plan that includes commitments on the accessibility of new infrastructure. Despite this, new infrastructure is built with disability barriers.
October 2011
Premier McGuinty’s Liberals win a third term — a minority government.
Nov. 18, 2013
The AODA Alliance reveals the province knew for months that 70 per cent of private sector organizations with at least 20 employees violated the AODA without any real government enforcement. This was despite the government having ample enforcement powers and an unused budget on hand for enforcement.
Kathleen Wynne
Kathleen Wynne, who was premier of Ontario from 2013-18, had a mixed record on the AODA during her five-year term.
By Bryon Johnson Metroland file photo
December 2013
Government passes limited accessibility amendments to the Ontario Building Code for new buildings and major renovations, but the promised Built Environment Accessibility Standard is not enacted under the AODA to address many physical barriers in the built environment.
June 12, 2014
The Liberals secure a fourth term in office, now as a majority government with Kathleen Wynne serving as the province’s premier.
Feb. 3, 2015
Ontario makes public the final report of the second mandatory independent review of the AODA. The report calls for new, strong leadership on accessibility by Ontario’s premier and for the AODA’s implementation to be revitalized. Most of the report’s recommendations are not implemented.
The province commits to developing a Health Care Accessibility Standard under the AODA to tear down barriers impeding patients with disabilities in the health care system. This standard has yet to be established.
Fall 2017/Early 2018
The Health Care Standards Development Committee is appointed to make recommendations on what the promised Health Care Accessibility Standard should include. This appointment comes two years after the province committed to develop a Health Care Accessibility Standard.
Spring 2018
Ontario makes public the final recommendations of the Transportation Standards Development Committee, which recommended measures to strengthen the 2011 Transportation Accessibility Standard. No reforms have been enacted in response to that report.
Doug Ford
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has been in office since 2018, has shown little interest in accessibility issues during his time in government, according to keen accessibility advocates.
By Andrew Francis Wallace Toronto Star file photo
June 2018
Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives win a majority government. Raymond Cho is appointed minister of seniors and accessibility.
Jan. 31, 2019
The province receives the final report of the third independent review of the AODA, which former lieutenant-governor David Onley was appointed to conduct. This blistering report reveals Ontario is full of “soul-crushing barriers” facing people with disabilities and progress has been “glacial” and “barely detectable.” The report indicates the province is not on schedule to becoming accessible by 2025, and that the premier must show strong, new leadership on this issue.
Accessibility Minister Raymond Cho tells the legislature that Onley did a “marvellous job.”
Most of the report’s recommendations are not implemented.
March 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic breaks out. The provincial government mounts emergency initiatives for the public, especially in the education and health-care systems.
People with disabilities are disproportionately vulnerable to and die from COVID-19. The government’s responses fail to address the urgent needs of people with disabilities in the pandemic.
Ontario hospitals are sent a critical care triage protocol in the event that intensive care wards cannot serve all patients. The disability community reveals the critical care triage protocol is infected with disability discrimination, which is never removed from that protocol.
July 2020
The K-12 Education Standards Development Committee submits a detailed report and recommendations to the government on measures needed to remove disability barriers from the school system’s responses to the pandemic. None of its recommendations are implemented.
January — February, 2022
Ontario receives final reports and recommendations by the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee, the Postsecondary Education Standards Development Committee, and the Health Care Standards Development Committee. None of their recommendations are enacted. No Education Accessibility Standard or Health Care Accessibility Standard has been enacted.
David Onley
Former lieutenant-governor David Onley, who died in January 2023, was a longtime disability rights advocate who wrote a scathing report in 2019 on the ineffective the job the provincial government was doing in enforcing the AODA and applying its standards.
By Steve Russell Toronto Star file photo
June 2022
The Ford government is re-elected with a majority government. All opposition parties make written election commitments to the AODA Alliance, while the Progressive Conservatives don’t answer the advocacy group’s request.
March 2023
The Ontario government opens the new Toronto courthouse on Armoury Street. An AODA Alliance video, released in August 2024, describes the new establishment as a billion-dollar accessibility bungle, replete with many preventable disability barriers.
June 6, 2023
Rich Donovan submits the final report of the fourth independent review of the AODA to the government. Even more scathing than the 2019 Onley report, this report declares Ontario is in an “accessibility crisis.” It recommends that Premier Ford establish and chair a crisis committee. The government has not implemented any of this report’s recommendations.
Jan. 1, 2025
The date in the 2005 AODA legislation by when it was envisioned the AODA would have established standards to provide full accessibility in private and public spaces for all Ontarians creating a barrier-free province.
There is virtually unanimous agreement within the disability community that this goal is far from being met.
Tim Kelly is a reporter with durhamregion.com.
He can be reached at tkelly@durhamregion.com.