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Will Ontario’s Transportation Standards Development Committee Consider and Vote on Each Recommendation that the AODA Alliance and ARCH Disability Law Centre Have Made to Strengthen Ontario’s Transportation Accessibility Standard?

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities https://www.aodaalliance.org aodafeedback@gmail.com Twitter: @aodaalliance

December 6, 2017

SUMMARY

There is good reason to be quite concerned about the efforts going on now to develop or review accessibility standards under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Right now, four Standards Development Committees are in operation. The Wynne Government appointed each of them under the AODA.

One Standards Development Committee is developing recommendations for the Wynne Government on what to include in its promised Health Care Accessibility Standard. A second Standards Development Committee is reviewing the 2011 Transportation Accessibility Standard, to advise on how it needs to be strengthened. A third Standards Development Committee is reviewing the 2011 Information and Communication Accessibility Standard, to advise on how it needs to be strengthened. A fourth Standards Development Committee is reviewing the 2011 Employment Accessibility Standard, to advise on how it needs to be strengthened.

The AODA Alliance has asked each of these Standards Development Committees for an opportunity to present to them. We are eager to help them with their work, by identifying areas of need and making constructive recommendations. The AODA Alliance is widely-recognized for its voluntary work in this regard.

Three of these Standards Development Committees have turned down our request. They don’t want to let us speak to them, until after they prepare and make public their initial recommendations to the Ontario Government. We want to have a chance to offer our input before these committees make their initial recommendations. The later in their work that they hear from us, the lesser is our potential to have a positive impact on their recommendations. They can already have extensively discussed and formed opinions on important issues without the benefit of our experience and advice.

The only AODA Standards Development Committee now in operation that has agreed to let us present is the Transportation Standards Development Committee. On Wednesday, November 15, 2017, the AODA Alliance and ARCH Disability Law Centre made a joint in-person presentation to the Transportation Standards Development Committee. As noted above, that Standards Development Committee is required to recommend improvements where needed, to ensure that transportation services in Ontario become fully accessible to passengers with disabilities by 2025.

Our presentation to the Transportation Standards Development committee took place after that Committee had made public its initial or draft reform recommendations to the Wynne Government on how to revise the Transportation Accessibility Standard. Back on July 31, 2017, the AODA Alliance and ARCH Disability Law Centre submitted an extensive joint brief to the Transportation Standards Development Committee and the Wynne Government. Prepared after the Transportation Standards Development committee had issued its draft recommendations, our brief set out a detailed package of 59 recommendations to strengthen Ontario’s very limited Transportation Accessibility Standard. To read the July 31, 2017 AODA Alliance/ARCH brief on needed reforms to Ontario’s 2011 Transportation Accessibility Standard, visit https://www.aodaalliance.org/strong-effective-aoda/08022017.asp

In our November 15, 2017 oral presentation, we asked the Transportation Standards Development Committee to take two important actions. First, when that Committee comes to vote on its final recommendations that it will submit to the Government, we asked that Committee to vote separately on each of the 59 recommendations that we placed before it in our brief, to strengthen the Transportation Accessibility Standard. We want to be sure that this Committee actually considers our recommendations. We want to be sure each gets a separate vote. Otherwise, our ideas will be left gathering dust in some drawer.

Second, we asked the Transportation Standards Development Committee to convene a brainstorming session with key sectors and experts. This would help the Standards Development Committee work through any tough and important issues on which it is having any difficulty. We offered to help with this and take part in it, drawing on our past experience.

Arising from our experience at the Transportation Standards Development Committee on November 15, 2017, we have several concerns:

a) At this meeting, no members of the Transportation Standards Development Committee asked us any questions about our 106-page brief or any of our 59 recommendations. This is a troubling response to our detailed input.

b) We are concerned that the Government appears not to have kept its promise to provide dedicated staff support to disability sector representatives on each Standards Development Committee.

c) The Transportation Standards Development Committee chair improperly tried to impose a secrecy requirement on our presentation at the Transportation Standards Development Committee.

d) There is a serious concern that the Standards Development Committee process is at least at times operating in a lopsided way that tilts against the needs and perspectives of people with disabilities.

Below we set out

* a detailed analysis of and reflections on our November 15, 2017 presentation to the Transportation Standards Development Committee.

* an article from the November 13, 2017 Toronto Star, and a report that appeared on Global News on November 14, 2017. Both point to significant accessibility problems in public transit that continue to plague passengers with disabilities. We mentioned both of these reports during our November 15, 2017 presentation. Neither the current Transportation Accessibility Standard nor the Transportation Standards Development Committee’s draft recommendations for improving it would address the serious disability accessibility barriers in either news report.

* a list of the members of the Transportation Standards Development Committee that the Wynne Government appointed, and their organizational affiliations, and

* links to more background, including details on how to sign up for or unsubscribe from AODA Alliance Updates.

MORE DETAILS

1. Reflections on the Joint AODA Alliance /ARCH Disability Law Centre Presentation to the Transportation Standards Development Committee Appointed by the Wynne Government

When the AODA Alliance and ARCH Disability Law Centre jointly presented to the Transportation Standards Development Committee on November 15, 2017, the time was clearly ripe for major action to dramatically speed up progress towards a fully accessible transportation system in Ontario. 2025, the deadline for full accessibility, is just a little over seven years away. We are behind schedule for reaching full accessibility by that year, with too much Government foot-dragging.

Governments have made transportation and public transit improvement a major priority. No one disputes that accessibility of transportation services, and especially public transit, is pivotally important.

The media has recently focused more and more on the unfair recurring disability accessibility barriers that people with disabilities continue to face in access to transportation in Ontario. We set out two examples in the recent media, below:

* The November 14, 2017 Global TV news included a report, set out below, on the unbelievable three months that a Toronto Transit Commission elevator will be out of service at the Kennedy subway station. Even in 2017, some 30 Toronto subway stations have no elevator. For the rest, one can never be sure when or if they the elevator or escalator be working. This news story reached the media thanks to an AODA Alliance supporter making it public on Twitter as part of our successful #AODAfail blitz.

* The November 13, 2017 Toronto Star included an article, set out below, on TTC’s current plan to fix the dangerous gap between its new subway cars and the station’s subway platform, at several subway stations. At first this might seem like good news. A closer look raises serious concerns. It is inexcusable that TTC bought new subway cars without ensuring that they are safe for everyone to use, including people with disabilities. TTC’s failing to do so is a violation of Premier Wynne’s 2014 election promise that public money would not be used to create or perpetuate disability barriers. As well, this problem was well known over three years ago. It is inexcusable that TTC left the public exposed to this safety risk for three years.

November 15, 2017 witnessed the first time that the AODA Alliance has ever presented to any Standards Development Committee appointed under the AODA to make recommendations on what an accessibility standard should include. Back in 2005-06, David Lepofsky (then an AODA Alliance member) asked to be able to present to the Transportation Standards Development Committee on the need for transit drivers to announce all route stops for the benefit of blind people like himself. He was then fighting a human rights case against the Toronto Transit Commission on this topic. At that time, that Standards Development Committee told him that it would not allow him to present to that Committee.

Despite the fact that major reforms are so profoundly needed in the area of accessibility of transportation in Ontario, our experience on November 15, 2017 with the Transportation Standards Development Committee left us with several concerns. These are emblematic of bigger problems with the way the Wynne Government has been going about developing accessibility standards under the AODA. The problem is not so much with the AODA itself as with how the Wynne Government is implementing it.

a) The Transportation Standards Development Committee Asked No Questions About Our Brief or Recommendations

During our November 15, 2017 presentation, no member of the Transportation Standards Development Committee and no attending Government officials asked us a single question about anything we presented, or anything in our 106-page brief. We spent a huge amount of time, working together with ARCH, to research ideas for reform, gather feedback from the public, and organize and draw up a constructive package of 59 amendments, with supporting research and explanations. One would expect at least one inquiry about something we proposed, or about our analysis of the problems people with disabilities face in transportation, or about our critique of the very limited draft reform recommendations that the Transportation Standards Development Committee circulated for public comment.

That we were asked nothing at all is even more troubling, since we were the only representatives from the front lines of Ontario’s disability community that have gotten to appear before this committee to date.

b) Unkept Promise to Provide Dedicated Staff Support to Disability Sector Representatives on each Standards Development Committee

It does not appear that the Wynne Government has kept an important decade-old promise that Ontario’s Liberal Government made to Ontarians with disabilities, at our request, in the 2007 election. This concerns the operations of a Standards Development Committee.

Over the first years after the AODA was passed, we got troubling feedback from disability sector representatives on several Standards Development Committees. They needed help at the table during Standards Development Committee meetings. On the other side of the table were well-funded and well-briefed representatives of businesses, municipalities, public transit providers and other large organizations. Those large organizations have research staffs that can help them prepare. The disability sector was being out-maneuvered. We particularly heard concerns about this from the work of the Transportation Accessibility Standard a decade ago.

To address this problem, we therefore asked all parties in the 2007 election to commit to provide staff support specifically for the disability sector, to help right this unfair imbalance. In his September 14, 2007 letter to the AODA Alliance, setting out the Ontario Liberal Party’s 2007 election promises on disability accessibility, Premier Dalton McGuinty committed as follows, as part of his Government’s measures to strengthen the standards development process:

“Hiring a full-time staff member to help bring the disability community’s voice to the table.”

Commendably, over the next three years, it is our understanding that the Government kept this promise. However, we have seen no indication that they have done so either during the 2013-15 review of the 2007 Customer Service Accessibility Standard or during the current review of the 2011 Transportation Accessibility Standard.

When Kathleen Wynne was running to become leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, and hence, the Ontario Premier, she wrote the AODA Alliance on December 3, 2012, promising, among other things, to keep all Premier McGuinty’s earlier promises on disability accessibility.

During our November 15, 2017 presentation to the Transportation Standards Development Committee, we tried to see if the Government had kept this promise in so far as the Transportation Standards Development Committee is concerned. From the answer we got, there is no indication that the Government has done so.

Making matters worse, during that meeting, the Transportation Accessibility Standard Chair, Kelly Paleczny, tried to restrict us from getting into this topic. When it was clear that no one on the Committee was going to ask any questions about anything in our detailed brief on transportation accessibility barriers, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky asked the disability sector representatives on the Transportation Standards Development Committee if the Government had offered to provide them with staff support, to assist them in marshalling the disability community’s perspectives and needs during the Committee’s formulation of recommendations.

Transportation Standards Development Committee Chair Kelly Paleczny tried to cut off that discussion, as if it was not something that was proper for us to raise at this meeting. the AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky responded, explaining why we were asking about this. Among other things, he noted that this very topic was addressed in the joint AODA Alliance/ARCH brief to this Committee that they were there to present. That brief includes the following specific discussion of this topic, and focused recommendation on point:

“25. Government’s Promise to Provide Disability Sector Representatives on the Transportation Standards Development Committee with a Full Time Staff Support Person

In Premier Dalton McGuinty’s September 14,2007 letter to the AODA Alliance, the Ontario Government set out its 2007 election promises on disability accessibility. In that letter, the Ontario Government promised that it would hire “a full-time staff member to help bring the disability community’s voice to the table.” It was the experience of disability sector representatives on the earlier Transportation Standards Development Committee from 2006 to 2009 that led us to seek and obtain the foregoing 2007 election pledge from the Ontario Government.

It is our understanding that this was not provided to the Standards Development Committee that conducted the recent review of the Customer Service Accessibility Standard. We do not know if the Government kept this promise vis a vis the work of the current Transportation Standards Development Committee.

We therefore recommend that:

#39: If the Government has not already done so, it should immediately provide the disability sector representatives on the current Transportation Standards Development Committee with a full-time staff support person, in accordance with its September 14, 2007 election promise, to assist them in ensuring that the needs of people with disabilities are effectively represented and presented there.”
c) Improper Attempt to Impose a Confidentiality Requirement on Our Presentation at the Transportation Standards Development Committee

It is very disturbing that the Transportation Standards Development Committee Chair, Kelly Paleczny, began our presentation by trying to impose an unjustified requirement of confidentiality. She said that these meetings are confidential so anything that’s discussed is considered confidential.

We objected and did not agree to this. Before she had said this, David Lepofsky had already indicated that we were audio recording our appearance before that Committee. He said that our proposals to the Government on needed reforms on accessibility are not confidential.

Moreover, the AODA does not require that a Standards Development Committee meeting be confidential, nor does it give a Standards Development Committee chair to impose a confidentiality requirement. To the contrary, the AODA requires that minutes of those meetings all be kept and publicly posted. In the face of this, Chair Paleczny backed down.

It is difficult to see how anyone could claim that the work of an AODA Standards Development Committee is confidential. The AODA does not anywhere say that the work of any aspect of a Standards Development Committee is confidential. To the contrary, the AODA requires that minutes be kept of all Standards Development Committee meetings. It also requires the Government to make public such things as a Standards Development Committee’s terms of reference (including any compensation for Committee members), minutes of all Standards Development Committee meetings, the Standards Development Committee’s mandatory progress reports to the Government on its work, and the initial and final recommendations a Standards Development Committee submits to the Government on what an accessibility standard should include.

These broad and important requirements of openness apply both when a Standards Development Committee is developing proposals for an initial accessibility standard, and when a Standards Development Committee is later reviewing an existing accessibility standard. The strong message from the AODA is in favour of openness and public access to information, not concealment and secrecy.

Section 8 of the AODA includes:

“(6) The Minister shall fix terms of reference for each standards Development Committee and shall establish in the terms of reference the deadlines that each committee must meet throughout the various stages of the standards development process.

Committee members allowance
(7) The terms of reference may,
(a) provide for the Minister to pay members of a standards Development Committee an allowance for attendance at committee meetings and a reimbursement for expenses incurred by members in an amount that the Minister determines; and
(b) specify the circumstances in which the allowance or reimbursement may be paid.

Terms of reference made public
(8) After fixing the terms of reference under subsection (6), the Minister shall make the terms of reference available to the public by posting them on a government internet site and by such other means as the Minister considers advisable.

Minutes of meetings
(9) A standards Development Committee shall keep minutes of every meeting it holds and shall make the minutes available to the public by posting them on a government internet site and by such other means as the terms of reference may provide.”

As well, section 9 of the AODA provides in part:

“(5) Within the time period specified by the committees terms of reference, each standards Development Committee shall prepare a proposed accessibility standard and submit it to the Minister for the purposes of making the proposed standard public and receiving comments in accordance with section 10.

Finalizing initial proposed standard
(6) After considering the comments received under section 10, a standards Development Committee may make any changes it considers advisable to the proposed accessibility standard and provide the Minister with the proposed accessibility standard within the time period specified by the committees terms of reference.

Ministers response
(7) No later than 90 days after receiving a proposed accessibility standard under subsection (6), the Minister shall decide whether to recommend to the Lieutenant Governor in Council that the proposed standard be adopted by regulation under section 6 in whole, in part or with modifications.

Same
(8) On making a decision under subsection (7), the Minister shall inform, in writing, the standards Development Committee that developed the proposed standard in question of his or her decision.

Proposed standards made public
10. (1) Upon receiving a proposed accessibility standard from a standards Development Committee under subsection 9 (5) or clause 9 (9) (c), the Minister shall make it available to the public by posting it on a government internet site and by such other means as the Minister considers advisable.

Comments
(2) Within 45 days after a proposed accessibility standard is made available to the public in accordance with subsection (1) or within such other period of time as may be specified by the Minister, any person may submit comments with respect to a proposed accessibility standard to the appropriate standards Development Committee. 2005, c. 11, s. 10 (2).

Progress reports
11. (1) Each standards Development Committee shall provide the Minister with periodic reports on the progress of the preparation of the proposed standard as specified in the committees terms of reference or as may be required by the Minister from time to time.

Progress reports made public
(2) Upon receiving a report under subsection (1), the Minister shall make it available to the public by posting it on a government internet site and by such other means as the Minister considers advisable.”

The AODA’s strong message, that the work of a Standards Development Committee is not confidential, is also commendably reflected in the Government commitment that its process for developing accessibility standards is an open one. In his September 24, 2007 letter to the AODA Alliance, setting out the Government’s 2007 election promises on disability accessibility, Premier Dalton McGuinty committed:

“Our process for developing standards is one that is open and consultative.”

Premier McGuinty’s September 14, 2007 letter to the AODA Alliance is available at https://www.aodaalliance.org/strong-effective-aoda/09142007.asp

This secrecy issue is symptomatic of a bigger problem. The AODA Alliance is concerned that there is too much secrecy in the Government’s approach to the AODA’s implementation and enforcement.

AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky had to fight a multi-year battle against the Wynne Government under Ontario’s Freedom of Information laws to get access to key documents about the AODA’s implementation and enforcement. The Government wrongly tried to charge him over five times the permissible fee for that information. The Wynne Government still refuses to waive its fee, even though it belatedly was forced to admit that it knows the AODA Alliance has no money or assets. For the saga of this battle under Ontario’s Freedom of Information legislation, visit https://www.aodaalliance.org/strong-effective-aoda/08012017.asp

d) Risk of Lopsidedness of the Transportation Standards Development Committee’s Work, Tilting Against People with Disabilities

We are concerned that the process may be unfairly tilting against the disability perspective. We first saw this in the first two years of the AODA, when the Government only appointed a minority of Standards Development Committee members from the disability sector. The disability sector’s perspective was always outnumbered.

As a result, in the 2007 election, we sought an election commitment that the disability sector would always comprise equal representation from the disability sector. To his credit, Premier Dalton McGuinty promised in the 2007 election that the Ontario Government would ensure that the disability sector has equal representation at each Standards Development Committee. To the best of our knowledge, the Ontario Government has kept that promise.

This pro-disability reform was not well-received in the transportation sector. Back in 2007, the Transportation Standards Development Committee, then dominated by the transit sector, tried to get the Government to break this promise. To its credit, the Government kept its word, over the transit sector’s objection.

A decade later, however, the standards development process does not appear to have achieved a real and consistent even-handedness. For example, the Wynne Government appointed Ms. Kelly Paleczny, the Chair and General Manager of the London Transit Commission, to chair the current Transportation Standards Development Committee. She previously sat on the same committee a decade ago. that of itself, sends a strong signal that the transit sector is in the driver’s seat here. In our experience, the public transit sector has been among the most well-organized and resistant in the accessibility context.

At the November 15, 2017 Transportation Standards Development Committee meeting, it appeared that some of the disability sector representatives on that committee did not attend. As well, the Government sends to these meetings a number of “non-voting” members, all of whom appear to come from the Government itself. The result is a Standards Development Committee meeting room in which the disability perspective is certainly out-numbered, from our perspective.

Making this more troubling is the fact that the Transportation Standards Development Committee has had no presentations from anyone from the disability community, before we came. All earlier presenters, pre-dating its creating its draft recommendations, came from the government sector, or, in one case, from OCAD U’s excellent Inclusive Design Research Centre.

This certainly can explain why the draft recommendations of the Transportation Standards Development Committee are so weak. They reflect a perspective that is more in line with the transportation sector than with the needs of passengers with disabilities.

This disturbing result is not unique to the Transportation Standards Development Committee. Between 2013 and 2015, the Standards Development Committee that reviewed the 2007 Customer Service Accessibility Standard came up with recommendations for reform that are similarly weak and ineffective.

There is hence a pressing need for substantial reform, if Ontario is to get onto schedule to reach full accessibility by 2025, the AODA’s deadline.

2. Toronto Star November 13, 2017

Subway to get safer for riders who use wheels; Fixing gaps between trains and platforms will help users on mobility devices and those with strollers

Ben Spurr

The TTC is planning to make modifications to almost all of its subway stations to make train platforms safer for passengers with mobility issues.

According to a report going before the transit agency’s board on Monday, 62 of the network’s 69 stations likely require retrofits to narrow the gaps between trains and platforms.

Large spaces between trains and platform edges, or vertical misalignments between the vehicle floor and the platform surface, pose a potential hazard for riders using mobility devices or strollers, as well as those with impaired vision.

The Advisory Committee on Accessible Transit (ACAT) has warned the TTC that passengers can get the wheels of mobility devices caught in the gaps, “causing panic, unnecessary wear/damage … and system delays which ultimately undermine confidence the subway is truly accessible.” In an interview, ACAT chair Debbie Gillespie called the planned retrofits a “godsend.”

The size of the gaps varies from station to station, and even from different locations on the same platform. That kind of variation in the physical environment can cause stress and pose safety hazards for people with accessibility challenges.

“The biggest thing is not knowing,” said Gillespie, who is visually impaired.

“Consistency is key when you talk about accessibility.”

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) doesn’t set acceptable gap sizes for public transit agencies, but after consulting with ACAT, TTC staff are recommending a standard of 89 mm or less for the horizontal gaps between trains and platforms, and 38 mm for the difference between the height of the train floor and the platform.

Jim Ross, deputy chief operating officers for the TTC, said there are multiple reasons why the agency is planning the retrofits.

The AODA has mandated that the transit network be fully accessible by 2025, and the TTC has already started the process of shifting some Wheel-Trans customers onto its conventional system as part of what it calls its Family of Services model. In eight years, half of the customers who currently qualify for Wheel-Trans are expected to use the conventional transit network.

On top of the legal and policy reasons, Ross said, “it’s just the right thing to do.”

“We have a long-standing commitment to accessibility and making sure that our system is accessible… Wherever we can make it better, we’re committed to doing that.”

The TTC used a train-mounted laser system called LiDAR (light detection and ranging) to measure gaps at all its stations over several months, and determined 81 per cent of the portion of the platforms that line up with trains when they’re stopped already meets the proposed standards.

However, to ensure that at least 90 per cent of the platform length at every station meets the standard, retrofits will be required at almost all stops. Some work will be minor and localized to small sections of platforms, but other cases will require more extensive reconstructions.

Options to address the gaps include using rubber gap fillers and building ramps. The TTC has already built a ramp at one end of Eglinton station, where the platform was constructed unusually low. The agency also lowered its entire fleet of new Toronto Rocket trains after it discovered they were too high.

The report asks the TTC board to endorse the new gap standards, and to carry out further study to design a platform retrofitting plan.

Less complex work to address the gaps could be performed starting next year, with Davisville, St. Clair, Union and Dundas identified as the priorities. More complex work would begin in 2020. Some of the retrofits could require temporary station closures.

It’s not yet known how much all of the work will cost, but a comprehensive study of the problem is estimated at $500,000.

Ross cautioned that the TTC will never be able to address some of the gaps, and won’t always be able to narrow the spaces as much as it would like. That’s because many different factors contribute to how large the gaps are, including the model of subway car, how many people are on board and even the age of train wheels.

3. Global News Toronto November 14, 2017

Originally posted at: https://globalnews.ca/news/3860223/ttc-user-out-of-service-elevator-puts-her-at-risk/ Its the dangerous route: TTC user says out of service elevator puts her at risk

By Caryn Lieberman, Reporter
Global News

With an elevator out of service at Kennedy subway station, a woman who uses a wheelchair to get around says her life is in danger. Caryn Lieberman reports.

Erin Courcelles, her husband Martin and his guide dog make their way to Kennedy station en route to work.

Im like everybody else, I just want to work, but each step I face some sort of barrier, Erin said.

I have issues almost daily just trying to get to work.

Her biggest challenge these days is navigating a safe route to work near Don Mills, from her home in Scarborough.

Erin is in a wheelchair and unable to access the elevator to track level because it is off limits to users.

Its about a three-month project. The important thing here, is this is not just a repair work, this is a full rebuild. So if you think about it in terms of a car lets say its not just a matter of replacing a tire thats blown, this is rebuilding the entire engine, TTC Spokesperson Stuart Green told Global News.

Replacing the elevator means Erin must take an alternate route to work or to her doctor appointments downtown.

Even though Im six kilometers from work, itll take me about an hour and a half, she said.

I have to go along on a bit of a dangerous route.

She said the bus is overcrowded and the route is dangerous, since it drops her off blocks from her office, rather than right in front of the building.

Daily I get hit in the head or people put their bags on me. Ive had someone actually sit on me last week, she said.

The Courcelles bought their home just two years ago near Kennedy station specifically for the accessibility.

With my husband who is visually impaired being close to a TTC hub is extremely important.

On weekends, they stay close to home because without a functioning elevator to the tracks, they refuse to spend the time commuting.

With Ontario pledging to be fully accessible by 2025, the Toronto Transit Commission acknowledges it has a long way to go, but is committed. Streetcars and buses are accessible, but only 37 of 69 subway stations have elevators. Two more will be accessible by the end of this year.

Elevators for a lot of people are just a convenience, but for her, its her independence, Martin said about his wife. There are regulations out there that are supposed to make things easier for us, but they dont seem to be working right now.

Green pointed to seven incidents of entrapment in the Kennedy station elevator last year. He said despite the inconvenience, the work is necessary.

This elevator is about as old as the RT so going back to the mid 80s, and like a number of elevators in our system they need to be replaced, he said.

The TTC has brought in Wheel Trans shuttles to get commuters from Kennedy to either Victoria Park, Main Street or Woodbine, which are the other three nearby accessible stations.

Erin said she could manage the long route for now, despite the frustration, but she is worried about what will happen when the temperature drops.

What terrifies me is when the ice and snow come, even the best of routes arent going to be safe, she said.

4. Members of the Government-Appointed Transportation Accessibility Standards Development Committee

Members of the Transportation Standards Development Committee

Voting members:
Kelly Paleczny (Chair) – General Manager, London Transit Commission
James Bisson – Manager, Enforcement, Licensing Enforcement and By-Law Services, Association of Municipalities of Ontario Nicole Cormier – Accessibility Consultant, City of Toronto (on leave) Dana Earle – Administration Supervisor, Thunder Bay Transit
Robert Gaunt – Regional Manager, Northwest & Timmins, Canadian National Institute for the Blind Jeff Short – Advisor, Planning and Policy, Metrolinx
Sarah Keenan – Clinical Team Investigator/Life Skills Coach, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital
Gary Malkowski – Vice-President, Stakeholder and Employer Relations, Canadian Hearing Society Sue Morgan – Disability Community Representative
Steve Murphy – Accessibility Advisory Coordinator, Regional Municipality of Niagara Sam Savona – Disability Community Representative
Tracy Schmitt – Disability Community Representative Eve Wiggins – Head, Wheeltrans/Toronto Transit Commission

Non-voting members:
Mary Bartolomucci – Director, Standards Policy and Compliance Branch, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario
Kevin Dowling – Team Leader, Municipal Transit Policy Office, Transit Policy Branch, Policy and Planning Division, Ministry of Transportation
Jasmine Gurjal – Manager, Local Government and Planning Policy Division, Ministry of Municipal Affairs
Allan Moore – Team Leader, Passenger Transportation Office, Transportation Policy Branch, Policy and Planning Division, Ministry of Transportation

6. For More Background

Learn more about our campaign to make transportation in Ontario fully accessible to people with disabilities by visiting https://www.aodaalliance.org/transportation/

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