In the fourth review of the AODA, Rich Donovan states that Ontario will not be fully accessible by 2025. In other words, the provincial government will not meet its own deadline under the AODA. Limited creation, implementation, and enforcement of AODA standards impacts the well-being and safety of Ontarians with disabilities. Therefore, Donovan recommends that the Ontario government should declare this lack of progress on accessibility a crisis. This crisis state should last six (6) months. During this time, the Ontario government should form a crisis committee to implement crucial accessibility improvements in the province. The Premier should act as the chair of this committee, and the Secretary of Cabinet should act as co-chair. Furthermore, Donovan outlines tactical recommendations the province should follow to fulfill its remaining responsibilities in the public sector. One of these tactical recommendations is publicizing examples of organizations that remove accessibility barriers.
Publicizing Examples of Organizations that Remove Accessibility Barriers
The review states that one reason for the AODA’s limited implementation is cost. For example, some small private-sector organizations and medium-sized private-sector organizations do not have the resources to remove accessibility barriers. Therefore, the review recommends social impact bonds to fund AODA compliance. In addition, some organizations have found ways to remove accessibility barriers with their existing resources. Their methods and ideas should serve as examples for other organizations to learn from.
Recommendations
Therefore, the review recommends that the accessibility agency should research the most common accessibility barriers in organizations of different:
- Sizes
- Sectors
Likewise, the agency’s research team should locate organizations that have found ways to remove these common barriers. While some of these organizations could be based in Ontario, others could be based anywhere around the world. Moreover, the research team should learn about the best practices that these organizations have used for becoming more accessible. Then, the agency should send information about these best practices to other organizations comparable in size and sector. In this way, organizations struggling with accessibility barriers can learn how to remove them with the resources they have.