Ontario accessibility act needs updates and improved enforcement, says provincial advocacy group

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, there remains a "huge chasm" between reality and where Ontarians with disabilities want to be, Evoy told CBC Hamilton.

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Evoy said, the AODA "notoriously has really weak and absent enforcement provisions," and its standards are outdated.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

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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.

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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 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." 

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. 

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."