Torrent of Media on Ontario Government’s Failure to Meet the 2025 Deadline for Ontario to Become Accessible

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

 

Torrent of Media on Ontario Government’s Failure to Meet the 2025 Deadline for Ontario to Become Accessible

January 8, 2025

 

SUMMARY

 

What an incredible week we’ve had since New Year’s Day!

 

1. At any Time, Watch the Video of the AODA Alliance’s January 6, 2025, Queen’s Park News Conference

 

You can now watch the AODA Alliance’s highly successful January 6, 2025, Queen’s Park news conference on YouTube. At that news conference, we unveiled the new Accessible Ontario Pledge that we are asking all Ontario political parties to make. This addresses the fact that Ontario was not fully accessible to 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities on January 1, 2025. That’s the deadline that the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act set 20 years ago.

 

Our news conference shall stand as a very important event on the road to a barrier-free Ontario for people with disabilities. It launches our key agenda going forward in our non-partisan grassroots advocacy campaign.

 

2. Amazing Flood of Media Coverage

 

There has been at least as much if not more media coverage than we have ever before secured in the three decades of our grassroots accessibility campaign. Here’s the coverage that we’ve tracked!

 

 

 

  • On Friday, January 3, 2025, CBC TV included a report on Ontario’s having missed the 2025 deadline under the AODA. A similar story was broadcast on CBC Radio’s December 30, 2025, morning “World Report” national newscast.

 

  • On January 6, 2025, CBC Radio included an excellent report in advance of our upcoming news conference in its early morning hourly national World Report broadcast.

 

  • On the evening of January 6, 2025, every English language TV network included great reports on the AODA Alliance’s Queen’s Park news conference earlier that day. This included the nightly newscasts on CBC TV news, City News, Global News, and CTV news.

 

  • Early on the morning of January 7, 2025, seven of CBC Radio’s local morning programs each separately interviewed AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, including Toronto’s Metro Morning program, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Sudbury, Windsor, Thunder Bay, and the smaller town Ontario Morning program. Only some of these are archived online.

 

  • On January 7, 2025, CP24 Breakfast interviewed AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky.

 

  • Below you can find the text of the January 3, 2025, City News report, a letter to the editor on January 5, 2025, in Cambridge Today, the January 6, 2025, CBC news report, and the January 7, 2025, CBC news report, all online.

 

It is especially amazing that we got so much coverage, given the other major breaking news story that grabbed much of the media attention that day. In an unrelated development, just three minutes after our January 6, 2025, Queen’s Park news conference wrapped up, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation in Ottawa. No matter how careful you are to time a news conference, there is always the risk of other major news stories erupting at the same time.

 

We encourage you to subscribe to the AODA Alliance’s YouTube channel. It includes a good number of news reports over the years on our accessibility efforts. You will get notified each time a new video is posted to our channel.

 

3. How You Can Help

 

 

 

There have now been 7 days since January 1, 2025, the legislated deadline for Ontario to become fully accessible to 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities. We need all political parties to make the Accessible Ontario Pledge, to get Ontario to that goal as soon as possible after that missed deadline.

 

MORE DETAILS

 

City News January 3, 2025

 

Originally posted at https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2025/01/02/advocates-say-province-failed-promise-to-make-ontario-fully-accessible-by-2025/

 

Advocates say province failed on promise to make Ontario fully accessible by 2025

 

Disability advocates say the government failed to meet its goal of a fully accessible province by 2025. Our Michelle Mackey is tracking what comes next

for the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

 

By Michelle Mackey

 

By January 1, 2025, Ontario was supposed to be fully accessible.

 

It was a target set 20 years ago by the province, but disability advocates say the new year has only brought a broken legislative promise.

 

Lawyer David Lepofsky, who is blind, spearheaded the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA, a law unanimously passed in the Ontario legislature in 2005.

 

“We woke up to a province that’s still full of soul-crushing barriers,” said Lepofsky, who is the AODA Alliance Chair. 3rd party ad content

 

The legislation required the government to lead Ontario to become fully accessible for people with all kinds of disabilities within 20 years.

 

“They had to enact a series of regulations called accessibility standards that told people what they got to do and when they got to do it by. And they had to effectively enforce those standards,” explained Lepofsky. “Now the government did some of that and we made some progress, but nowhere near enough.”

 

The standards were introduced for transportation, public spaces and education for which the province says it’s invested $1.4 billion a year for school boards to support students with disabilities since 2020.

 

But for advocate Bianca Dahl, speaking at a public hearing in November, it’s still not enough to tackle the daily challenges faced by people with disabilities.

 

“The helpful wheelchair ramps from Stop Gap … I live down in the Queen Street West area, they are a huge support, they allow people that are wheelchair bound or in scooters to get in and out of stores, but the problem with the Stop Gap ramps is that they actually reduce the amount of usable sidewalk space,” said Dahl.

 

There are also to be fines for persons or organizations convicted of an offence under the AODA, including up to $100,000 for a corporation for each and every day or part day that an offence happens.

 

“Their enforcement has been paltry and pathetic,” added Lepofsky.

 

But the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility tells CityNews Ontario is meeting, achieving, or exceeding the AODA standards.

 

“This includes historic spending in infrastructure, school upgrades, new and retrofitted hospitals, and long-term care facilities, as well as public transit investments in GO Transit, GO trains, GO buses and GO stations, plus over 2200 new accessible buses being delivered provincewide,” read the ministry’s statement.

 

The AODA Alliance says Ontario needs a new approach that would make the law live up to it’s true potential, they’ll be unveiling the next step in their campaign in the coming days.

 

CBC News January 6, 2025

 

Originally posted at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-aodoa-deadline-1.7412706

 

Ontario was supposed to be accessible by 2025. Some advocates say it’s not even close

Province maintains it has met accessibility goals laid out 20 years ago

 

Lane Harrison CBC News

 

A button people who use wheelchairs can push to open doors.

The Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act (AODA) was created to help people with disabilities fully participate in society. (Michael Wilson/CBC)

When Ontario crossed into 2025, it was supposed to do so as an accessible province. Instead, advocates say it’s missed its own deadline.

 

In 2005, a unanimous vote carried in Queen’s Park to make the province accessible to people with disabilities within two decades.

 

The Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act (AODA) was created to help people with disabilities fully participate in society, bring them to the table in crafting regulations and build mechanisms to enforce standards. Advocates and experts hailed the legislation as groundbreaking and progressive.

 

But as Beau Hayward moves through Toronto in his wheelchair today, he still finds room for improvement.

 

“One of the biggest impacts is transportation,” he said, pointing to sometimes spotty elevator service in TTC stations as an example. “During the winter time, if you have to bypass your location by several stations, pushing through the snow in a wheelchair for myself is quite difficult.”

 

Oda Al-Anizi outfitted his wheelchair with a special attachment that transformed it into a bike, allowing him to navigate the city as a cyclist. As he told CBC’s Talia Ricci, it’s been a gamechanger.

Hayward, a quadriplegic with some arm and shoulder function, said the biggest improvement to his mobility has come through a motorized wheel attachment for his wheelchair. Before, he was using a cumbersome fully motorized chair and ran into more barriers that others still face.

 

“Like, if a restaurant has a six-inch step to get in for a power chair user,” he said. “That’s pretty much like locking the door.”

 

The fact that Ontario is not accessible to all in 2025 doesn’t come as a surprise to those who’ve spent years calling on the government to make it happen. One of them was back at Queen’s Park this fall, nearly 20 years after he and others fought for the AODA, still calling for change.

 

Advocates sounding alarm for decades

David Lepofsky, chair of the AODA alliance, said in November that for more than a decade, minister after minister and government after government was warned the deadline would not be met. He said the province is “not even close” to its goal.

 

“At the rate we are going, not only won’t we reach a fully accessible province that we were promised by 2025, we never will,” said Lepofsky, who is blind.

 

The minister responsible for the file, Raymond Cho, said he understands what those with disabilities are experiencing.

 

Asked if Ontario will be barrier-free in 2025 as promised, Cho, who turned 88 in November, said he is a stroke survivor with hearing challenges. He touted the province’s investments to help open job opportunities for those with disabilities.

 

“Project by project, community by community, Ontario is meeting, achieving, exceeding the AODA,” he said at a media availability in November.

 

The TTC said 57 of its 70 stations are accessible and work is underway on the rest of them. A spokesperson said adding elevators to built-up downtown areas is challenging, and funding for the initiatives has only been in place in recent years.

 

Enforcement lacking, says legislation review

The AODA was supposed to create enforceable accessibility standards for goods, services, accommodation, employment and buildings before 2025, applying to everyone in the public and private sector.

 

Implementation of the act has been reviewed four times over the years, most recently by Rich Donovan. His 2023 report found the legislation wasn’t being enforced and the state of accessibility in the province was in “crisis.”

 

“The reality is you can create all the standards you want in the world. If companies don’t adopt them and use them, they’re totally ineffective,” he said in a recent interview with CBC Toronto.

 

A statement from the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility said the government uses a collaborative “modern regulatory process” to ensure accessibility standards are met.

 

Donovan said one of the problems with the AODA is it was sold as a simple task.

 

Honour late lieutenant-governor David Onley by making Ontario accessible, advocates, friends say

Ontario accessibility in ‘crisis,’ says report quietly released by Ford government

“This is far more complex than people think it is,” he said.

 

“It requires intent activation on the part of the regulators, on the part of those who are regulated and frankly the people with disabilities as well.”

 

He said the idea of a deadline was silly, because it suggests people will wake up one day and everything will be accessible.

 

“These are things that require constant improvement,” he said. “And right now we don’t have that.”

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Lane Harrison

Reporter

 

Lane Harrison is a journalist with CBC Toronto. Born and raised in Toronto, he previously worked for CBC New Brunswick in Saint John. You can reach him at lane.harrison@cbc.ca

 

Follow Lane on Twitter

With files from Vanessa Balintec

 

Cambridge Today January 5, 2025

 

Originally posted at https://www.cambridgetoday.ca/letters-to-the-editor/letter-province-breaks-accessibility-promise-yet-again-10031835

 

LETTER: Province breaks accessibility promise yet again

‘Every government promised change, but instead of delivering ramps, they delivered excuses,’ writes reader Devin Sisak.

Letter to the Editor

 

CambridgeToday received the following letter about the provincial government’s promise to make Ontario fully accessible by Jan. 1, 2025. It has still not kept that promise.

 

This New Year’s Eve, my son Holden took in the tradition of eating 12 grapes under a table in hopes of prosperity in 2025. So as the clock struck midnight, under a folding table propped up on boards spread across chairs so Holden in his wheelchair could fit, he ate his magic grapes one by one before tucking in for the night.

 

The next morning, while most Ontarians were waking up on New Year’s Day groggy from late-night celebrations, Holden, like many others with disabilities, woke up to something far worse: the crushing realization that his grapes were not magic and Ontario is still not fully accessible. Twenty years ago, the government vowed that by Jan. 1, 2025, our province would be a utopia of ramps, elevators, and braille signs. Instead, we’ve got a broken escalator, a “closed for maintenance” sign, and a shrug from Queen’s Park.

 

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) was supposed to be the ultimate New Year’s resolution—ambitious, life-changing, and something we’d actually stick to. But like that gym membership everyone buys in January, it’s clear the government lost interest around February… of 2005.

 

Holden, who uses a wheelchair, wasn’t expecting a parade this New Year’s Day, but he also wasn’t expecting the same old obstacles.

 

Over the past two decades, we’ve had more premiers than we’ve had meaningful improvements in accessibility. Every government promised change, but instead of delivering ramps, they delivered excuses. “We’re making progress!” they said, while the goalposts quietly rolled into the next decade. If procrastination were an Olympic sport, Ontario would take gold.

 

But here’s the kicker: people like Holden aren’t asking for the moon. They’re asking for an Ontario where getting to work, visiting friends, or going to the doctor doesn’t feel like competing on The Amazing Race: Accessibility Edition. Is that really so hard?

 

The deadline has come and gone, but the barriers remain. Maybe it’s time for a new resolution: less talk, more action. And while we’re at it, let’s aim for an Ontario where accessibility isn’t treated like a nice-to-have but as the basic right it always should’ve been.

 

Devin Sisak

Cambridge

 

CBC News January 7, 2025

 

Originally posted at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/aoda-deadline-1.7424204

 

Ontario set a goal 20 years ago to be accessible by 2025. Hamilton group says standards are now outdated

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act committed to enforce standards by Jan. 1, 2025

 

Justin Chandler

man pushes person using a wheelchair onto a city bus

The AODA sets out standards in five areas, including transportation. (Samantha Beattie/CBC)

 

Jan. 1, 2025, was a day “disabled folks across the province have been waiting for for 20 years,” says Brad Evoy, executive director of the Hamilton-based Disability Justice Network of Ontario.

 

That’s the deadline the Ontario government set to fully implement the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), which passed in 2005 with a commitment to develop, implement and enforce accessibility standards in the public and private sectors.

 

But, days after the day passed, Evoy told CBC Hamilton, there remains a “huge chasm” between reality and where Ontarians with disabilities want to be.

 

He believes living conditions for them are worsening, in part because social assistance isn’t keeping up with the high cost of housing.

 

“If used as intended, the act could be materially improving people’s conditions,” said Evoy, who is a disabled person himself. “I think the customer service standards alone would really push some big changes for folks engaging in the commercial and civic aspects of life.”

 

 

The AODA aims to reduce and remove barriers to accessibility, the province says on its website.

 

For example, the site reads, a clothing store with a no-return policy that lacks an accessible changing room creates a barrier by excluding some customers from trying on clothes before purchasing them. The law requires organizations to identify barriers like that and remove them. For example, the store could provide an exemption to its return policy.

 

The act also asserts someone with disabilities can have a support person with them at all times and can give feedback through accessible means.

 

Unfortunately, Evoy said, the AODA “notoriously has really weak and absent enforcement provisions,” and its standards are outdated.

 

In 2023, the reviewer appointed to assess the province’s implementation of the act found it was a “near certainty” Ontario would not be fully accessible by 2025, adding enforcement did “not exist.”

 

People with disabilities have little to no recourse under the act if an organization fails to meet its standards and are more likely to find remedy through human rights legislation, Evoy said.

 

The 2023 review found Ontario had a staff of 20 to 25 to monitor the compliance of over 400,000 organizations, leading to few onsite audits.

 

The Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility recently told CBC Toronto it uses a collaborative “modern regulatory process” to ensure standards are met.

 

“I think what we’re seeing is a consistent position … that [governments] want to do the bare minimum,” Evoy said.

 

Has Ontario’s accessibility law delivered?

Introduced in 2005, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act promised that organizations would have to follow accessibility standards by 2025. Holly Ellingwood, vice-chair of the city of Ottawa’s Accessibility Advisory Committee shares his thoughts on the progress made, and what still needs to happen.

Even when organizations are in compliance, he added, the standards they’re meeting are sometimes outdated. For example, he said, accessibility standards for transit pre-date the Presto fare system.

 

Going forward, Evoy said, he’d like the government to reopen the AODA to improve enforcement and create new standards, including some for housing, which is currently not included in the act.

 

Ontario cities need help — and cash — to meet 2025 accessibility deadline, advocates say

Ontario’s accessibility legislation is failing. Advocates say lack of enforcement, complaints process to blame

Ontario says it’s working to meet people’s needs

CBC Hamilton asked the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility to respond to these criticisms and whether it considers the Jan. 1 deadline has been met.

 

Wallace Pidgeon, a spokesperson for the minister of seniors and accessibility, Raymond Cho, did not directly address the questions. In a statement, Pidgeon said accessibility standards for information and communications, employment, transportation, the design of public spaces and customer service are in place as required under the AODA.

 

“We use a whole of government approach that ensures these standards are met through a modern regulatory process that works collaboratively with organizations and businesses.”

 

Pidgeon said the province has also worked to meet the needs of people with disabilities through changes to the Ontario Building Code and investments in public transit that include “over 2,200 new accessible buses.”

 

An accessible Ontario by 2025? Here’s where the province stands on its goal

Ontario accessibility in ‘crisis,’ says report quietly released by Ford government

28% of Ontarians over 14 have at least 1 disability: StatsCan

Over a quarter of Ontarians over 15 have at least one disability, according to Statistics Canada. In 2022, the agency said, 28 per cent reported a disability, 3.9 percentage points higher than in 2017.

 

Brad Evoy, executive director of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, says the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act could be ‘materially improving people’s conditions.’ But Evoy argues it has ‘weak and absent enforcement provisions.’ (Submitted by Brad Evoy)

Anecdotally, Hamilton has a high proportion of people with disabilities, Evoy said, and they’re “at the centre of an all-out assault.”

 

An end to free transit for people with disabilities, policies reducing the availability of safe injection sites and those preventing encampments are making life more difficult for some of the most marginalized people with disabilities, he said.

 

“Ultimately, while it’s important to look at the AODA and to look at the supports one could theoretically receive from it, it’s also really important to look at broader legislation around the Human Rights Code,” Evoy said.

 

He said people with disabilities and their allies also need to be prepared to organize to get what they need “from every level of government and from broader society.”

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Justin Chandler

Reporter

 

Justin Chandler is a CBC News reporter in Hamilton. He has a special interest in how public policy affects people, and he loves a quirky human-interest story. Justin covered current affairs in Hamilton and Niagara for TVO, and has worked on a variety of CBC teams and programs, including As It Happens, Day 6 and CBC Music. He co-hosted Radio Free Krypton on Met Radio. You can email story ideas to justin.chandler(at)cbc(dot)ca.

 

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