It’s Access Awareness Week – again! And still, accessibility and inclusion of people with disabilities remain a huge issue for us.
One in seven Canadian adults have a disability yet we continue to face unrelenting barriers our daily lives.
The Hon. David Onley, who conducted the independent review of the AODA summarizes where we are in our slow and painful journey toward accessibility:
The promised accessible Ontario is nowhere in sight. The vision in the AODA has, by and large, turned out to be a mirage. Every day, in every community in Ontario, people with disabilities encounter formidable barriers to participation in the vast opportunities this province affords its residents – its able-bodied residents… For most disabled persons, Ontario is not a place of opportunity but one of countless, dispiriting, soul-crushing barriers.
So we tip our hat to the City of Toronto and the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto launch of the #TorontoForAll campaign and the Rick Hansen Foundation launch of the #Everyone, Everywhere program. These efforts should not be necessary, but they are vital to raising awareness about how far we still have to go.
Ontario is home to 14.3 million people, with over 2 million having some kind of disability. It’s been 40 years since Rick Hansen’s Man in Motion Tour to raise awareness, 15 years since the AODA was passed, and if the proposed Accessible Canada Act is passed, another 18 years.
Surely we have waited long enough!
It will take all of us, individually and in groups to make a difference. What can you do this year to move us closer to accessibility?
Please join CWDO and become part of the solution to achieving accessibility for all Ontarians.
Together we are stronger.