[David Lepofsky]
My name is David Lepofsky.
Today is, uh, Saturday,
November the 19th, 2016,
and I'm standing
in the basement
of the brand new,
uh, Culinary Arts Centre 
built, uh, with our tax dollars,
at Centennial College 
in the northeast corner of Toronto.
I've come to look around to see 
how well they did on accessibility.
 Now, the government of Ontario
committed by legislation
that we are to become fully accessible
by the year 2025
and promised
they would never use public money
to create or perpetuate barriers 
against people with disabilities.
The government also promised 
that it would lead by example,
i.e., be ahead of the game 
in doing accessibility. 
What we found in this building
is a number of accessibility blunders 
that should've been easily foreseen,
easily avoided,
at little or no cost,
but instead 
they've created a mess,
uh, which will cost more to fix,
if they set about to fix it.
Now, that's not to say 
they got everything wrong.
There's a number of good 
accessibility features in the building,
and it's a very nice building.
But let me take a few minutes 
to just show you some examples,
 uh, of where 
they got things wrong.
We're tweeting
accessibility barriers like these
with the hashtag, uh,
number sign in it, #AODAfail.
AODA stands for the Accessibility 
for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
Uh, and we will
be tweeting pictures
of some of the barriers 
I'm gonna show you as AODAfails.
Any organization that's now designing
a new building or a renovation of one
sure doesn't wanna be caught
on an AODAfail photograph,
tweet, or video,
so we encourage them
to do far more
than our inadequate 
building code requires,
and indeed,
far more than the insufficient 
or incomplete accessibility standards
now provide for
under the Accessibility 
for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
Don't get yourself caught
in the kind of mess
that we're about to show you here,
at the brand new,
uh, Culinary Arts Centre 
at, uh, at, uh, Centenar- uh,
Centennial College in Toronto.
When we were recording 
these videos,
we were just using the microphone 
on the smartphone.
And there are places 
where the sound wasn't good enough,
so I'm gonna re-record 
what I had to say.
So in the video,
you'll see me talking,
but my voice will be saying 
more or less the same thing.
Parking.
Here in front of the building,
there are some accessible parking spots,
and that's great,
but there isn't 
the required vertical signage.
There's a pole,
but no sign on it 
announcing that it's 
an accessible parking spot.
There's also a curb cut
that's aligned with the access aisle,
and that's good,
but the curb cut is missing 
the required flat area at the top,
which lets somebody walking by 
pass without tipping over.
Parking pay machine.
Near the accessible parking spots,
there is a parking meter 
for you to pay for your parking.
However,
it's at standing height 
so that's not accessible
to somebody in a wheelchair
who uses 
the accessible parking spots.
That makes no sense.
Crosswalk.
Here near the front entrance 
to the building,
 there is a crosswalk.
There is a curb cut, that's good, 
but there is no cane detectable warning 
so that a person using a white cane
would know
that they are about to walk
from the sidewalk
into the road and into traffic.
Those warnings are also helpful
for people who are sighted 
but not paying attention.
That's a safety problem.
Exterior stairs.
Right in front of the main entrance,
there's a ramp and stairs.
It's good that there's a ramp,
but there's some significant 
accessibility blunders 
with the stairs.
There's no detectable warning surface
at the top landing
to know by touch that you're at 
the top of a flight of stairs.
There's a hand rail only on one side 
rather than both,
which is what you need 
for accessibility.
The hand rail is not extended out 
at the bottom, which is also needed.
 And the step edges are neither 
slip resistant or colour contrasted.
Exterior ramp.
There is a ramp beside the stairs
going to the front door,
and that's good.
But there's only a railing on one side,
not both sides.
There should be, for accessibility,
a railing on both sides.
Some people, uh,
need one on both sides,
or may need one on the side 
which is missing for balance.
Moreover,
the side where there is no rail,
is the side
where there is a vertical drop off
that presents a safety problem,
not only for people with disabilities,
but frankly, for everybody,
especially little kids.
But there is a cane-detectable edge 
on the side that's missing a railing.
That's helpful 
for someone using a white cane.
But it's far more important 
to have a railing there,
uh, for safety,
as well as for guidance.
West entrance.
Outside the main entrance 
to the building, as you approach,
there is an automatic 
door opening system.
 But it doesn't work automatically.
You have to press a button
that is on a post 
to the left of the doors.
I wouldn't even know it's there,
and I wouldn't know it's on a post.
And if I were to reach to the post,
I'd find that there are two squares.
Above is the push button,
uh, to operate the door,
 and below is some sorta 
card security thing.
Course, there's no Braille 
or other labelling to explain it. 
West vestibule.
Just inside those doors,
where it isn't windy, but it is echo-y,
um, I wanna emphasize
 that in the vast majority of buildings 
that we walk up to,
 if they have automatic doors, 
they're gonna sense you.
You don't have to grope around 
and find something to push.
By the way, this building doesn't use 
any ones that are motion sensor-driven.
You've gotta actually 
put your hand on it and push.
That's a limitation 
not only for someone with vision loss,
but somebody who's got, uh, 
motor limitations who can't do it.
Once you come inside this building,
right in the open area, you'll see 
there's a, a second inner door,
and to operate these buttons,
they're not on a post here,
they're, they're up on the wall.
There's two of them, um,
 one here and one over here.
There's no Braille signage
to let a blind person,
uh, know what they are.
And we'll see 
in the other doors in this building,
 instead of these 
being mounted on the wall,
they're on a post,
and, uh, which provides no consistency, 
no predictability –
I have to memorize 
all of these things.
Which from a newcomer to the building,
I wouldn't even know they're there,
much less would I know
where to systematically look
 to find out if they're there.
It's, it's yet another example
of really thoughtless design
 from the point of view 
of accessibility,
in a building where
they wanted to put in automatic doors
 to make it easier 
for people with disabilities. 
So they,
they were thinking about accessibility,
they just were not thinking,
uh, properly. 
This is yet another example
where our building code
lets everyone down 
by not setting standards,
uh, that would
regularize all of this 
and make it something 
that everyone would do the right way.
West interior.
On the same entrance door,
once you get inside,
there is a push button 
to open, uh, the automatic doors.
Uh, again, it's not automatic 
that the automatic doors open.
I wouldn't know 
to start feeling the walls.
But on top of that, uh,
there are, 
at some of these, uh, entrances,
the button is on the wall,
on others, it's on a post.
There's no consistency 
or predictability.
Signage.
Just a few metres 
into the main foyer,
at the corner, 
there's a big sign up here,
um, and it's got large print,
but it doesn't have any Braille.
And we're just metres away 
from other signage,
which commendably,
does have Braille.
Uh, why they can't
do consistent signage
for people who would read, 
uh, need Braille signage 
 is hard to understand.
Washrooms.
I'm, I'm now on the basement floor 
of the Culinary Arts Building,
the brand new building at, uh,
at Centennial College,
uh, in Scarborough,
and, um, here they have
a public women's washroom
right next to the men's washroom,
and the only thing between them 
is a... [cane banging]
a little thin,
uh, uh, wall or something.
So here's the thing,
beside the women's washroom,
it's great that they've got signage
with raised letters
and it says "Women" in Braille,
but, um, a blind person 
isn't gonna be feeling the entire wall
to find out, uh,
whether there's a sign here.
And when we walk by,
what we would hear is just the echo,
 uh, and it doesn't sound like 
there's two separate bathrooms,
it sounds like 
there would be just one.
So I wouldn't know to go over
and check further
that beyond here 
is the men's room,
uh, if I was here for the first time,
and then look for a sign here.
Uh, it would be way better 
if they simply had a door with a sign.
Um, but this....
I... I've never seen before
where there's two bathroom entrances
with an echo-y area,
 and this tiny little, uh, uh, 
barrier between the two.
I would just think 
it's one r- washroom,
and would walk on by 
if I saw the....
If I did happen to find 
the women's room sign,
I would walk on by,
uh, and assume, "Well, 
the men's room must be somewhere else."
Baby change table.
So inside 
this men's washroom,
it's good that they've got 
a change table here,
but they've put the change table
in a position
right by the accessible 
bathroom stall,
so if somebody's 
in the accessible washroom stall,
and I go, open the door,
they're gonna whack anybody 
who's out here changing a child.
So it's a really stupid location.
As well, the change table's 
completely missing,
uh, proper colour contrast 
for somebody with, with low vision.
Elevator signage.
So, so I'm in the basement 
of the Culinary Arts Building,
which is actually on the ground,
but it's not called the ground floor 
or the main floor,
it's called the basement – 
that's confusing enough.
And near, uh, important elevators 
to go up the building,
uh, rather than having proper,
uh, accessible signage,
they put a sign up,
which, for one thing,
it doesn't have anything accessible 
for people who don't read print,
but it's also sticking out 
into the path of travel here,
 so there's this, uh,
a chance you can walk into it 
 and, and knock it over.
And there's also.... 
Your cane could go under it,
not detect it 
until you walk into it,
so it's, it's, uh, inaccessibility 
built upon inaccessibility.
Elevator.
This says "Main,"
but the voice on the elevator 
is gonna say "Ground,"
[beep] which is referring to a floor 
that's not the ground floor – 
it's one above the ground floor.
I'm just pushing 
the "Main" button.
In Braille, it says "Main."
We're not going there. 
Now we're going there,
we're going down.
The Braille here says "Main" 
and listen to the [beep] elevator...
[electronic elevator female voice]
Ground floor. 
[David] Which would be 
completely confusing to me.
Well, am I on the ground floor 
or am I on the main floor?
Elevator lobby signage.
Up here on the eighth floor,
they also, right by the elevator,
 have a nice sign telling you 
all of what's available on this floor,
uh, but it's in print 
and there is no Braille signage.
So blind students aren't supposed 
to know what's on this floor.
Full height glass.
Up on the eighth floor,
uh, is just another example
of the floor-to-ceiling glass
without the proper demarcation 
of some kind of colour,
or, or visible thing here
to enable someone with low vision
to know that this is, uh,
isn't just, uh, open space,
um, and that there's, uh,
there's actually, uh,
a solid surface here 
in the form of glass.
Barrier free washroom.
So now on the, uh, 
what the elevator would call 
the main floor 
if you read it in Braille,
or the ground floor 
if you're listening to the voice,
or if you're thinking 
in real space,
you're actually not on the ground floor 
or the main floor,
you're actually on the first floor.
But avi- aside from the confusion,
right outside the elevators 
as you came up,
uh, is an inclusive washroom.
And there's a Braille sign here 
that says "Inclusive Washroom,"
which is great, and there's 
the international accessibility symbol.
Uh, but the automatic door opener
is not where you would figure 
it would be – right here –
you'd have to know to start feeling 
all over till you get over here,
uh, to find it.
Um, and then we....
The big problem, though,
is when I open the door,
there's no transfer space 
in the bathroom. 
It's a bathroom meant
for people with disabilities
 to be accommodated,
but there's no,
 not the needed transfer space,
uh, to meet their needs. 
South entrance interior.
We're just inside
one of the entrances
at the Centennial College,
uh, Culinary Arts Centre.
They have to o- 
power the automatic doors,
you don't just
go through the doors
and have the sensor
pick up your presence
like in zillions 
of other buildings.
You have to find this post here,
sticking up out in the middle
of the, uh, floor
and then press the button.
Of course, some people
who's vision impaired
would have no idea it's there,
or where to find it,
and there's no marked path
travel aid or 
uh, uh, a carpet to lead you to it.
[cane banging]
So you'd have to be 
swinging your cane around,
 hoping you'd find it.
Then you have to find it 
and s- figure out
which side has the button, 
and then you would open the door.
Um, I suspect
a lot of visually-impaired people
would never even be able to find it,
much less know it's there.
South vestibule.
Now, once you're- 
open that one door
 and you're now between 
the inside door and the outside door,
 again, here we have 
another one of these bollards,
one of these things
sticking up from the floor
that I've, uh, not encountered
in virtually any other building
except the disastrous design 
of the new Women's College Hospital.
Um, wouldn't even know 
to look for it.
But if I look for it,
I'd be confused by the fact 
that for some of the doors,
uh, these automatic door openers 
on the wall,
not on something sticking up 
in the middle,
 but let's get past 
that problem.
I then come over here 
and feel there's a button.
I don't necessarily know 
there are two buttons,
 so I'm looking to go out the door 
and I only find this one and push it.
And I push this one 
to figure out which it is,
 and while I'm standing here, 
this door comes over and hits me,
um, and pushes me 
out of the way.
Because while I'm standing here 
trying to operate it,
I'm right in the line of this door.
 This is really stupid design.
East entrance.
I'm now standing outside 
one of the secondary doors,
uh, to the building,
and you'll see 
they've got an automatic door opener,
but it's not on 
one of those little pillar things,
it's on the wall.
So for one thing,
I'd never know to look,
as a blind person.
For another thing,
I wouldn't be 
groping all the way over here 
to find it.
And, for a third thing,
I'd be finding this 
and not knowing if- what's what,
'cause they're close to each other
and one, 
they don't feel hugely different.
There's no Braille labelling 
to explain what's what.
But on top of that, 
if I'd come in the front door,
and I had learned
that they had one of those poles
with the buttons on it, 
I'd walk up to this door 
and I'd, I'd look for another pole 
with an automatic door opener,
like something consistent 
and predictable.
Clearly something the designers 
of this building never had in mind.
So yet another,
uh, poor piece of accessibility design.
What they should've had 
is the simple automatic door opener,
like there are 
in so many office buildings,
hotels, uh, hospitals,
uh, and other major public buildings.
East crosswalk number one.
So I'm now just feet away 
from that, um, entrance to the building,
and they have a crosswalk
right here
with no curb cuts
and no tactile, uh, prompting
 that there's a crosswalk here.
Now there is a crosswalk with curb cuts 
just a few metres away,
 but when I, uh,
show you how it's designed,
you'd realize 
it's not much of a solution.
East crosswalk number two.
So here just a few feet away
is this other crosswalk
where they did put in a curb cut.
Uh, but it points me, 
as a blind person,
 to walking into oncoming traffic,
rather than if they had made 
the other inaccessible,
uh, crosswalk accessible,
it would point me
to go right across
the way you ordinarily 
would cross a street.
So this is just, from the point of view 
of safety and accessibility,
um, another blunder.
Conclusion.
So this is David Lepofsky,
Chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians
with Disabilities Act Alliance.
 Thanks for watching this video.
To learn more about us,
visit our website 
at www.aodaalliance.org.
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That email address again 
is aodafeedback@gmail.com.
Thanks so much for watching.
We welcome your feedback.
Let us know what AODAfails,
or AODAwins,
that you know about 
around Ontario.
