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Second Review of the Transportation Standards

After AODA standards come into force, they must be reviewed at least every five (5) years. In other words, the AODA Standards Development Committee that created each standard must also review it every five (5) years, or more often. The Committee must then submit a draft of their review to the Minister in charge of the AODA. The Minister must make the review available to the public so that people can comment on it. Based on those public reactions, the committee revises the proposed standard and resubmits it to the minister. The minister must recommend to the Lieutenant Governor that the standard be accepted in whole, in part, or with modifications. The first review of the Transportation Standards became public in 2018. Consequently, a second review of the Transportation Standards should take place in 2023.

Second Review of the Transportation Standards

In this needed second review, the AODA Transportation Standards Development Committee should outline improvements to make transportation accessible for people with disabilities by 2025. The Committee should recommend changes to reduce the accessibility barriers that people with disabilities face while accessing transportation, including:

Some of the Standards’ requirements affect both conventional and specialized transit companies. For example, the Committee could recommend updates to requirements mandating:

Alternatively, some requirements in the Standards affect only conventional transit companies. For instance, the Committee could recommend changes to requirements mandating:

Moreover, the Committee should recommend other changes or additions to the standards to identify, remove, and prevent other barriers. For example, the Third Review of the AODA points out remaining barriers in specialized transit, conventional transit, and the rideshare industry. The government can mitigate some of these barriers through stronger enforcement of existing AODA standards. On the other hand, other barrier removal requires changes to the standards.

Likewise, the first review of the Transportation Standards recommends many changes to the Standards, as well as other accessibility improvements involving partnerships with other sectors. Since the government has not yet implemented the first review of the Transportation Standards, the second review will repeat many of these recommendations. This repetition would be similar to many recommendations in the Third Review of the AODA that were made in previous reviews but not implemented. Nonetheless, repetition is an important way to recognize the province’s lack of progress toward accessibility, and to encourage government leadership in implementing the AODA.

Accessibility Ecosystem Model for Updating AODA Standards

Furthermore, the AODA Information and Communications Standards Development Committee reports that the current procedure for creating and reviewing AODA standards cannot keep pace with modern technology. While methods of creating and using information change rapidly, current standards cannot provide enough guidance to organizations about how to ensure that the information they produce is accessible. As a result, the Committee recommends an alternative system for developing, updating, and enforcing AODA standards. This new system, called the Accessibility Ecosystem Model, would have three components:

The model would affect not only the Information and Communications Standards, but other existing and future standards. As a result, the needed second review of the Transportation Standards should explore how the accessibility ecosystem model could impact the Transportation Standards.

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