Manitoba – Improving accessibility for disabled will be the norm
By: Larry Kusch
Posted: 04/24/2013

Terry McIntosh hopes for positive change with new provincial legislation that aims to improve accessibility for persons with disabilities. (MELISSA TAIT / WINNIPEG FREE PRE)

THE provincial government is introducing legislation today it says will improve accessibility for people with disabilities to buildings, services and jobs.

The bill, to be tabled in the legislature this afternoon, is expected to provide a framework for regulations that will set new accessibility obligations in both the public and private sectors.

April 23, 2013

SUMMARY

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act requires Ontario to become fully accessible to over 1.7 million Ontarians with disabilities by 2025. The Ontario Government has pledged for years to effectively enforce this law. Recent reports in the Toronto Star highlight the need for the Ontario Government to keep its word.

22 April 2013
Article by Adrian Miedema

Since January 1, 2012, Ontario employers have been obligated to provide “individualized workplace emergency response information to employees who have a disability, if the disability is such that the individualized information is necessary and the employer is aware of the need for accommodation due to the employee’s disability.”

The restaurant chain says their franchisees won’t restrict where the man and his Hearing Ear dog sit.

RICHARD LAUTENS / TORONTO STAR
Peter Stelmacovich, who is hearing impaired, says he was asked to leave his Hearing Ear dog, Flora, outside when he went to a restaurant in downtown Toronto Thursday. The restaurant chain has apologized for the incident.
By: Dylan C. Robertson News reporter, Published on Sun Apr 21 2013

April 14, 2013

SUMMARY

On March 25, 2013, the AODA Alliance submitted a brief to the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMH) on the Ontario Government’s fall 2012 proposed accessibility reforms to the Ontario Building Code. Below we set out the summary of our 19-page brief that is included in the brief’s introduction.

You can download in MS Word format the text of the AODA Alliance’s March 25, 2013 brief on the Ontario Building Code, as well as the text of the five briefs by other organizations that we have endorsed, by visiting https://www.aodaalliance.org/strong-effective-aoda/03252013.asp

April 7, 2013

Summary

We mourn the death last week of Dr. Robert Elgie. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dr. Robert Elgie was Ontario’s Labour Minister. He served in the Progressive Conservative Government under Premier Bill Davis.

As Labour Minister, Dr. Elgie spearheaded major amendments to the Ontario Human Rights Code. These amendments made it illegal for the first time in Ontario to discriminate against people with disabilities. By including physical and mental disability for the first time in the Ontario Human Rights code, Dr. Elgie’s legislation guaranteed to people with disabilities the right to equality in employment, housing, and access to goods, services and facilities.

Hamilton councillors grappling with several options to meet new legislation
By Samantha Craggs, CBC News Posted: Apr 4, 2013

It’s possible for the city of Hamilton to have a means test for transit riders with disabilities, but it will have to be willing to pay for it.

That was the message from Don Hull, director of transit, in a presentation to the general issues committee Wednesday.

The city can establish a method of assessment to determine which riders with disabilities need free transit, as favoured by Coun. Sam Merulla.

by Mark Wafer
April 1, 2013

All day long we hear of the chronic unemployment levels for people with disabilities and the sad stories of those who have waited for years for fundamental change in order to get their first job, any job and not exactly one they were trained to do. One of my employees with a disability waited 11 years to get her first job. Many of us would have given up, she didn’t and its one of the traits she brings to her job that makes her a fabulous employee.