All posts by Editor

Teachers Fear Return to Classrooms, But Parents Say Kids Need the Support

Toronto Star, Jan. 18, 2021
Olivia Bowden

While the rest of the province is hunkering down under new, stricter stay-at-home orders, Jim Rossiter is his usual place – with students in his classroom.

Rossiter is a special-education teacher at Maxwell Heights Secondary School in Oshawa and, even with most schools shuttered amid surging COVID-19 numbers, he is teaching in-class, as in-person learning continues for many students with disabilities.

His heart is with his students, but he worries about the safety risks the kids and his fellow staff members face being together in a classroom while the rest of the province is in lockdown amid a 28-day state of emergency.

Read more at
https://www.accessibilitynews.ca/teachers-fear-return-to-classrooms-but-parents-say-kids-need-the-support/

We Publicly Post New Secret Ford Government Directions to Ontario Hospitals on How to Decide Who Lives and Who Dies if Life-Saving Critical Care Must Soon Be Triaged – Serious Human Rights Dangers for Ontarians with Disabilities

Compounding this cruel reality, this secret document shows that some patients with disabilities now risk being de-prioritized in access to life-saving critical care that they will disproportionately need if Ontario hospitals, now near the breaking point, cannot provide life-saving critical medical care to all patients needing it.”

Read more at
https://aoda.ca/we-publicly-post-new-secret-ford-government-directions-to-ontario-hospitals-on-how-to-decide-who-lives-and-who-dies-if-life-saving-critical-care-must-soon-be-triaged-serious-human-rights-dangers-for/

Accessibility News January 16,2021 Update

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The AODA Clock is Ticking

There are 3 years, 50 weeks, 0 days until a fully Accessible Ontario! Will you be compliant?

In this Issue

Read more at
https://www.accessibilitynews.ca/accessibility-news-january-162021-update/

Federal Court Rules NYC Discriminates Against Blind and Low Vision Pedestrians by Failing to Make Crosswalk Signals Accessible

New York, NY – In a decision that will remake the streetscape of New York City and improve safety and accessibility for all New Yorkers, a federal court ruled today that New York City’s failure to provide accessible pedestrian signals (APS) at 96.6 % of its signalized intersections violates the civil rights of people with disabilities.

Read more at
https://www.accessibilitynewsinternational.com/federal-court-rules-nyc-discriminates-against-blind-and-low-vision-pedestrians-by-failing-to-make-crosswalk-signals-accessible/

Any Time, You Can Watch The Agenda with Steve Paikin’s Panel on Disability Discrimination Risks If Life-Saving Critical Medical Care Must Soon Be Rationed – and – Excellent Canadian Press Article on This Triage Issue

We continue our unbelievably uphill efforts to get the media to cover the immediate and important issue of the danger that patients with disabilities could be subjected to disability discrimination in access to life-saving critical medical care if overloaded hospitals must ration or “triage” critical medical care. The Ford Government still refuses to answer our letters on this issue.

Read more at
https://aoda.ca/any-time-you-can-watch-the-agenda-with-steve-paikins-panel-on-disability-discrimination-risks-if-life-saving-critical-medical-care-must-soon-be-rationed-and-excellent-canadian-press-article-on/

Sony’s New Lip-Reading Technology Could Boost Accessibility – or Invade Privacy

Sony’s Visual Speech Enablement uses cameras and AI to read lips from far distances, no matter the noise. But are its accessibility benefits overshadowed by the potential for privacy violations?

Read more at
https://www.accessibilitynewsinternational.com/sonys-new-lip-reading-technology-could-boost-accessibility-or-invade-privacy/

Watch TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” Tonight at 8 or 11 PM

Watch TVO’s flagship current affairs program “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” tonight at 8 or 11 pm Eastern time for a half-hour panel on what the Ford Government should be doing to ensure that patients with disabilities do not face disability discrimination if life-saving critical medical care must be triaged or rationed. This rationing or triage could be needed soon if the soaring COVID-19 infection rates overload Ontario hospitals.

Read more at
https://aoda.ca/watch-tvos-the-agenda-with-steve-paikin-tonight-at-8-or-11-pm/

Remembering a Major Setback on the Road to Equality for People with Disabilities Forty Years Ago Today- But One that Was Thankfully Reversed a Mere 16 Days Later!

Four decades ago, people with disabilities were waging a battle to get equality rights for people with disabilities entrenched in the new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that Parliament was then considering for inclusion in Canada’s Constitution.

Read more at
https://aoda.ca/remembering-a-major-setback-on-the-road-to-equality-for-people-with-disabilities-forty-years-ago-today-but-one-that-was-thankfully-reversed-a-mere-16-days-later/

Access to Hope: How a Woman on Wheelchair is Making Mumbai Accessible, One Footpath at a Time

Jasmina Khanna, who lives with cerebral palsy, has launched an initiative to make Mumbai more inclusive for all by making footpaths more accesible with the help of her NGO ‘Access to Hope’.
News18.com
Last Updated: January 10, 2021
Author: Rakhi Bose

Mumbai resident Jasmina Khanna, 49, loves enjoying her evenings outside under the fading sun. The passing day brings with it a sense of calm and restfulness that she can seldom feel in the day. But unlike most others, Jasmina cannot go to a park or her favourite sunset spots in the city to enjoy her evenings. On most days, she has to make do with the balconies or windows of her office or home.

Read more at
https://www.accessibilitynews.ca/access-to-hope-how-a-woman-on-wheelchair-is-making-mumbai-accessible-one-footpath-at-a-time/

Hospitals Are Near the Breaking Point, but Only “The Pointer”, a Local Mississauga Online News Publication, Has Reported How the Ford Government Has Announced No Plans to Ensure that Any Triage or Rationing of Life-Saving Medical Care Won?t Discriminate Against Patients with Disabilities

To begin our volunteer advocacy for 2021, we wish one and all a happy, healthy, safe and barrier-free new year!

Read more at
https://aoda.ca/hospitals-are-near-the-breaking-point-but-only-the-pointer-a-local-mississauga-online-news-publication-has-reported-how-the-ford-government-has-announced-no-plans-to-ensure-that-any-triage-or-r/