1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,320 2005 to 2014, progress in Ontario 2 00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:07,910 towards full accessibility for people with disabilities. 3 00:00:07,910 --> 00:00:14,440 David Lepofsky, Chair, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance. 4 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:17,670 Delivered at the Osgoode Hall Law School, February 5 00:00:17,670 --> 00:00:21,150 3rd, 2014, as a Roy McMurtry clinical fellow. 6 00:00:22,530 --> 00:00:23,700 >> Good afternoon everyone. 7 00:00:24,940 --> 00:00:29,250 In a series of lectures I'm giving during my month here at Osgoode Hall Law School, 8 00:00:29,250 --> 00:00:31,690 I'm, I'm trying to give the whole history, 9 00:00:31,690 --> 00:00:35,540 background, strategies, and results of a grass roots campaign 10 00:00:35,540 --> 00:00:37,860 that's gone on for many years in Ontario 11 00:00:37,860 --> 00:00:42,200 to tackle the barriers many people with disabilities face, 12 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:44,050 and to use the law to solve those 13 00:00:44,050 --> 00:00:46,860 barriers, to achieve our goal of a barrier-free society. 14 00:00:46,860 --> 00:00:50,380 What I'd like to do today is talk about our results. 15 00:00:50,380 --> 00:00:52,340 What have we accomplished. 16 00:00:52,340 --> 00:00:57,780 In 2005, the Ontario, Legislature unanimously passed and applauded 17 00:00:57,780 --> 00:01:02,120 the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, or AODA. 18 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:03,425 I had the privilege of leading the 19 00:01:03,425 --> 00:01:07,970 decade-long nonpartisan fight to win us that legislation. 20 00:01:07,970 --> 00:01:10,280 It's now been nine years since it's passed. 21 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:12,460 What did it guarantee, and how are we doing. 22 00:01:12,460 --> 00:01:14,090 What have we accomplished. 23 00:01:14,090 --> 00:01:15,390 This is about results. 24 00:01:16,390 --> 00:01:19,920 So, before I jump into the results, I gotta tell you a bit about the problems. 25 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:21,570 This is covered elsewhere in some of the 26 00:01:21,570 --> 00:01:23,440 lectures in this series, but I'll do it briefly. 27 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:29,190 We've got at least, 1.7 or 1.8 million people with 28 00:01:29,190 --> 00:01:34,320 a physical, or mental, or sensory disability in Ontario right now. 29 00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:37,000 That number is growing as the population ages. 30 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:42,150 When those folks try to get a job, or an education, or use transit services, or go 31 00:01:42,150 --> 00:01:49,430 buy goods or services, from stores, they face barriers everyday of their lives. 32 00:01:49,430 --> 00:01:53,530 Some of them are physical, the building may be physically inaccessible. 33 00:01:53,530 --> 00:01:55,665 Some of them may be technological, their 34 00:01:55,665 --> 00:01:58,044 website might be inaccessible to the adaptive 35 00:01:58,044 --> 00:02:02,246 technology that a blind person like me uses to read what's on a computer screen. 36 00:02:02,246 --> 00:02:05,186 Some of them may be bureaucratic, some may be attitudinal. 37 00:02:05,186 --> 00:02:08,306 They're all illegal since 2000, pardon me, since 38 00:02:08,306 --> 00:02:11,621 1982, they have violated the Ontario Human Rights Code 39 00:02:11,621 --> 00:02:15,586 which guarantees, equality for people with disabilities without 40 00:02:15,586 --> 00:02:19,885 discrimination in areas like employment, housing, goods, and services. 41 00:02:19,885 --> 00:02:25,267 Since two thou, since 1985, in the case of public sector organizations, they violate 42 00:02:25,267 --> 00:02:31,100 the Canadian Charter Rights and Freedoms, it's section 15 guaranteed equality. 43 00:02:31,100 --> 00:02:34,820 The problem with those laws that drew, drove many of us to fight 44 00:02:34,820 --> 00:02:39,750 for a disabilities act was not that they weren't, were, were poorly worded, or 45 00:02:39,750 --> 00:02:41,530 that they were badly interpreted by courts, 46 00:02:41,530 --> 00:02:44,970 but rather but to enforce those laws, 47 00:02:44,970 --> 00:02:50,000 you had to bring, human rights or, charter claims one barrier at a time. 48 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:56,650 Individuals had to be the cops, and they could run up against huge battles, if they 49 00:02:56,650 --> 00:03:00,110 took on that, by, by, organizations that might 50 00:03:00,110 --> 00:03:02,080 be well funded, well oiled, and well lawyered. 51 00:03:03,260 --> 00:03:06,387 And, most people with disabilities don't have the time, the 52 00:03:06,387 --> 00:03:09,573 resources, and the opportunity to wage those kind of battles, 53 00:03:09,573 --> 00:03:12,051 and even if they all did we'd still, we've faced 54 00:03:12,051 --> 00:03:15,550 to many barriers to, to, to tear down that way. 55 00:03:15,550 --> 00:03:17,680 So, our solution was a new law. 56 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:18,570 So, what did we win in 2005. 57 00:03:18,570 --> 00:03:24,100 They AODA is an important and ground breaking law in 58 00:03:24,100 --> 00:03:28,440 Ontario, and the legislature, the governing liberals under then Dalton 59 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:32,260 McGuinty the opposition parties which voted, all voted for it 60 00:03:32,260 --> 00:03:35,920 have much to be proud of for their unanimous support. 61 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:37,346 The first thing it does is it 62 00:03:37,346 --> 00:03:41,020 requires Ontario to become fully accessible by 2025. 63 00:03:41,020 --> 00:03:42,250 It gave 20 years. 64 00:03:43,630 --> 00:03:48,540 Next, it requires the Ontario government to lead us there, not to pay for 65 00:03:48,540 --> 00:03:53,880 it, but to lead us there, and it does so by two major roles. 66 00:03:53,880 --> 00:04:01,180 The government is required to develop and enact a series of accessibility standards. 67 00:04:01,180 --> 00:04:03,820 An accessibility standard is a regulation, or 68 00:04:03,820 --> 00:04:06,810 a law, that speaks to a particular sector 69 00:04:06,810 --> 00:04:13,610 of the economy, or a particular area of human activity, and it says, hey folks, 70 00:04:13,610 --> 00:04:15,910 you in that sector, you gotta tear 71 00:04:15,910 --> 00:04:18,530 down these barriers, you gotta prevent these barriers, 72 00:04:18,530 --> 00:04:22,840 and here what, here's what you gotta do, and here's when you gotta do it by. 73 00:04:22,840 --> 00:04:27,050 So they provide clear, they're supposed to provide clear direction and 74 00:04:27,050 --> 00:04:30,390 the AODA doesn't just let the government make these standards it 75 00:04:30,390 --> 00:04:34,660 requires the government to do so, and to enact enough of 76 00:04:34,660 --> 00:04:37,810 them to ensure that we get to the goal of full accessibility. 77 00:04:39,140 --> 00:04:43,050 The second thing that the AODA requires is that the government 78 00:04:43,050 --> 00:04:44,790 effectively enforce these standards, and 79 00:04:44,790 --> 00:04:47,480 it gives the government enforcement powers. 80 00:04:49,020 --> 00:04:52,410 Now, in other lectures in this series, I talk about the fight to 81 00:04:52,410 --> 00:04:54,630 get this legislation, the design of the 82 00:04:54,630 --> 00:04:58,750 legislation, how accessibility standards are actually made. 83 00:04:58,750 --> 00:05:04,310 Today, I'm just jumping to results, but as I address this, results, results, I have 84 00:05:04,310 --> 00:05:07,630 to a kind of a concept or a picture in your mind to bear in mind. 85 00:05:07,630 --> 00:05:08,980 If, if you were the victim of an 86 00:05:08,980 --> 00:05:12,670 individual act of discrimination, I was when the Toronto 87 00:05:12,670 --> 00:05:16,540 Transit Commission refused to consistently announce all subway 88 00:05:16,540 --> 00:05:18,770 or bus stops for the benefit of blind people 89 00:05:18,770 --> 00:05:21,580 like me, you had bring an individual case, 90 00:05:21,580 --> 00:05:25,030 and if the case went to full litigation, there's 91 00:05:25,030 --> 00:05:27,540 the opportunity to sit down with the organization 92 00:05:27,540 --> 00:05:30,100 on the other side and, and negotiate a resolution. 93 00:05:30,100 --> 00:05:31,990 Now, in those two cases, we weren't able to 94 00:05:31,990 --> 00:05:33,250 settle them, I had to go to a full hearing. 95 00:05:33,250 --> 00:05:36,610 But many, if not most, human rights claims get settled. 96 00:05:37,650 --> 00:05:39,790 Think of the standards development process, 97 00:05:39,790 --> 00:05:41,460 the development of an accessibility standard, just 98 00:05:41,460 --> 00:05:44,790 like creating one huge negotiating table to 99 00:05:44,790 --> 00:05:46,320 settle a bunch of human rights complaints. 100 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:48,460 So, if you do a transportation standard, 101 00:05:48,460 --> 00:05:51,340 it provides an opportunity for the disability community's 102 00:05:51,340 --> 00:05:53,760 representatives on one side of the table, and 103 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:57,060 the transportation sector on the other side of 104 00:05:57,060 --> 00:05:58,270 the table to work out what are the 105 00:05:58,270 --> 00:06:00,650 barriers, what are the problems, what kind of 106 00:06:00,650 --> 00:06:03,390 fixes can we do, make recommendations to government, 107 00:06:03,390 --> 00:06:05,190 and the Government can decide what to do. 108 00:06:06,540 --> 00:06:09,530 And the advantage of this format is that if 109 00:06:09,530 --> 00:06:12,100 they come up with good measures, that's great, but 110 00:06:12,100 --> 00:06:13,710 if the measures they come up with are too 111 00:06:13,710 --> 00:06:18,130 weak and don't meet the stringent of requirements of accessibility 112 00:06:18,130 --> 00:06:20,640 in the Human Rights Code and Charter of Rights, 113 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:23,560 it always remains open to an individual to bring a 114 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:26,290 human rights, or charter case, to enforce their rights, 115 00:06:26,290 --> 00:06:30,970 to say those standards under the AODA aren't good enough. 116 00:06:30,970 --> 00:06:32,110 And that was part of our design. 117 00:06:32,110 --> 00:06:34,370 We didn't want the government in enacting an 118 00:06:34,370 --> 00:06:36,740 accessibility standard to be able to reduce our rights, 119 00:06:36,740 --> 00:06:39,400 and this disability act specifically says, if another 120 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:42,820 law provides more accessibility, that's the law that prevails. 121 00:06:44,140 --> 00:06:44,690 So how'd we do. 122 00:06:46,580 --> 00:06:49,820 The conclusion I'm going to take you to is that we've made, I 123 00:06:49,820 --> 00:06:54,200 believe, progress since 2005 that we would 124 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:56,640 not have made without the Disabilities Act. 125 00:06:56,640 --> 00:06:59,430 So, this has been a fruitful and a worthwhile venture. 126 00:06:59,430 --> 00:07:04,740 But, we are certainly way behind schedule in achieving full accessibility by 2025. 127 00:07:04,740 --> 00:07:08,730 We are not where we should be, nine years into this. 128 00:07:08,730 --> 00:07:12,020 And, unless something changes dramatically, we will 129 00:07:12,020 --> 00:07:15,210 not reach full accessibility by 2025, or ever. 130 00:07:16,290 --> 00:07:18,560 The lecture I'm gonna give tomorrow at York Lanes 131 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:22,700 will go, will review strategies that we are undertaking now 132 00:07:22,700 --> 00:07:25,610 to try to kick-start this process to get gov, the 133 00:07:25,610 --> 00:07:29,110 government of Ontario back on schedule, where it should be. 134 00:07:30,890 --> 00:07:34,990 But we are so, on the one hand, the good news is, this 135 00:07:34,990 --> 00:07:36,690 has been worth pressing because we've 136 00:07:36,690 --> 00:07:39,360 made, we're creating more activity to remove 137 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:43,610 and prevent barriers against people with disabilities than, than we would have if 138 00:07:43,610 --> 00:07:47,190 we'd just left it to individuals to litigate them, and didn't have the AODA. 139 00:07:47,190 --> 00:07:50,660 But, the AODA has not lived up to its promise, anywhere near it. 140 00:07:52,950 --> 00:07:56,040 So, to the results. 141 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:59,010 The first thing I need to focus on is where the government started. 142 00:07:59,010 --> 00:08:01,210 In 2005, the government decided that 143 00:08:01,210 --> 00:08:04,610 it would make five accessibility standards first. 144 00:08:04,610 --> 00:08:07,020 We thought the choices were good. 145 00:08:07,020 --> 00:08:11,130 One was in the area of customer service, second 146 00:08:11,130 --> 00:08:13,890 was in the area of transportation, third in the 147 00:08:13,890 --> 00:08:17,920 area of employment, fourth in the area of information 148 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:21,340 communication, and fifth in the area of the built environment. 149 00:08:22,780 --> 00:08:25,750 Let me tell you what we've gained so far. 150 00:08:25,750 --> 00:08:27,340 They were all good choices. 151 00:08:27,340 --> 00:08:31,170 They don't cover the whole waterfront, we need more standards now, but 152 00:08:31,170 --> 00:08:35,460 at least as the first five to tackle, they were a good choice. 153 00:08:35,460 --> 00:08:39,240 First, the Customer Service Accessibility Standard. 154 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:44,499 It was the first to be enacted, it was passed in 2007, it is limited in scope. 155 00:08:45,580 --> 00:08:48,800 The idea of an accessibility standard was that it would list barriers you've 156 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:51,750 gotta remove or prevent, and tell you when you've gotta do it by. 157 00:08:51,750 --> 00:08:56,160 For the most part, this standard, only eight pages long, didn't. 158 00:08:56,160 --> 00:09:01,110 It tells organizations, to provide goods or services to the public that they 159 00:09:01,110 --> 00:09:06,200 must develop an accessibility policy, that they've got to train 160 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:09,300 their employees on it, that they've got to have a customer 161 00:09:09,300 --> 00:09:13,040 feedback system for people to file complaints if things aren't going well. 162 00:09:14,510 --> 00:09:17,320 Now, those are useful things to do, but we 163 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:19,580 wanted a standard that actually told those who provide 164 00:09:19,580 --> 00:09:22,420 goods and services, not just have a policy, but 165 00:09:22,420 --> 00:09:25,700 here are the barriers you should be fixing, or preventing. 166 00:09:26,750 --> 00:09:30,300 So, it served as an icebreaker, that's good. 167 00:09:30,300 --> 00:09:33,970 Got organizations talking about accessibility, that's good. 168 00:09:33,970 --> 00:09:37,080 If they deliver goods or services. 169 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:38,740 But on the other, and it did actually 170 00:09:38,740 --> 00:09:43,020 motivate some organizations to actually do what they're told. 171 00:09:43,020 --> 00:09:45,670 And it did lead some organizations to 172 00:09:45,670 --> 00:09:49,030 go even beyond what the specific standard requires. 173 00:09:49,030 --> 00:09:53,370 That's all good, but the three major flaws with 174 00:09:53,370 --> 00:09:56,470 it, the first I've already identified is that it did 175 00:09:56,470 --> 00:10:00,300 not actually specify the range of barriers it should have 176 00:10:00,300 --> 00:10:03,020 so that organizations would know exactly what they've gotta do. 177 00:10:03,020 --> 00:10:04,870 The whole idea of standards is so 178 00:10:04,870 --> 00:10:06,660 that each organization doesn't have to reinvent the 179 00:10:06,660 --> 00:10:08,810 wheel, and so that we folk, folks with 180 00:10:08,810 --> 00:10:11,800 disabilities know what we are entitled to get. 181 00:10:13,140 --> 00:10:17,520 The second flaw, oh, is that the standard, and this applies with all 182 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:19,220 of the standards, with only a couple 183 00:10:19,220 --> 00:10:22,870 exceptions in them, had crazy long timelines. 184 00:10:22,870 --> 00:10:28,170 They gave the public sector, government, school boards, and cities and so on, 185 00:10:28,170 --> 00:10:33,730 universities, til 2010, just to come up with a policy 186 00:10:33,730 --> 00:10:37,080 that they could have devised within a few weeks, trained their 187 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:41,670 staff in in a few weeks, and, setup a feedback mech, mechanism. 188 00:10:41,670 --> 00:10:43,380 They got three years. 189 00:10:43,380 --> 00:10:47,970 Even more crazy, they gave the private sector up til 20, the end of 2012, which 190 00:10:50,140 --> 00:10:52,800 is way too long, way too close the end 191 00:10:52,800 --> 00:10:57,080 of the 20 year, hor, event horizon for this legislation. 192 00:10:57,080 --> 00:11:01,040 The final problem with the Customer Service Standard is it actually, and we 193 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:03,980 would say wrongly and impermissibly, purported 194 00:11:03,980 --> 00:11:06,074 to authorize the creation of a barrier. 195 00:11:06,074 --> 00:11:09,340 It provides that an organization that provides goods 196 00:11:09,340 --> 00:11:12,560 or services can decide that you with a 197 00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:15,550 disability are essentially a danger to yourself or 198 00:11:15,550 --> 00:11:18,330 others if you come into their, their, place 199 00:11:18,330 --> 00:11:25,040 of business alone, and to require you to bring a support person, and to be also 200 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:27,450 free to charge a second fee, or admission 201 00:11:27,450 --> 00:11:29,780 fee if there is one, for that support person. 202 00:11:29,780 --> 00:11:32,260 We say that shouldn't have been there in the first place, that the 203 00:11:32,260 --> 00:11:33,960 accessibility standards are there to get rid 204 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:36,270 of barriers, not authorize or create them. 205 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:41,624 Nevertheless, it was an icebreaker, it was the first, the start. 206 00:11:41,624 --> 00:11:43,075 What about the other areas. 207 00:11:43,075 --> 00:11:48,025 Well three of the areas I've listed, that they dealt with, 208 00:11:48,025 --> 00:11:53,605 transportation, employment, and information communications, were 209 00:11:53,605 --> 00:11:56,330 all regulated in June of 2011. 210 00:11:56,330 --> 00:11:59,460 A single regulation was passed, it's called The Integrated 211 00:11:59,460 --> 00:12:05,000 Accessibility Standard Regulation to address all three of those areas. 212 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:06,770 Let me tell you what we've gained. 213 00:12:06,770 --> 00:12:10,470 I'm summarizing, there's a lot more detail in them, more than 214 00:12:10,470 --> 00:12:13,670 I can cover in the time of this, of this lecture. 215 00:12:13,670 --> 00:12:17,000 First, before it delves into the specifics of either of any of 216 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:20,140 those three important areas of activity, 217 00:12:20,140 --> 00:12:23,360 it's set some important general requirements. 218 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:27,730 Any organization that provides transportation, or has employees, 219 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:34,120 or that, could need or provide information 220 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:38,930 communication, or use those, they've gotta, number one, 221 00:12:38,930 --> 00:12:43,960 create an accessibility policy to deal both 222 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:48,430 with the requirements of the Act, of this regulation, and generally, to get to 223 00:12:48,430 --> 00:12:49,310 full accessibility. 224 00:12:50,670 --> 00:12:54,050 Second, they've gotta develop, in the case 225 00:12:54,050 --> 00:12:57,730 particularly of large organizations, an accessibility plan. 226 00:12:59,050 --> 00:13:04,050 And it's gotta have detail on how they're gonna implement their policy. 227 00:13:04,050 --> 00:13:07,090 It's also, gotta be implemented. 228 00:13:07,090 --> 00:13:10,840 It's not enough to just have a plan, they've got to implement their plan. 229 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:15,585 And finally, after a certain amount of time, those plans are 230 00:13:15,585 --> 00:13:18,850 multi-year plans, like five year plans, but every year after they 231 00:13:18,850 --> 00:13:23,350 establish that plan, for large organizations, they've got to, excuse me, 232 00:13:23,350 --> 00:13:28,740 develop and make available on, to the public, an annual status report. 233 00:13:28,740 --> 00:13:29,340 How are they doing. 234 00:13:30,510 --> 00:13:36,310 Now, these three measures together force an organization in effect, 235 00:13:36,310 --> 00:13:40,830 to look at their accessibility problems or issues within their organizations. 236 00:13:40,830 --> 00:13:43,980 And that's really important because when we present 237 00:13:43,980 --> 00:13:46,220 bar, or we identify barriers, the person with 238 00:13:46,220 --> 00:13:48,470 a disability goes to a, agovernment office, or 239 00:13:48,470 --> 00:13:50,640 a private office, or whatever, and says, hey, 240 00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:55,200 I, I can't work here, or I can't benefit from, from the services you provide, I'm 241 00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:57,880 facing a barrier, the common answer we got, 242 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:01,110 we get is, oh, we never thought of that. 243 00:14:02,560 --> 00:14:06,360 And, requiring organizations to have a policy, have a plan, do status 244 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:12,080 reports and implement their plan, in an sense says, think about it. 245 00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:14,000 And it targets one of the inherent 246 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:17,260 problems that leads to the barriers we face. 247 00:14:17,260 --> 00:14:18,600 So, all of that's good. 248 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:20,180 There's some more general requirements 249 00:14:20,180 --> 00:14:23,360 organizations within certain, government and, 250 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:26,780 and, and, particularly have to make sure that when they use 251 00:14:26,780 --> 00:14:29,230 public money to buy goods and services, that they take 252 00:14:29,230 --> 00:14:32,680 into account accessibility so they buy things that, we can use. 253 00:14:33,830 --> 00:14:37,080 When they set up electronic kiosks for us to, 254 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:42,900 to, access services, they should be, include accessibility features, too. 255 00:14:44,140 --> 00:14:46,650 These are all steps forward. 256 00:14:46,650 --> 00:14:48,940 These, like other requirements in the standard, 257 00:14:48,940 --> 00:14:51,290 have exceptions that we think are too broad, 258 00:14:52,590 --> 00:14:55,030 but they, that concern is tempered by the 259 00:14:55,030 --> 00:14:58,000 fact that the Human Rights Code still prevails. 260 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:02,930 And an organization, we always caution, that thinks that they can rely on the, 261 00:15:02,930 --> 00:15:08,230 broad exceptions in these regulations is taking a huge risk because 262 00:15:08,230 --> 00:15:12,290 they may not, they may think that they're complying with the AODA standard, 263 00:15:12,290 --> 00:15:17,090 but they're not necessarily complying with the requirements of the Human Rights Code. 264 00:15:17,090 --> 00:15:18,940 Any organization that's going to try and do work 265 00:15:18,940 --> 00:15:21,355 in these, this area of accessibility is going to 266 00:15:21,355 --> 00:15:25,540 wanna do what they need to do to make sure they're on the right side of the law. 267 00:15:25,540 --> 00:15:27,790 And to the extent these standards fall short of the Human Rights 268 00:15:27,790 --> 00:15:31,650 Code, and believe me, they do, we think they're a missed opportunity. 269 00:15:31,650 --> 00:15:34,990 Helpful, but a missed opportunity, and they generate the risk 270 00:15:34,990 --> 00:15:37,600 that an organization may say, hey, wait a minute, I thought 271 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:39,680 I complied with that standard, I did all I gotta do, 272 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:43,040 what do you mean I now face a human rights complaint. 273 00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:44,340 And an organization that is that 274 00:15:44,340 --> 00:15:46,729 frustrated is entitled to be that frustrated. 275 00:15:48,444 --> 00:15:50,684 We'd like to see the standards strengthened, 276 00:15:50,684 --> 00:15:52,532 or at least an organization be warned of 277 00:15:52,532 --> 00:15:54,380 how far they've gotta go to comply with 278 00:15:54,380 --> 00:15:56,930 the Human Rights Code, not just these standards. 279 00:15:58,010 --> 00:16:02,500 Anyway, let me now go past these general provisions to tackle the three 280 00:16:02,500 --> 00:16:05,700 specific areas that the Integrated stan, 281 00:16:05,700 --> 00:16:10,910 Accessibility Standard of, of 20, 2011, touches. 282 00:16:10,910 --> 00:16:13,150 First it regulates transportation. 283 00:16:13,150 --> 00:16:14,880 This is huge for people with disabilities. 284 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:19,090 I gave an entire lecture on this subject, which will be available on video as part 285 00:16:19,090 --> 00:16:22,720 of this lecture series, so I'm only going to now touch on a couple of high points. 286 00:16:24,150 --> 00:16:28,720 The transportation provisions help by delineating, requirements 287 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:33,140 for accessible public transit vehicles, and requirements for 288 00:16:33,140 --> 00:16:36,030 parallel transit, in Toronto it's called Wheel Trans, 289 00:16:36,030 --> 00:16:38,710 for those who can't ride the conventional system. 290 00:16:38,710 --> 00:16:42,970 But, it's got a number of major, major flaws. 291 00:16:42,970 --> 00:16:47,650 First, this part of the standard, like most, if not all of 292 00:16:47,650 --> 00:16:49,560 the standards the government passed, really 293 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:53,160 owns, only aims at preventing new barriers. 294 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:54,840 Now, preventing new barriers is important, 295 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:57,280 making sure that public transit authorities only 296 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:02,330 buy accessible vehicles to be used by the public, that's important and that's good. 297 00:17:02,330 --> 00:17:04,540 But what about all the inaccessible vehicles that they're gonna have 298 00:17:04,540 --> 00:17:08,220 on the road for the next 20 years till they wear out. 299 00:17:08,220 --> 00:17:11,910 The standard purports to say that they don't need to 300 00:17:11,910 --> 00:17:16,900 be retrofitted, generally with a couple of very narrow exceptions. 301 00:17:16,900 --> 00:17:19,800 Well, if the retrofit could be done at 302 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:24,380 reasonable cost, but could provide real accessibility, that's wrong. 303 00:17:24,380 --> 00:17:26,288 Maybe not for the vehicle that's gonna go out of 304 00:17:26,288 --> 00:17:28,850 service next week, but the one that was bought 20 minutes 305 00:17:28,850 --> 00:17:32,030 before the standard went into effect, we shouldn't have to 306 00:17:32,030 --> 00:17:34,645 wait the 20 years or whatever that that vehicle wears out. 307 00:17:34,645 --> 00:17:39,580 Moreover, the standard actually authorized organizations, 308 00:17:39,580 --> 00:17:43,170 transit authorities, to keep buying inaccessible vehicles 309 00:17:43,170 --> 00:17:47,300 all, contracting for them all the way up to July of 2011 even 310 00:17:47,300 --> 00:17:51,090 though the transit sector knew these standards were coming, were at the table 311 00:17:51,090 --> 00:17:54,830 when they were being negotiated, had a lot of input into what they say. 312 00:17:56,120 --> 00:17:57,420 That's just wrong. 313 00:17:57,420 --> 00:18:00,348 It also violates, in our views, Supreme Court of Canada 314 00:18:00,348 --> 00:18:03,310 case law about the not, duty not to create new barriers. 315 00:18:05,030 --> 00:18:11,320 Finally, or second, the transportation standard does not address accessibility 316 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:16,340 in public transit stations, union stations, subway stations, and so on. 317 00:18:16,340 --> 00:18:19,480 And, there are a number of barriers there that are pretty important. 318 00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:23,470 Accessible vehicles aren't very useful if you can't get on them, or if you 319 00:18:23,470 --> 00:18:26,240 get off them in a station, but you can't get out of the station. 320 00:18:27,450 --> 00:18:32,480 Finally, the standard, deals with a couple of 321 00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:36,330 areas that are important, like accessible taxis, accessible 322 00:18:36,330 --> 00:18:41,110 bus stops at the roadside, not by saying all of what needs to be done and 323 00:18:41,110 --> 00:18:45,710 by when, but simply by leaving it to cities to decide what needs to be done, 324 00:18:45,710 --> 00:18:48,780 and when, as they regulate trans, state taxis, 325 00:18:48,780 --> 00:18:52,100 or decide what to do with their bus stops. 326 00:18:52,100 --> 00:18:56,540 The problem with that is it means we gotta have every city reinvent the wheel, make a 327 00:18:56,540 --> 00:18:57,780 lot of mistakes, and we've got to now 328 00:18:57,780 --> 00:19:01,600 lobby city by city rather than one provincial government. 329 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:03,424 It defeats the purpose that the Disabilities 330 00:19:03,424 --> 00:19:05,790 Act was passed for in the first place. 331 00:19:05,790 --> 00:19:10,590 Let me turn to the area of information and communications. 332 00:19:10,590 --> 00:19:13,570 This is a hugely important area, and it's probably 333 00:19:13,570 --> 00:19:16,540 the area where we've made some of our greatest strides. 334 00:19:18,790 --> 00:19:20,270 Think about it. 335 00:19:20,270 --> 00:19:24,950 When you go to work, or to school, or to buy goods or services, 336 00:19:24,950 --> 00:19:29,610 or engage in any kind of commerce, communication is at the core of it. 337 00:19:29,610 --> 00:19:33,980 Reading what's on their website, reading materials that they make available for 338 00:19:33,980 --> 00:19:39,140 you to, to read if it's option, manuals, catalogs, reading materials at school. 339 00:19:39,140 --> 00:19:42,490 Talking to people, talking to the person over the counter 340 00:19:42,490 --> 00:19:45,250 about what they're selling, or about what you want to buy. 341 00:19:45,250 --> 00:19:49,810 Knowing what your professor is actually, or teacher is saying in school and so on. 342 00:19:49,810 --> 00:19:55,240 For people with communication disabilities, or information 343 00:19:55,240 --> 00:20:00,000 disabilities, these are huge, the barriers to, 344 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,680 accessible information and communication are, are enormous 345 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:06,550 and are a huge impediment to full participation. 346 00:20:08,142 --> 00:20:10,404 I think it's to the government's credit that 347 00:20:10,404 --> 00:20:13,072 they did tackle information communications as part of 348 00:20:13,072 --> 00:20:16,900 the 2011 integrated regulation, accessibility regulation, and there 349 00:20:16,900 --> 00:20:19,470 are a number of good components in it. 350 00:20:19,470 --> 00:20:22,600 These are subject to our general criticism that the timelines 351 00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:27,090 are way to long, and the exemptions are way too broad. 352 00:20:27,090 --> 00:20:29,940 But, I'll just summarize some of what's in there. 353 00:20:29,940 --> 00:20:33,650 First, they require organizations, that provide 354 00:20:33,650 --> 00:20:37,500 goods or services, to provide information supports. 355 00:20:37,500 --> 00:20:41,700 For a blind person that might mean, mean access to information and audio recorded, 356 00:20:41,700 --> 00:20:48,540 or, in braille, or, in large print if they're low vision. 357 00:20:48,540 --> 00:20:51,600 Similar for people with dyslexia, they may need it, 358 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:54,410 in an electronic version that their computer can read aloud. 359 00:20:55,420 --> 00:20:58,610 For people with hearing loss, there's alternative 360 00:20:58,610 --> 00:21:01,450 kinds of communication that work for them. 361 00:21:01,450 --> 00:21:04,400 Some use sign language, some use lip reading, 362 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:07,146 some use captioning, there's a range of different needs. 363 00:21:07,146 --> 00:21:11,630 The regulation doesn't detail exactly what you give and when to give it, but 364 00:21:11,630 --> 00:21:13,320 it does set up a framework for 365 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:18,020 requesting these kinds of accommodations, and, and supports. 366 00:21:18,020 --> 00:21:22,280 And that, is a real step forward. 367 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:27,750 Perhaps the most, specific step forward in this regulation, in 368 00:21:27,750 --> 00:21:31,580 the area of information and communication, relates to website accessibility. 369 00:21:31,580 --> 00:21:35,120 Now, if you're sighted, you're used, and not dyslexic, you're used to 370 00:21:35,120 --> 00:21:38,510 just going on your computer, logging on a website and using it. 371 00:21:38,510 --> 00:21:39,901 Point and click and so on. 372 00:21:39,901 --> 00:21:44,189 If you've got a mobility disability, if you can't use your hands, you may 373 00:21:44,189 --> 00:21:49,244 have problems using a mouse, and, there is access technology to conquer all this. 374 00:21:49,244 --> 00:21:52,944 But, for those of us with print disabilities, with visual 375 00:21:52,944 --> 00:21:56,348 reading disabilities, whether visual impairment, 376 00:21:56,348 --> 00:21:59,086 or dyslexia and other disabilities, there 377 00:21:59,086 --> 00:22:02,046 are ways to format a website that makes it easier 378 00:22:02,046 --> 00:22:07,128 for our computers, using our screen reading access technology, to access. 379 00:22:07,128 --> 00:22:11,608 And if they, if, if they use those design techniques in the architecture of 380 00:22:11,608 --> 00:22:16,858 their website, that actually enables us to fully, use them, and, in fact, opens 381 00:22:16,858 --> 00:22:19,308 through the internet, an entire world of 382 00:22:19,308 --> 00:22:23,088 information accessible without needing anyone's help, that 383 00:22:23,088 --> 00:22:27,290 was never available to me 35 years ago when I went to this law school. 384 00:22:28,660 --> 00:22:31,630 The revolution in access to printed information for people 385 00:22:31,630 --> 00:22:35,520 with vision loss since I was a kid is breathtaking. 386 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:39,296 I would compare it to the difference between taking a horse and buggy to 387 00:22:39,296 --> 00:22:43,800 go from Toronto to Florida, to taking a, airplane to go from Toronto to Florida. 388 00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:46,680 It is absolutely transformative. 389 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:51,126 However, if when a website is designed, the right architecture is 390 00:22:51,126 --> 00:22:54,870 not included, which is easy to include to ensure that our 391 00:22:54,870 --> 00:22:59,706 screen access technology can access it, we don't get the benefit of 392 00:22:59,706 --> 00:23:05,340 those websites, we don't get the benefit of that transformative change. 393 00:23:05,340 --> 00:23:08,532 Instead, we find that yet another accessibility 394 00:23:08,532 --> 00:23:10,793 door has been slammed in our face. 395 00:23:10,793 --> 00:23:14,933 Now, what did the government, do here. 396 00:23:14,933 --> 00:23:17,007 By the way, the changes in a website, or 397 00:23:17,007 --> 00:23:19,813 the architectural features in a website, that make it 398 00:23:19,813 --> 00:23:22,131 more accessible to us, also make it easier to 399 00:23:22,131 --> 00:23:25,860 use for everybody, and especially those using smart phones. 400 00:23:25,860 --> 00:23:28,370 So, this isn't a question of what do we require them to 401 00:23:28,370 --> 00:23:32,050 do that, benefits us in, in, at the price of everyone else. 402 00:23:32,050 --> 00:23:36,600 It actually benefits everyone the same way that when the TTC calls root 403 00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:40,760 stops for benefit of a blind person, like me, it also helps sighted folks. 404 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:44,470 Same way a ramp, instead of steps, in front of a building helps people with a 405 00:23:44,470 --> 00:23:51,090 baby stroller, a shopping cart, a bag on wheels, or a wheelchair and a walker. 406 00:23:52,460 --> 00:23:54,900 Well, what the government did is, they relied 407 00:23:54,900 --> 00:23:57,100 on and they accepted our position that they 408 00:23:57,100 --> 00:24:01,560 should require, over time, that websites conform with 409 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:05,530 an international standard that's been set for web accessibility. 410 00:24:05,530 --> 00:24:12,140 The fancy letters are WCAG or World-Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, 2.0. 411 00:24:12,140 --> 00:24:14,610 These were developed some years ago. 412 00:24:14,610 --> 00:24:18,575 They have three different layers, levels, single-A, double-A, triple-A. 413 00:24:18,575 --> 00:24:21,038 Triple-A is not meant as a regulatory, lever. 414 00:24:21,038 --> 00:24:23,160 We wanted double-A. 415 00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:28,080 The government has regulated, required itself to achieve double-A over timelines 416 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,180 we say are too long, but at least it set them. 417 00:24:31,180 --> 00:24:36,120 And for other organizations they say single-A rising to double-A. 418 00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:38,970 This is foolish because what they're really telling people is 419 00:24:38,970 --> 00:24:43,040 reengineer your practices once to meet an inadequate lower single 420 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:46,180 A standard, and then later, go back and learn all 421 00:24:46,180 --> 00:24:50,560 over again to start meeting a more useful double-A standard. 422 00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:54,390 And, they set timelines for them that are so long that I think that by the time 423 00:24:54,390 --> 00:24:59,970 the last of them kicks in there'll be a WCAG 3.0, and this will all be moot. 424 00:24:59,970 --> 00:25:01,980 It will be superseded. 425 00:25:01,980 --> 00:25:04,800 But, in any event, it is a step forward. 426 00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,250 I think any organization that's smart is gonna 427 00:25:07,250 --> 00:25:10,280 go to double-A right now ahead of the timelines. 428 00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:12,630 Why bother running the risk of being sued. 429 00:25:12,630 --> 00:25:16,230 It's happened in the states, Target Corporation was sued 430 00:25:16,230 --> 00:25:20,640 for inaccessible websites successfully, and it's happened in Canada. 431 00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:23,546 A blind woman named Donna Jothand successfully 432 00:25:23,546 --> 00:25:26,880 sued the Canadian government for website inaccessibility. 433 00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:31,580 The federal government was, was given 18 months to fix their, websites. 434 00:25:31,580 --> 00:25:35,090 Now, the Government exempted some technical standards for, a 435 00:25:35,090 --> 00:25:37,350 number of years, I, I don't want to go 436 00:25:37,350 --> 00:25:38,890 into the details, I can answer questions on it, 437 00:25:38,890 --> 00:25:43,720 but all in all this is a significant step forward. 438 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:47,548 Finally, in the area of information communications, the standard 439 00:25:47,548 --> 00:25:52,260 does set requirements for educational institutions, like this one. 440 00:25:52,260 --> 00:25:55,370 It requires that when they get, provide books like you 441 00:25:55,370 --> 00:26:00,000 read, for courses, they should be trying to acquire them 442 00:26:01,070 --> 00:26:03,930 from suppliers who can also have ones that can be 443 00:26:03,930 --> 00:26:09,710 provided to students, with print disabilities in an accessible format. 444 00:26:09,710 --> 00:26:13,240 Since books are now no longer written by pen, or on 445 00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:17,920 a typewriter, they're written on computer probably in a program like Microsoft 446 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:24,320 Word, the, publisher at some point has the document in a format, 447 00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:27,750 like Word that we could readily read with the right access technology. 448 00:26:27,750 --> 00:26:34,680 If you have a iPhone, by the way, you can buy one app for $10, that I use everyday. 449 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,190 Upload any word document in it, tap, and your 450 00:26:37,190 --> 00:26:39,170 IPhone is reading it to you, or your iPad. 451 00:26:39,170 --> 00:26:42,440 I mean, this is, we're not talking about expensive access technology. 452 00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:46,830 But if the formats are in, are, are problematic formats, we can't read them. 453 00:26:47,830 --> 00:26:52,222 So, the idea of Universities having to aim to procure, materials for use in 454 00:26:52,222 --> 00:26:54,357 courses, that we can actually get access 455 00:26:54,357 --> 00:26:57,163 to quickly, would overcome barriers that I've faced 456 00:26:57,163 --> 00:27:00,823 when I was a student here, and as an undergrad, and in high school, and 457 00:27:00,823 --> 00:27:04,544 that, students with disabilities, print with disabilities 458 00:27:04,544 --> 00:27:08,010 continued to face over many years since then. 459 00:27:08,010 --> 00:27:13,548 It also requires publishers, to sell books to institutions like this, to 460 00:27:13,548 --> 00:27:16,356 make product available with an accessible 461 00:27:16,356 --> 00:27:20,880 format option, and that's a significant breakthrough. 462 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:25,270 And finally, it requires any educational organization like this to train their, 463 00:27:25,270 --> 00:27:29,610 the people who teach you, on how to teach in an accessible way. 464 00:27:29,610 --> 00:27:31,050 That's a breakthrough. 465 00:27:31,050 --> 00:27:34,110 There are requirements about libraries procuring accessible product. 466 00:27:35,540 --> 00:27:38,550 There's a lot of accessible product that they can procure. 467 00:27:38,550 --> 00:27:41,940 We think the requirements and standards should've gone further. 468 00:27:41,940 --> 00:27:43,820 Let me turn to employment. 469 00:27:43,820 --> 00:27:46,860 Employment is, of course, fundamental, as is, 470 00:27:46,860 --> 00:27:49,299 are all the areas that these standards tackle. 471 00:27:51,030 --> 00:27:56,590 What we wanted was a standard that would describe to the employer of today what to 472 00:27:56,590 --> 00:28:01,940 do to make sure that their workplace five years from now is a fully accessible one. 473 00:28:01,940 --> 00:28:04,740 Five years, you could say six years, whichever. 474 00:28:04,740 --> 00:28:08,920 The fact is that the workplace of five years from now has not been designed. 475 00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,210 For a lot of organizations, they don't know what building they'll be 476 00:28:11,210 --> 00:28:15,170 in, and frankly, a lot of people don't work on site anyway. 477 00:28:15,170 --> 00:28:19,100 The technology, the software, the processes that they will 478 00:28:19,100 --> 00:28:22,900 use in five years, in many cases have not been 479 00:28:22,900 --> 00:28:26,540 acquired yet, they've not been purchased yet, they've not 480 00:28:26,540 --> 00:28:30,760 been contracted for yet, they've not even been designed yet. 481 00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:34,880 So, if employers set about today on an aggressive strategy to 482 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:37,760 make sure that the workplace of five years from now would 483 00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:39,830 be barrier-free for people with 484 00:28:39,830 --> 00:28:42,160 disabilities, they could accomplish a great 485 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:47,600 deal by planning ahead, and at very marginal cost in most cases. 486 00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:51,630 The standard, for the most part, doesn't do that. 487 00:28:51,630 --> 00:28:53,950 It does require all organizations, and 488 00:28:53,950 --> 00:28:56,740 their accessibility plans, to detail what they're 489 00:28:56,740 --> 00:29:01,470 going to do to implement the standard, and to remove and prevent barriers. 490 00:29:01,470 --> 00:29:05,670 And that, we believe, is general language that 491 00:29:05,670 --> 00:29:09,890 should require the kind of planning we're talking about. 492 00:29:09,890 --> 00:29:13,400 But the standard would have been way more effective if it then went into detail. 493 00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:18,730 Each employer shouldn't have to go out and figure out themselves what they 494 00:29:18,730 --> 00:29:22,400 need to do to reach that goal five or six years from now. 495 00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:26,440 It would have been much better if the standard did it for them. 496 00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:30,050 Instead, what the standard does, and it's helpful, is it takes 497 00:29:30,050 --> 00:29:33,950 something the law already requires and tries to make it actually happen. 498 00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:38,310 There are two ways to achieve accessibility in a, in 499 00:29:38,310 --> 00:29:42,110 a place of employment, or a school, or anywhere else. 500 00:29:42,110 --> 00:29:44,950 One is plan for an inclusive environment. 501 00:29:44,950 --> 00:29:47,270 Plan for a workplace that's barrier free. 502 00:29:47,270 --> 00:29:50,040 That'll get you a good chunk of the way. 503 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:52,040 But, the other thing that will invariably happen 504 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:54,270 is you'll have an employee or some employees 505 00:29:54,270 --> 00:29:56,790 with disabilities who, no matter what your, your 506 00:29:56,790 --> 00:30:00,900 arrangements are, they may need an individual accommodation. 507 00:30:00,900 --> 00:30:05,160 And the human rights code provides a duty to accommodate employees with disabilities 508 00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:08,570 up to the point of undue hardship on the part of the employer. 509 00:30:09,810 --> 00:30:12,180 So, the standard doesn't touch that duty. 510 00:30:12,180 --> 00:30:16,100 It doesn't change that duty, nor should it, or would it, or could it. 511 00:30:16,100 --> 00:30:17,580 But what it does do, is it tries to 512 00:30:17,580 --> 00:30:20,050 get employers to actually live up to that duty. 513 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:23,450 It takes a bunch of practices which make, 514 00:30:23,450 --> 00:30:25,370 frankly, good sense, and I gather a number of 515 00:30:25,370 --> 00:30:29,010 large number of organizations already use, and it sets 516 00:30:29,010 --> 00:30:31,610 it as a requirement for all but smaller organizations. 517 00:30:32,650 --> 00:30:34,585 It requires throughout the employment life 518 00:30:34,585 --> 00:30:42,030 cycle, interviewing, recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, and, 519 00:30:42,030 --> 00:30:46,710 if you go off work on disability, return to work, and your evaluation. 520 00:30:46,710 --> 00:30:49,600 It specifically says that, that the employer has to have a 521 00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:52,780 plan, that they work out with you the employee with the 522 00:30:52,780 --> 00:30:56,970 disability, on meeting your accommodation needs, and that you've got to 523 00:30:56,970 --> 00:31:00,949 make sure they know about the availability of these kind of supports. 524 00:31:02,230 --> 00:31:05,110 In a province where too many employees don't 525 00:31:05,110 --> 00:31:06,960 know what they're entitled to, and not enough 526 00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:10,440 employers know what they're obliged to do, this 527 00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:14,170 can cause a lot of success, I believe. 528 00:31:14,170 --> 00:31:16,630 It will not completely solve the problem. 529 00:31:16,630 --> 00:31:18,850 To completely solve the problem, we need employers 530 00:31:18,850 --> 00:31:23,490 effectively planning for that barrier-free workplace of the future. 531 00:31:23,490 --> 00:31:25,980 By the way, if you're even spending 532 00:31:25,980 --> 00:31:27,530 a moment thinking about, well, what does this 533 00:31:27,530 --> 00:31:31,490 cost, the fact is by planning for the future you build it into the cost 534 00:31:31,490 --> 00:31:34,190 of running your business, and by achieving 535 00:31:34,190 --> 00:31:37,190 full accessibility you open up the workplace to 536 00:31:37,190 --> 00:31:39,800 a greater pool of employees, and, as our 537 00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:43,470 population ages, a much greater pool of employees. 538 00:31:43,470 --> 00:31:46,320 So, in effect, this is a money maker 539 00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:50,600 for any organization that seeks profit, we believe. 540 00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:55,180 Moreover, removing workplace barriers also helps ensure that the 541 00:31:55,180 --> 00:31:57,210 organization will have a barrier-free 542 00:31:57,210 --> 00:32:00,640 environment for customers with disabilities. 543 00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:04,170 So, it's a win-win for an employer if they can hire, have 544 00:32:04,170 --> 00:32:09,720 access to a broader labor, labor pool, and a broader customer base. 545 00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:11,050 Certainly worth the money. 546 00:32:13,030 --> 00:32:13,910 That's employment. 547 00:32:15,510 --> 00:32:20,760 So, those are the three areas that were regulated in 2011. 548 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:26,630 Let me turn now to the final area that the government said that they would 549 00:32:26,630 --> 00:32:32,080 regulate, and that at least in one posting they claim, they've finished regulating. 550 00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:33,820 And we disagree. 551 00:32:33,820 --> 00:32:37,330 And that is the area of the built environment. 552 00:32:37,330 --> 00:32:41,720 Physical buildings, indoors and outdoors. 553 00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:47,000 You don't have to spend much time trying to make your way around our 554 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:52,040 community before you find out that we have a community full of barriers. 555 00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:56,820 In government, in public sector settings like schools, in public 556 00:32:56,820 --> 00:33:02,180 transit, and in private settings, businesses and so on. 557 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:08,520 These barriers hurt everyone, they help no one. 558 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:14,960 And if you look at the legislative history of the AODA, 559 00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:19,600 back between 2004 and 2005, as all three political parties, got on their 560 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:25,030 feet to support the AODA, and in some cases urged that it even be strengthened, 561 00:33:25,030 --> 00:33:29,620 many references were made to the need to fix our built environment. 562 00:33:29,620 --> 00:33:32,040 And when the government proposed 20 years 563 00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:35,810 for implement, achieving full accessibility, it's because principally 564 00:33:35,810 --> 00:33:38,170 they thought that the built environment was gonna 565 00:33:38,170 --> 00:33:40,265 be one of the toughest nuts to crack. 566 00:33:40,265 --> 00:33:44,970 And the hypothesis underlying, or the hypothesis, the policy underlying 567 00:33:44,970 --> 00:33:49,300 the AODA, if barriers are easy to remove, do it fast. 568 00:33:49,300 --> 00:33:54,110 If it costs or takes more effort, costs more or takes more effort, take longer. 569 00:33:55,630 --> 00:34:00,340 But 20 years was viewed, unanimously, to be enough. 570 00:34:00,340 --> 00:34:01,380 So how are we doing. 571 00:34:01,380 --> 00:34:04,320 The government decided a built environment accessibility standard 572 00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:07,490 is needed, and they set about developing it. 573 00:34:07,490 --> 00:34:08,020 That's good. 574 00:34:09,410 --> 00:34:13,470 Where we got to is substantially incomplete. 575 00:34:14,750 --> 00:34:18,890 The government split the end product into two pieces. 576 00:34:18,890 --> 00:34:21,380 They decided to deal with inside the 577 00:34:21,380 --> 00:34:25,600 building by regulating it under the building code. 578 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:28,530 The building code is a law that stipulates what buildings, what 579 00:34:28,530 --> 00:34:32,730 requirements you have when you build buildings, with a few exceptions. 580 00:34:32,730 --> 00:34:35,550 They decided to create a second, or separate, 581 00:34:35,550 --> 00:34:38,570 standard under the AODA, to deal with what they 582 00:34:38,570 --> 00:34:41,590 call public spaces, things the building code doesn't, code 583 00:34:41,590 --> 00:34:47,690 doesn't regulate, recreational paths, parking spots, and the like. 584 00:34:49,750 --> 00:34:52,170 Let me tell you where we've gotten so far. 585 00:34:52,170 --> 00:34:57,840 For one thing, the government decided when they embarked on this back in, 2008 586 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:03,050 or so, they decided that the first round of 587 00:35:03,050 --> 00:35:09,990 regulatory effort would only deal with new construction or substantial renovations. 588 00:35:09,990 --> 00:35:11,920 See the building code doesn't require you, for 589 00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:15,110 example, to go back and retrofit anything, unless 590 00:35:15,110 --> 00:35:17,770 you're doing a, ren, major renovation, and then 591 00:35:17,770 --> 00:35:20,070 only in the area you're doing the major renovation. 592 00:35:20,070 --> 00:35:22,350 Well, most buildings in Ontario are old, 593 00:35:22,350 --> 00:35:25,310 and aren't going away, and aren't being renovated. 594 00:35:25,310 --> 00:35:29,210 So, the government decided to do that first, and ipso facto 595 00:35:29,210 --> 00:35:35,680 decided that they were gonna leave most built environments barriers untouched. 596 00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:37,680 The government's answer is, okay, we're going to 597 00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:40,770 do that first, so we set the benchmark of 598 00:35:40,770 --> 00:35:43,210 what new construction should look like, and then 599 00:35:43,210 --> 00:35:45,790 after that we will come back up through the 600 00:35:45,790 --> 00:35:49,095 standards development process, deal with the issue of 601 00:35:49,095 --> 00:35:52,990 retrofits, of fixing buildings which are not now under 602 00:35:52,990 --> 00:35:56,135 renovation, and are not going to be renovated, 603 00:35:56,135 --> 00:35:58,660 in the for, you know, for the time being. 604 00:35:58,660 --> 00:35:59,520 That's what they said. 605 00:36:01,700 --> 00:36:07,420 They've since passed a public sec, a public spaces accessibility regulation 606 00:36:07,420 --> 00:36:11,410 to deal with outside the buildings, and at the end of 607 00:36:11,410 --> 00:36:15,850 last year, at the end of December of 2013, they passed 608 00:36:15,850 --> 00:36:18,900 amendments to the building code to deal with inside the building. 609 00:36:18,900 --> 00:36:23,760 Let me tell you what we got, and let me tell you why it's inadequate so far. 610 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:26,720 Helpful steps forward, but again, lost 611 00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:28,710 opportunities, and certainly not enough to get 612 00:36:28,710 --> 00:36:35,610 us to a fully accessible, barrier-free, built environment in 2025, or indeed ever. 613 00:36:37,570 --> 00:36:40,070 First, the public spaces regulation. 614 00:36:40,070 --> 00:36:41,630 It deals with a range of areas, 615 00:36:41,630 --> 00:36:46,310 beach, recreational trails, and beach access, routes. 616 00:36:46,310 --> 00:36:49,270 It sets some good technical standards about making sure they're accessible. 617 00:36:49,270 --> 00:36:51,450 By the way, everything that they're doing for people 618 00:36:51,450 --> 00:36:53,350 of mobility disabilities, if you're a hiker, you could 619 00:36:53,350 --> 00:36:54,920 say that that's just a whole lot less tripping 620 00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:58,280 for me, and stumbling and falling, and hurting myself. 621 00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:02,730 Which is good it's going to mean not, it's going to be 622 00:37:02,730 --> 00:37:08,500 helpful not only for people who have ex, explicit mobility, disabilities, it'll be 623 00:37:08,500 --> 00:37:10,540 helpful for seniors who want to go for a walk and just 624 00:37:10,540 --> 00:37:15,119 can't go that far, and for whom these supports will, will be helpful. 625 00:37:16,870 --> 00:37:22,630 But they are limited by a number of unreasonable limitations. 626 00:37:22,630 --> 00:37:25,640 They take way too long to go into effect, you've heard me sing that song. 627 00:37:26,660 --> 00:37:31,010 They are only applied to a trail, or a beach 628 00:37:31,010 --> 00:37:36,350 access route, that the organization creating them intends to maintain. 629 00:37:36,350 --> 00:37:38,930 Now superficially, that means all an organization has to 630 00:37:38,930 --> 00:37:41,350 do is say, I built it, here it is, 631 00:37:41,350 --> 00:37:43,630 I hope people enjoy it, I have no intention 632 00:37:43,630 --> 00:37:45,950 of ever maintaining it, and they're off the hook. 633 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:52,580 Our answer is, that wording, is, should not be read that way, 634 00:37:53,820 --> 00:37:59,180 and it should be read narrowly so that it must require a demonstrated 635 00:37:59,180 --> 00:38:05,430 ongoing commitment in unequivocally to never maintain it at all. 636 00:38:05,430 --> 00:38:08,470 So, as long as there's some chance they're gonna any maintaining 637 00:38:08,470 --> 00:38:13,830 ever, that exemption should not come to the assistance of an organization. 638 00:38:13,830 --> 00:38:15,890 And any organization that thinks they're gonna rely 639 00:38:15,890 --> 00:38:18,580 on that exemption is running a big risk. 640 00:38:18,580 --> 00:38:23,360 Moreover, their inaction could trigger a human rights complaint, whether or not 641 00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:25,750 it constitutes a contravention of the 642 00:38:25,750 --> 00:38:30,120 Public Spaces Accessibility Regulation under the AODA. 643 00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:32,430 The second problem, and this recurs, is the 644 00:38:32,430 --> 00:38:36,380 government created these huge exceptions for these, for, for 645 00:38:36,380 --> 00:38:41,310 anything that, I'm gonna paraphrase, might adversely effect certain natural 646 00:38:41,310 --> 00:38:47,190 environment considerations, or heritage properties, and so on. 647 00:38:47,190 --> 00:38:50,560 And these exemptions are way wider then the 648 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:54,210 undue hardship requirement of the Human Rights Code. 649 00:38:54,210 --> 00:38:58,310 There is no justification for saying we are going to make the, 650 00:38:58,310 --> 00:39:00,680 we can't make this trail accessible 651 00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:04,290 because it might adversely affect heritage. 652 00:39:04,290 --> 00:39:08,840 There is always, they've made the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, its only what 2,000 653 00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:14,760 years old, they made that accessible, the Parthenon in Greece, the Osgoode 654 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:18,540 Hall, the other Osgoode Hall, the one downtown, I'm going a little closer 655 00:39:18,540 --> 00:39:23,740 to contemporary, built in the, whatever, 1850s, used to have steps at the front. 656 00:39:23,740 --> 00:39:25,370 They put a ramp in. 657 00:39:25,370 --> 00:39:28,630 It's different than the steps, but it works, and everybody 658 00:39:28,630 --> 00:39:31,820 likes it, especially, I might add, lawyers with law books 659 00:39:31,820 --> 00:39:35,760 in bookcases on wheels, which of course is every, most 660 00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:37,109 of who is going in and out of that building. 661 00:39:38,255 --> 00:39:42,300 So, these exemptions were, were included in terms 662 00:39:42,300 --> 00:39:44,460 that were way too broad, and we feel that 663 00:39:44,460 --> 00:39:45,870 any organization that thinks they are going to 664 00:39:45,870 --> 00:39:48,660 rely on them is doing so at their peril. 665 00:39:51,380 --> 00:39:56,400 The, nevertheless assuming organizations still try to 666 00:39:56,400 --> 00:40:00,120 hide from those kind of requirements, this standard, 667 00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:02,080 unlike the Customer Service Standard, unlike the 668 00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:07,670 Employment Standard, set some detailed, specific technical requirements. 669 00:40:07,670 --> 00:40:11,480 How wide the path angles, what you should have at the edges so 670 00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:16,380 people don't fall off or hurt themselves, when and where railings, and so on. 671 00:40:16,380 --> 00:40:18,209 And all of that is actually quite useful. 672 00:40:19,210 --> 00:40:22,690 The Public Spaces Regulation, then goes on, 673 00:40:22,690 --> 00:40:24,570 to deal with certain other public spaces. 674 00:40:25,620 --> 00:40:31,490 For sidewalks, only new ones, or redeveloped ones, it provides requirements 675 00:40:31,490 --> 00:40:34,850 for accessible curb cuts, those are the, where, where we don't 676 00:40:34,850 --> 00:40:37,810 have a step down at the edge, so that, people with 677 00:40:37,810 --> 00:40:42,110 mobility devices, like wheelchairs or walkers, can get down to the street. 678 00:40:42,110 --> 00:40:45,200 But for blind folks like me, a curb cut 679 00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:46,750 that just ramps down to the street is actually 680 00:40:46,750 --> 00:40:50,130 dangerous, cuz our cane doesn't warn us, hey, you've 681 00:40:50,130 --> 00:40:52,870 left the sidewalk, enjoy those cars coming at you. 682 00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:56,780 So, there is a solution, and the standard actually 683 00:40:56,780 --> 00:40:59,600 sets it, and this is groundbreaking, and this is good. 684 00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:04,950 They require, at those edges, what are called tactile walking surface indicators. 685 00:41:04,950 --> 00:41:07,880 It's a bumpy surface that our cane can detect, 686 00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:09,490 or if you're using a guide dog, your feet 687 00:41:09,490 --> 00:41:13,170 can detect, which help you know that you're in 688 00:41:13,170 --> 00:41:17,110 a, you've changed from the sidewalk, to the street. 689 00:41:17,110 --> 00:41:20,450 We wish there was a requirement for retrofits at major, 690 00:41:20,450 --> 00:41:24,440 intersection, but at least for new ones, that will be helpful. 691 00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:29,020 The Public Spaces Standard also requires, everything in this is like 692 00:41:29,020 --> 00:41:31,170 good news on the one hand, and bad on the other. 693 00:41:31,170 --> 00:41:34,935 It requires that new traffic lights, or redeveloped 694 00:41:34,935 --> 00:41:38,170 traffic lights, I don't know who redevelops a traffic 695 00:41:38,170 --> 00:41:40,570 right or renovates them, but in any event, they 696 00:41:40,570 --> 00:41:43,490 have to include what's called an audible pedestrian signal. 697 00:41:43,490 --> 00:41:44,690 You may have seen or heard these in 698 00:41:44,690 --> 00:41:49,990 some intersections, where, where it beeps, when you, 699 00:41:49,990 --> 00:41:51,700 when the light changes, so someone who can't 700 00:41:51,700 --> 00:41:54,690 see the light changing can know it's changing. 701 00:41:54,690 --> 00:41:55,530 This is good. 702 00:41:55,530 --> 00:41:58,730 The problem is, it allows them, it gives the, the 703 00:41:58,730 --> 00:42:03,290 option to a municipality to not have it run automatically, to 704 00:42:03,290 --> 00:42:06,090 require an individual, visionless, to walk over to have to grope 705 00:42:06,090 --> 00:42:09,900 it and find a button and push it to trigger it. 706 00:42:09,900 --> 00:42:11,800 I will tell you that there are a number of, 707 00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:16,190 automatic or, audible pedestrian signals in Toronto that have that feature. 708 00:42:16,190 --> 00:42:18,870 I have tried using them, it is a royal pain. 709 00:42:18,870 --> 00:42:20,910 I pretty much don't bother. 710 00:42:20,910 --> 00:42:23,460 If I've got a white cane in one hand, a briefcase 711 00:42:23,460 --> 00:42:26,690 in the other, gloves because it is Canada, and it gets 712 00:42:26,690 --> 00:42:31,090 cold out, and I wanna get home, going over and trying 713 00:42:31,090 --> 00:42:33,400 to find the pole, they have a beep coming from it, 714 00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:36,650 but it's not always audible over traffic signals, and then find 715 00:42:36,650 --> 00:42:38,290 the button, and then press it, and then wait it, for 716 00:42:38,290 --> 00:42:41,450 it to run a couple of traffic, or a traffic cycle, 717 00:42:41,450 --> 00:42:45,750 there are other ways I'd rar, I rely on my earlier training, 718 00:42:45,750 --> 00:42:48,290 on how to cross streets without the benefit of them. 719 00:42:48,290 --> 00:42:50,340 This worries me because I don't want 720 00:42:50,340 --> 00:42:53,380 municipalities, and we don't want municipalities to install 721 00:42:53,380 --> 00:42:57,580 these and then say, we put all this money into them and no one's using them. 722 00:42:57,580 --> 00:43:01,000 The solution is to make them operate automatically, not 723 00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:04,260 at, with a push button, especially in non-residential areas. 724 00:43:04,260 --> 00:43:06,270 Some people say they make too much noise. 725 00:43:06,270 --> 00:43:08,360 There are white noise versions of them that are 726 00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:13,010 quite audible, but don't have to be, as intrusive. 727 00:43:13,010 --> 00:43:14,790 If you go to Australia, there are tons 728 00:43:14,790 --> 00:43:18,820 of these out there, not just at major intersections. 729 00:43:18,820 --> 00:43:21,960 Another example of a good step forward, at the 730 00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:25,390 same time is to some extent a lost opportunity. 731 00:43:25,390 --> 00:43:29,940 With respect to public spaces, I will tell you they also, 732 00:43:29,940 --> 00:43:35,320 cover things like accessible parking for parking lots and on the street. 733 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:38,380 For parking lots, they set actual specific 734 00:43:38,380 --> 00:43:43,118 requirements, proportions, or ratios, and so on. 735 00:43:43,118 --> 00:43:47,210 But for, for city parking, they just say, hey city, you figure it out, 736 00:43:47,210 --> 00:43:51,450 which we do, we think again, requires us to go lobbying city by city. 737 00:43:51,450 --> 00:43:52,660 Accessible playgrounds. 738 00:43:52,660 --> 00:43:54,990 If you're gonna build a new playground, it says include 739 00:43:54,990 --> 00:43:59,360 accessibility features, and consult with people with disabilities on them. 740 00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:01,260 It's helpful, but it would've been way more 741 00:44:01,260 --> 00:44:03,060 helpful if it said, here are the features 742 00:44:03,060 --> 00:44:06,130 to include, rather than leaving it to everybody, 743 00:44:06,130 --> 00:44:08,630 any municipality building, a playground, or a pri, a 744 00:44:08,630 --> 00:44:10,550 school, or whatever, to have to incur the 745 00:44:10,550 --> 00:44:12,480 cost, and the burden of going out and figuring 746 00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:15,350 out, what, how to invent that wheel that 747 00:44:15,350 --> 00:44:19,710 others have already invented, with, in, in the past. 748 00:44:25,740 --> 00:44:28,920 There are other public spaces requirements, they're similar in 749 00:44:28,920 --> 00:44:31,310 the sense that they, they target things we need 750 00:44:31,310 --> 00:44:34,960 to fix, but they don't have enough detail quite 751 00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:37,900 often, and I think that what was going on 752 00:44:37,900 --> 00:44:39,870 is the government was at certain points was getting 753 00:44:39,870 --> 00:44:43,660 chicken that if they got too specific that, organizations 754 00:44:43,660 --> 00:44:45,870 in the public and private sector might get upset, 755 00:44:45,870 --> 00:44:47,690 that why are you telling us all what to do. 756 00:44:47,690 --> 00:44:50,290 The fact is, in my experience, they wanna know what 757 00:44:50,290 --> 00:44:53,420 they gotta do so that they've complied with the law. 758 00:44:53,420 --> 00:44:57,240 In one case they say in public, in service areas, that's where 759 00:44:57,240 --> 00:44:59,820 you go to a, an office, they have a counter, and they 760 00:44:59,820 --> 00:45:02,690 have a queuing line, that the queuing line has to be properly 761 00:45:02,690 --> 00:45:05,890 designed to be accessible, and they should have at least one low counter. 762 00:45:05,890 --> 00:45:09,260 That's great, but they don't say how that, how tall the counter should be. 763 00:45:10,380 --> 00:45:13,430 And an organization is left then to guess how tall they gotta 764 00:45:13,430 --> 00:45:17,690 make it so that they don't get exposed to contravention of the law. 765 00:45:17,690 --> 00:45:22,080 Just misses the point of what a good and effective accessibility standard would do. 766 00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:25,120 It's helpful they regulated it, they should have gone further. 767 00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:28,910 Let me turn very briefly to the issue inside buildings. 768 00:45:28,910 --> 00:45:30,645 Just last December, as I said, the 769 00:45:30,645 --> 00:45:33,200 government's passed some amendments to building code. 770 00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:36,000 And they are helpful, again they don't go 771 00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:39,100 far enough, but there are several problems here. 772 00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:42,750 The first is, I have to say the building 773 00:45:42,750 --> 00:45:44,780 code's been a problem for us for a long time. 774 00:45:44,780 --> 00:45:49,180 Since 1975 it's purported to set accessibility requirements 775 00:45:49,180 --> 00:45:52,090 and it's always been incomplete and out of date. 776 00:45:53,180 --> 00:45:56,310 It was so incomplete and out of date that we needed 777 00:45:56,310 --> 00:45:59,520 the AODA passed so we could get this issue away from 778 00:45:59,520 --> 00:46:02,580 the building code people, and back in the hands of people 779 00:46:02,580 --> 00:46:05,618 who might actually come up with solutions that meet our needs. 780 00:46:05,618 --> 00:46:07,960 So what happened. 781 00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:13,650 After the government got proposals from, a built environment standards develop, 782 00:46:13,650 --> 00:46:18,140 development committee that was convened to put forward ideas, they took the part that 783 00:46:18,140 --> 00:46:20,320 could be dealt by the building code and gave it back to the 784 00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:23,330 people who do in the entire government, who deal with the building code. 785 00:46:23,330 --> 00:46:26,480 So it went right back to where the problem came from. 786 00:46:26,480 --> 00:46:30,492 It then languished there for years. 787 00:46:30,492 --> 00:46:32,090 Years. 788 00:46:32,090 --> 00:46:36,050 And what they ended up coming up with, while helpful, was always constrained by 789 00:46:36,050 --> 00:46:39,220 things like, oh, we can't do that because the building code doesn't let us. 790 00:46:39,220 --> 00:46:42,559 That might be good policy, but we can't do that cuz the building code doesn't let us. 791 00:46:43,610 --> 00:46:45,600 They come up with standards which in the end don't 792 00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:49,870 fulfill the Human Rights Code, don't meet, rise to its requirements. 793 00:46:49,870 --> 00:46:52,730 And again, a lot of builders think, like others, that 794 00:46:52,730 --> 00:46:54,280 all they gotta do is comply with the building code. 795 00:46:54,280 --> 00:46:56,400 They don't know from the Human Rights Code. 796 00:46:56,400 --> 00:46:59,865 What we have said to the government is this, we don't 797 00:46:59,865 --> 00:47:03,869 mind if you've amended the building code, but you've got to 798 00:47:03,869 --> 00:47:09,259 keep your commitment to go further, and you've gotta pass a, an, accessibility 799 00:47:09,259 --> 00:47:14,470 standard to deal with future retrofits in non-renovated old buildings. 800 00:47:14,470 --> 00:47:16,880 And to this day, the government has never said yes. 801 00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:20,030 They put a commitment to do that on their website in '09. 802 00:47:20,030 --> 00:47:21,970 We copied it onto our website. 803 00:47:21,970 --> 00:47:25,150 They've since taken down that page of their website. 804 00:47:25,150 --> 00:47:27,070 But we have preserved it. 805 00:47:27,070 --> 00:47:30,680 You can't just take a page down and think the promise is gonna go away. 806 00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:33,380 That's what we're there for, to hold them accountable. 807 00:47:33,380 --> 00:47:35,940 But the other thing we've asked them to do is this, 808 00:47:35,940 --> 00:47:42,520 we're entitled under the AODA to standards enacted under the AODA, 809 00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:44,700 and there's a bunch of procedural protections I deal with in 810 00:47:44,700 --> 00:47:48,690 other lectures and a bunch of safeguards for the disability community. 811 00:47:48,690 --> 00:47:51,430 We don't have those in the case of the building code. 812 00:47:51,430 --> 00:47:54,360 We've asked the government to take whatever they put in the building code 813 00:47:54,360 --> 00:47:58,390 and enact it in a parallel standard under the AODA for the built environment. 814 00:47:58,390 --> 00:48:01,220 It can regulate the exact same things in exactly 815 00:48:01,220 --> 00:48:03,420 same way, but so that we have access to 816 00:48:03,420 --> 00:48:06,329 the whole machinery and the AODA to enforce it, 817 00:48:06,329 --> 00:48:10,590 and to have it reviewed, with our entitlements for input. 818 00:48:10,590 --> 00:48:12,910 The government hasn't answered. 819 00:48:12,910 --> 00:48:16,860 So, let me take the last few minutes to, so, so that's where we are. 820 00:48:16,860 --> 00:48:19,640 So, if all these standards that are on the books were complied with 821 00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:24,800 to the letter, we would not achieve full accessibility by 2025 or ever. 822 00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:28,500 But on the other hand, they will help, and they certainly move us considerably 823 00:48:28,500 --> 00:48:35,580 further forward than we would have been if we had not, got, had this act at all. 824 00:48:35,580 --> 00:48:37,190 Let me take the last few minutes to talk 825 00:48:37,190 --> 00:48:41,240 to you about, where we've come on other important 826 00:48:41,240 --> 00:48:44,370 fronts in achieving the goal of full accessibility by 827 00:48:44,370 --> 00:48:48,650 2025 apart from the actual making of accessibility standards. 828 00:48:48,650 --> 00:48:49,790 Well, the first thing that will come to 829 00:48:49,790 --> 00:48:54,180 mind is, okay, that's great they made these standards. 830 00:48:54,180 --> 00:48:56,150 What about enforcing them. 831 00:48:56,150 --> 00:49:00,330 In the act the government gave itself, effective enforcement powers and we have 832 00:49:00,330 --> 00:49:03,425 repeated written promises on our website at 833 00:49:03,425 --> 00:49:08,750 aodaalliance.org, that they would effectively enforce it. 834 00:49:08,750 --> 00:49:13,170 They can audit organizations, they can inspect organizations, they can issue 835 00:49:13,170 --> 00:49:16,160 compliance organizations and there's authority for 836 00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:19,109 very stiff monetary penalties for contraventions. 837 00:49:19,109 --> 00:49:25,120 Well, enforcement, unfortunately, is not, has not been happening up til last fall. 838 00:49:26,860 --> 00:49:30,780 We actually wrote the government a year ago, a year ago and 839 00:49:30,780 --> 00:49:35,364 said, can you tell us what you're doing about enforcing this law. 840 00:49:35,364 --> 00:49:39,306 Under that Customer Service Standard, the one with the not very 841 00:49:39,306 --> 00:49:44,635 onerous requirements that gave businesses like five years to comply, all businesses 842 00:49:44,635 --> 00:49:47,993 with 20 or more employees had to file, or e-file, a 843 00:49:47,993 --> 00:49:52,789 self report with the government by, the end of December of 2013. 844 00:49:52,789 --> 00:49:56,005 And all they had to do in that is say, you know, I've got a 845 00:49:56,005 --> 00:49:58,819 policy on the customer service, I've trained my 846 00:49:58,819 --> 00:50:01,749 staff, and I've done the other measures needed. 847 00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:03,907 A self report. 848 00:50:03,907 --> 00:50:05,769 I'm not talking about an income tax return, 849 00:50:05,769 --> 00:50:08,320 we're talking about a very simple self report. 850 00:50:08,320 --> 00:50:12,340 We asked the government a year ago, how many of those organizations 851 00:50:12,340 --> 00:50:15,470 did file, and what are you doing about the ones who didn't. 852 00:50:15,470 --> 00:50:16,850 The government did not answer. 853 00:50:16,850 --> 00:50:21,110 We ran a count up on Twitter for months on their failure to answer. 854 00:50:21,110 --> 00:50:22,950 Last summer, I had to resort to a Freedom of 855 00:50:22,950 --> 00:50:27,220 Information request, and I finally got the answers last November. 856 00:50:27,220 --> 00:50:31,320 And they ended up on, prominent coverage in the Toronto Star, and 857 00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:34,740 in an editorial in the Toronto Star cuz the news was so bad. 858 00:50:34,740 --> 00:50:36,123 What did we find out. 859 00:50:36,123 --> 00:50:41,275 Of the 36 or so, or, pardon me, all the private sector 860 00:50:41,275 --> 00:50:46,703 organizations in Ontario that had to file one of those reports had five 861 00:50:46,703 --> 00:50:52,256 years to do it, by, of all those with 20 or more employees. 862 00:50:52,256 --> 00:50:54,944 By the end of last year, by the end of, 863 00:50:54,944 --> 00:50:58,472 or by the middle of this past November, even eight 864 00:50:58,472 --> 00:51:02,336 or ten months after the deadline, fully 70% were in 865 00:51:02,336 --> 00:51:07,131 violation of the filing requirement, and the government knew it. 866 00:51:07,131 --> 00:51:10,771 It was higher a year ago, it had gone up to just, 867 00:51:10,771 --> 00:51:16,236 un, to 70% of not, or I should say down to 70% non-compliance. 868 00:51:16,236 --> 00:51:21,090 That is pathetic, and the government knew it. 869 00:51:21,090 --> 00:51:23,455 So, the question is what were they doing about enforcing it. 870 00:51:23,455 --> 00:51:26,690 Well, we revealed through our favorite information request that 871 00:51:26,690 --> 00:51:29,680 the government had not issued a single monetary penalty, 872 00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:32,290 they'd not issued a single compliance order, they'd not 873 00:51:32,290 --> 00:51:36,240 conducted a single inspection or a single audit of any 874 00:51:36,240 --> 00:51:39,280 of those organizations even though they knew for months 875 00:51:39,280 --> 00:51:42,170 about this rampant non, contravention, and even though they 876 00:51:42,170 --> 00:51:45,260 withheld the information from us, and forced us to 877 00:51:45,260 --> 00:51:47,470 resort to a Freedom of Information request to get it. 878 00:51:49,690 --> 00:51:51,640 Well, you might wonder, well, is it a problem that the 879 00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:54,710 budget's really bad, they just don't have the money for the enforcement. 880 00:51:54,710 --> 00:51:57,150 So, I asked how much the government, 881 00:51:57,150 --> 00:51:59,880 government annually gave to the office that had 882 00:51:59,880 --> 00:52:01,710 this mandate, it's called the Accessibility Director 883 00:52:01,710 --> 00:52:04,542 of Ontario, and how much they actually used. 884 00:52:04,542 --> 00:52:08,330 Cuz you'd think, well, they must be over budget, they just don't have the time. 885 00:52:08,330 --> 00:52:10,460 Turned out they're under budget every year. 886 00:52:10,460 --> 00:52:13,900 Sometimes in excess of $1 million a year. 887 00:52:13,900 --> 00:52:20,270 From 2005 to 2013, they had not used a total of $24 million appropriated to 888 00:52:20,270 --> 00:52:23,830 them over that, I don't mean in one year, but, spread over the whole period. 889 00:52:23,830 --> 00:52:25,570 So, they weren't enforcing, they knew of 890 00:52:25,570 --> 00:52:27,440 rapid contraventions, they had the money to 891 00:52:27,440 --> 00:52:30,870 do it, they had the power to do it, they just weren't doing it. 892 00:52:30,870 --> 00:52:32,910 And they promised effective enforcement with the 893 00:52:32,910 --> 00:52:35,800 lead minister responsible, Doctor Eric Hoskins, had 894 00:52:35,800 --> 00:52:39,500 months earlier, said that this act, accessibility, 895 00:52:39,500 --> 00:52:43,110 is his top, and his government's top priority. 896 00:52:43,110 --> 00:52:44,110 Heck of a top priority. 897 00:52:45,330 --> 00:52:46,880 So, that's where we're at on enforcement. 898 00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:49,600 Needless to say, we have been, working hard on that one. 899 00:52:51,190 --> 00:52:54,660 There are other areas where we are, undertaking advocacy. 900 00:52:54,660 --> 00:52:57,650 I'm gonna do very, very, very quick, bullets because they, 901 00:52:57,650 --> 00:53:00,260 they're part of the campaign to try to get full accessibility. 902 00:53:02,170 --> 00:53:07,570 We are concerned that Ontario laws not either authorize, 903 00:53:07,570 --> 00:53:12,580 or require discrimination or, or create or perpetuate barriers. 904 00:53:13,930 --> 00:53:17,840 So, in 2007 we asked the government to undertake a 905 00:53:17,840 --> 00:53:23,896 review of all its legislation to re, to identify, accessibility problems. 906 00:53:23,896 --> 00:53:27,280 The Premier in '07, Dalt McGintey, promised it. 907 00:53:27,280 --> 00:53:29,480 They didn't start til around 2011. 908 00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:31,000 It's going on now. 909 00:53:31,000 --> 00:53:34,330 Again, too slow, but it's an interesting area of trying 910 00:53:34,330 --> 00:53:39,370 to affect social change, not through challenging laws in court, 911 00:53:39,370 --> 00:53:41,750 but trying to get the government to look at its 912 00:53:41,750 --> 00:53:44,480 own legislation and figure out what it should be doing. 913 00:53:45,870 --> 00:53:49,040 Another area in which we've been active is trying to use the public purse. 914 00:53:49,040 --> 00:53:52,830 The government spends billions every year on 915 00:53:52,830 --> 00:53:55,200 capital infrastructure, and not just government buildings, but 916 00:53:55,200 --> 00:53:57,100 giving money to colleges, and universities, and 917 00:53:57,100 --> 00:54:00,570 hospitals, and so on, and municipalities for buildings. 918 00:54:01,660 --> 00:54:04,890 And it also spends billions every year buying goods and services. 919 00:54:04,890 --> 00:54:06,350 We wanted the government to make it a 920 00:54:06,350 --> 00:54:09,170 condition of anyone getting that money, that they not 921 00:54:09,170 --> 00:54:12,360 use a dime of public money to create, 922 00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:16,440 or perpetuate, or exacerbate barriers against people with disabilities. 923 00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:20,090 You want our money, we want to make sure you're not misusing it. 924 00:54:20,090 --> 00:54:23,020 Now, the government's done some in this area, but we don't have any 925 00:54:23,020 --> 00:54:28,820 sign, of, sort of, palpable progress, and they've been quite slow in doing it. 926 00:54:28,820 --> 00:54:31,328 The real linchpin, the real point where we are going 927 00:54:31,328 --> 00:54:33,744 to see if this means something or not is next year. 928 00:54:33,744 --> 00:54:39,558 2015 the Toronto, 2015 Pan and Parapan American games are taking place here. 929 00:54:39,558 --> 00:54:41,680 The government is investing a ton of money in it. 930 00:54:41,680 --> 00:54:45,040 We've asked them to have, a strategy to ensure that this 931 00:54:45,040 --> 00:54:47,680 game is not, the games are not only accessible in the 932 00:54:47,680 --> 00:54:50,920 sense that people with disabilities can get in the stadium, but 933 00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:53,500 that there are accessible restaurants, hotels, 934 00:54:53,500 --> 00:54:56,670 tourist sites, services, goods and employment. 935 00:54:56,670 --> 00:54:58,570 So, there's a legacy of accessibility, that's 936 00:54:58,570 --> 00:55:01,790 happened in other cities that have hosted Olympics. 937 00:55:01,790 --> 00:55:04,510 We, so far, don't have a major comprehensive 938 00:55:04,510 --> 00:55:06,130 public plan for this, if you check our 939 00:55:06,130 --> 00:55:08,900 website you'll see that we've offered one, but 940 00:55:08,900 --> 00:55:12,490 the government is still, going slow on it. 941 00:55:13,630 --> 00:55:18,950 A next area where we've been active is on accessible elections. 942 00:55:18,950 --> 00:55:20,880 If people with disabilities are going to have a real 943 00:55:20,880 --> 00:55:23,720 clout, they've got to have clout at the ballot box. 944 00:55:23,720 --> 00:55:27,470 And there are barriers in the voting process, either getting to, 945 00:55:27,470 --> 00:55:31,080 a polling station if there's not accessible transit, or accessible parking. 946 00:55:31,080 --> 00:55:32,900 Getting in the polling station, even though they're 947 00:55:32,900 --> 00:55:35,610 supposed to be accessible, they are at times not. 948 00:55:35,610 --> 00:55:38,770 Elections Ontario messes up, same on the municipal level. 949 00:55:38,770 --> 00:55:40,650 And there are people like me, who can not 950 00:55:40,650 --> 00:55:44,000 mark our ballots on our own and verify our choice. 951 00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:45,909 Same with people with certain motor disabilities. 952 00:55:47,140 --> 00:55:49,370 We have been pushing for some changes. 953 00:55:49,370 --> 00:55:51,110 We fought for legislative reforms. 954 00:55:51,110 --> 00:55:53,522 We got half way measures in 2010. 955 00:55:53,522 --> 00:55:58,060 Bill 231 was before the legislature, details about it in our website, was 956 00:55:58,060 --> 00:56:01,830 a bill to amend the Elections Act, among other things to deal with accessibility. 957 00:56:01,830 --> 00:56:04,829 Our long-term fight is for telephone and Internet voting. 958 00:56:05,858 --> 00:56:07,770 Secured telephone and internet voting, not only 959 00:56:07,770 --> 00:56:10,540 for voters with disabilities, but for everybody. 960 00:56:10,540 --> 00:56:13,039 We believe that that will help overcome a lot of barriers, 961 00:56:13,039 --> 00:56:15,664 not for all voters with disabilities, but for a lot of them. 962 00:56:15,664 --> 00:56:19,564 44 municipalities in Ontario now use it, Toronto's looking at it, 963 00:56:19,564 --> 00:56:23,600 Elections Ontario has been dragging their feet like you can not believe. 964 00:56:37,117 --> 00:56:42,110 The other area I'm gonna just talk about for a few seconds is this, the courts. 965 00:56:43,110 --> 00:56:45,610 The courts themselves, like all other sectors of our 966 00:56:45,610 --> 00:56:49,320 society, have too many barriers facing people with disabilities. 967 00:56:49,320 --> 00:56:52,595 And those barriers make it hard to go to court and get justice. 968 00:56:52,595 --> 00:56:57,020 It may be inaccessible buildings, not avail, lack of available 969 00:56:57,020 --> 00:57:02,158 sign language or other communication supports, a wide range of barriers. 970 00:57:02,158 --> 00:57:03,688 It's hard to deal with that under an 971 00:57:03,688 --> 00:57:06,442 accessibility regulation, cuz you can't regulate judges the 972 00:57:06,442 --> 00:57:08,482 way you might, what they, how they handle 973 00:57:08,482 --> 00:57:11,140 cases the way you might other, other issues. 974 00:57:11,140 --> 00:57:15,610 To the credit of our former Chief Justice Roy McMurtry, after whom my fellowship is 975 00:57:15,610 --> 00:57:21,120 named, in 2005 he announced that the court should do their share to fix this. 976 00:57:21,120 --> 00:57:24,648 This resulted in a report from a joint committee of the Bench Bar 977 00:57:24,648 --> 00:57:29,010 in Government, chaired by, Madame Justice Karen Wilder of our Court of Appeal, 978 00:57:29,010 --> 00:57:32,850 I worked on that committee, released in 2007 on the Court of Appeal 979 00:57:32,850 --> 00:57:38,450 website, mapping out how to make our courts more acc, fully accessible by 2025. 980 00:57:38,450 --> 00:57:40,540 I'm also involved with a joint permanent 981 00:57:40,540 --> 00:57:45,070 committee that's overseeing progress, to achieve that goal. 982 00:57:45,070 --> 00:57:47,330 As I've said in so many other context, 983 00:57:47,330 --> 00:57:49,940 we're making progress, but we're not on schedule. 984 00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:55,522 Let me, let me conclude. 985 00:57:55,522 --> 00:58:00,917 The, the, the task we set out on back in, 20 years ago, November 986 00:58:00,917 --> 00:58:06,395 of 1994, when a small group of us started fighting for this legislation, 987 00:58:06,395 --> 00:58:09,134 was undoubtedly an enormous, if not, 988 00:58:09,134 --> 00:58:12,454 perhaps, an unrealistic one, and, you would 989 00:58:12,454 --> 00:58:15,691 think that everything I've just said today, 990 00:58:15,691 --> 00:58:18,792 which should make me lack any optimism. 991 00:58:18,792 --> 00:58:20,800 After all, if the government that was committed 992 00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:22,640 to do this has been dragging their feet 993 00:58:22,640 --> 00:58:24,910 on enforcement, taking too long to get these 994 00:58:24,910 --> 00:58:27,620 standards made, balking at our efforts to try to 995 00:58:27,620 --> 00:58:29,830 get them to direct the next accessibility standards 996 00:58:29,830 --> 00:58:32,550 to make, and passing accessibility standards that palpably 997 00:58:32,550 --> 00:58:34,960 fall below the Humans Rights Code's requirements, you'd 998 00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:38,120 think, I should be a pessimist, but I'm not. 999 00:58:38,120 --> 00:58:39,350 I'm an optimist. 1000 00:58:39,350 --> 00:58:42,630 And, I'm an optimist for, two reasons. 1001 00:58:42,630 --> 00:58:45,780 The first I already gave you which is that we have made 1002 00:58:45,780 --> 00:58:52,170 significant progress the, so far, even though nowhere near what we should have. 1003 00:58:52,170 --> 00:58:55,820 But the other reason I'm optimistic is because at every step of the way, starting 1004 00:58:55,820 --> 00:58:57,870 on day one, what we were trying to 1005 00:58:57,870 --> 00:59:02,330 accomplish looked not only uphill, but inaccessibly uphill. 1006 00:59:02,330 --> 00:59:05,960 We got the legislation passed, it only took ten years. 1007 00:59:05,960 --> 00:59:09,250 We got standards enacted under it, not enough. 1008 00:59:09,250 --> 00:59:14,250 We got enforcement tools, pass, created not being used. 1009 00:59:14,250 --> 00:59:18,930 But we've been able to now secure more public attention then ever before on this. 1010 00:59:18,930 --> 00:59:22,420 With election commitments on accessibility being made, at least by two, if 1011 00:59:22,420 --> 00:59:26,890 not three parties in every election, and many bi elections since 1995. 1012 00:59:26,890 --> 00:59:31,420 So, I remain an optimist that we will get there and 1013 00:59:31,420 --> 00:59:33,210 we will hold their feet to the fire until we do. 1014 00:59:34,260 --> 00:59:36,180 I thank you very much for this opportunity to speak 1015 00:59:36,180 --> 00:59:38,510 to you, and I really look forward to taking your questions.