Provincial action on accessibility draws mixed reviews

Advocates for Ontarians with disabilities are praising the government’s plan to crack down on businesses that flout provincial accessibility laws.

Thestar.com
June 3, 2015
By Laurie Monsebraaten

Advocates for Ontarians with disabilities are praising the government’s plan to crack down on businesses that flout provincial accessibility laws.

And they welcome new pilot projects to encourage businesses to hire people with disabilities, announced in a 10-year action plan Wednesday by Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid.

But they say the new enforcement measures - aimed at doubling the number of compliance audits to 4,000 annually within the next couple of years - must ramp up quickly to send the message that the government means business.

“There is no question there are some good things in this announcement,” said lawyer David Lepofsky of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance. “But so often we see big headlines and nothing happens.”

The accessibility act, passed unanimously in 2005, aims to ensure the province’s 1.8 million people with disabilities can live, work and play to their full potential by 2025.

Under the legislation, all businesses with 20 employees or more were supposed to have filed customer service plans with the government by the end of 2012. But only 40 per cent have submitted the necessary reports on how they accommodate customers with disabilities, train staff and receive customer feedback.

Although the action plan says the government is developing accessibility guidelines for healthcare, Lepofsky says those efforts are moving too slowly. And he is concerned the plan is silent on the need for an accessibility standard for education to address barriers facing thousands of Ontario students with special needs.

“You can’t get a job, if you can’t get an education,” he said.

The action plan also doesn’t address the need for accessibility retrofits in existing buildings, another recommendation of a recent legislative review, he said. (Under the building code, all new construction and renovations in the public and private-sector must meet accessibility standards.)

“This announcement offers no plan for ensuring that all Ontario legislation and regulations are free of accessibility barriers,” Lepofsky said. “This plan will not ensure that Ontario reaches full accessibility by 2025, contrary to the government’s claims.”

In an interview Tuesday, Duguid acknowledged his government needs to “re-invigorate” its accessibility efforts. This week’s plan is just “one of many new initiatives” the government will be rolling out over the next few years, he added.