Challinor Leads Accessibility Advisory Committee Into Third Decade
Ward 2 Local Councillor John Challinor II believes Milton has become a much more accessible community since the Town of Milton Accessibility Advisory Committee was established in 2002, but more work is required before the municipality is fully accessible to local residents with disabilities.
Mr. Challinor, who has chaired the Town’s Accessibility Advisory Committee since 2019, says commercial and industrial complexes and multi-residential buildings constructed since the early 2000s conform with the Province of Ontario’s 2005 Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and its later amendments, but the municipality was first settled in 1822 and there are about 150 years worth of public and private commercial, industrial and multi-residential infrastructure that are difficult to navigate for those with disabilities.
“As those buildings are renovated or demolished and rebuilt, they will be upgraded to conform to the Act, but it will take some time for this to occur,” he said. “With the assistance of former committee members like Jerry Steiner and current committee members, some who have disabilities and live with accessibility issues every day in our community, we have streamlined the review process and now provide consistent input on every relevant building application before the Town.”
During the mid-1990s, Mr. Challinor developed a friendship with the late David Onley (1950 – 2023), appearing regularly on his weekly City-TV technology show, Home Page. When Mr. Onley was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario in 2007, as the province’s first representative of Her Majesty the Queen with a disability, he adopted accessibility as the overarching theme of his mandate. In 2019, Mr. Onley led a legislative review of the AODA and was critical of the province’s progress in its implementation.
“I read David’s review, took his criticisms constructively and have worked hard ever since to ensure that Milton is honouring the Act and David’s vision for it,” added Mr. Challinor. CR