Fourteen years ago Ontarians with disabilities might have been hopeful that the barriers that prevent them from fully participating in daily activities, from getting to work to eating in a restaurant, would be dismantled.
After all, the government of the day was ahead of its time when it passed the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act with the goal of making the province fully accessible by 2025.
But last week their disappointments were given heartfelt voice in a scathing review that concludes the province is nowhere near accomplishing its goal.
Indeed, Ontario’s former lieutenant governor David Onley found that for “most disabled persons, Ontario is not a place of opportunity but one of countless, dispiriting, soul-crushing barriers.”
This is clearly unacceptable. The Ford government must quickly implement Onley’s 15 sensible recommendations, starting with his request that Premier Doug Ford make accessibility a government-wide priority.
As it stands, 1.9 million Ontarians with disabilities are receiving the message that “you don’t belong here,” says Onley, who himself uses a wheelchair.
That should be viewed as a violation of both human and civil rights.
In fact, it’s no different, Onley says, than “the signs of a bygone era in foreign countries telling people which water fountains they could or could not use and which restaurants and buses they could or could not use.”
The bottom line, he says, is that investing in accessibility is both the right thing to do and also provides social and economic benefits for everyone, including the province’s increasing numbers of seniors.
Among Onley’s common-sense recommendations:
- Offer tax breaks and other financial incentives to improve accessibility in public and private buildings alike.
- Ensure that architects are trained in inclusive design.
- Redesign Ontario’s education curriculum to educate students about accessibility issues, starting in kindergarten.
- Reform the way infrastructure projects are managed to ensure public money is never spent on actually creating barriers to accessibility.
- Review accessibility standards in building code amendments for new construction projects and major renovations, as well as in provincial guidelines for how public space is designed.
Onley’s review is not the first to point out the glacial pace of progress on accessibility reform in this province. It is the third. It’s time the government listened and acted.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2019/03/12/ford-government-must-fulfill-ontarios-promise-to-people-with-disabilities.html
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