Is voting accessible to all?

For the last six years, David Lepofsky has known that for those with vision loss, voting on election day is not as simple as walking through the door with a piece of ID and a Voter Information Card. 

In 2018, when Lepofsky attempted to cast his ballot in that year’s provincial election using the “accessible” voting machines at his local polling station, his marked ballot fell to the floor, revealing his vote to a poll worker.

“The essence of democracy depends on the secret ballot and what that means in practice is you have to be able to independently mark your own ballot, in private, and then verify for your choice,” Lepofsky says. “If you’re sighted you don’t even have to think twice…As a blind person I can’t do that with a printed ballot.”

Lepofsky is the chair of the non-partisan Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance (AODA Alliance). It has been advocating for 15 years to improve access to services and infrastructure across Ontario. 

The Province has consistently failed to take this issue seriously, with subsequent governments failing to achieve a pledge made in 2005 to make Ontario fully accessible by 2025. “I’ve called on Elections Ontario to take important new steps to improve the chances for accessible voting in this election, and they have had years to prepare to properly fulfill the guarantees to voters with vision disabilities by the Charter of Rights and the Ontario Human Rights Code.”

Lepofsky’s 2018 incident is the subject of a complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, which has taken six years to filter its way through the significantly backlogged system. A hearing is now scheduled for September, well after the current snap election concludes. 

According to Lepofsky, Elections Ontario has not disputed the facts of the incident, and apologized to him for what happened. But sufficient steps have not been taken to ensure it doesn't occur again.

“I’ve slammed into two ugly roadblocks in this case so far,” Lepofsky says. “Elections Ontario has failed to take the steps needed for voters like me, and has tried to throw procedural barriers in my way that would make this interminable human rights process take even longer. Second, the Human Rights Tribunal process has become dysfunctional, with inexcusable delays.”

On its website, Elections Ontario states it is committed to ensuring voting is accessible to all Ontarians and is committed to “identify, prevent and remove access barriers so that persons with disabilities can fully participate in the electoral process”.

Elections Ontario offers in-home voting for those who apply, as well as assistive technology and accessible voting machines. All polling locations are inspected to ensure they meet Site Accessibility Standards. 

Accessible voting machines typically allow the user to listen to voting options through headphones, then press corresponding buttons to make a selection. A ballot is printed off for submission.

(Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services) 

As Lepofsky’s case demonstrates, these accommodations are not foolproof, but he says there are simple solutions.

The establishment of a Voters with Disabilities Hotline for voters to report accessibility barriers would assist Elections Ontario in identifying and fixing issues in a timely fashion; auditing Elections Ontario staff to ensure they can effectively assist voters with disabilities; and creating a directive for all Returning Officers and other frontline staff that if a problem with someone with disabilities occurs, they must notify all staff and take action to ensure the issue does not recur, are all recommendations from Lepofsky.

“It is ridiculous that I have to mount a legal battle for such an obvious and important accommodation, and that Elections Ontario fails to recognize that it needs to do much better,” Lepofsky says.

The crux of the issue comes down to consistency. Protecting the integrity of a voter’s ballot is paramount to the election process. Lepofsky’s case demonstrates that current processes in place from Elections Ontario do not stand up to the high level of scrutiny required to preserve the cornerstone of democracy for those living with disabilities. Lepofsky has used the accessible voting machines in the 2011, 2014 and 2018 elections. 

“My life experience is two out of three, and it’s got to be three out of three.”

This is not the first time Lepofsky has had to fight to break down barriers for those living with disabilities. Anyone who has ridden a subway, bus or streetcar in Toronto will have experienced the fruits of his decades of tireless advocacy. 

Through two separate Human Rights Tribunal complaints in 2005 and 2007, Lepofsky fought and won orders to have Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) vehicles announce their arrival at all stops to assist those with disabilities. 

“My complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal in that case was it’s got to be consistent and reliable, and I won,” he says, noting it is a similar argument to the one he’s using in his case against Elections Ontario. 

Following the victories against the TTC, the Tribunal ordered the appointment of an official monitor to oversee the work that needed to be completed. He’s looking for something similar for Elections Ontario, along with the creation of a comprehensive plan for addressing these long-standing barriers for those with disabilities. 

“It’s been a very constructive process, it really helped,” he said, of the appointment of an official monitor.  

Rubbing salt in the wound is these barriers to voting are also barriers to progress and change at a time when the province needs it perhaps more than ever. Numerous reviews of Ontario’s implementation of legislation to improve accessibility for those living with disabilities have found progress to be “glacial”, leaving Ontario filled with “soul-crushing barriers” for people with disabilities. The PC government has completely ignored the issue, shunning any communication and potential assistance from Lepofsky and the AODA Alliance. 

“The disability vote has to have a full chance like everybody else to be heard at the ballot box,” Lepofsky says. “We are now at a point where we reached 2025, the Legislature had unanimously said that the government must have led us to be an accessible province by then, and we’re not there.”

The AODA Alliance has requested Ontario’s political parties sign the Accessible Ontario Pledge—a promise to take real action to break down accessibility barriers upon taking office after the February 27 election. 

The Ontario Liberals, NDP and Green Party have all signed the pledge and agreed to all, or the majority of its recommendations (the Green Party committed to all of them). 

The PCs have not signed the pledge. 

The AODA Alliance along with other accessibility advocacy organizations held an all-candidates debate on February 19 related to these issues. It was attended by over 500 people, both in person and virtually. 

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