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.
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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.
“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.”