The first time the fire alarm went off in Oda Al-anizi’s high-rise apartment in Toronto, he called security, only to find that no one knew what to do to help him leave the building in his wheelchair.

“I just waited for the alarm to stop,” Al-anizi said.

“I felt that my life had less value. Does this mean my life is extended? Does that mean an evacuation is less important to me than everyone else?”

Al-anizi has used a wheelchair since he suffered a complete spinal cord injury in a car accident involving a drunk driver when he was 11 years old.

The next time the alarm went off, Al-anizi said he waited 40 minutes trying to reach building security before firefighters helped him evacuate with an evacuation chair — which can easily lower a ladder. The experiences inspired one of Al-anizi’s disability comics that he shares on Instagram.

“A lot of people have been texting me,” he said. “I realized how universal this experience is, as well as the lack of emergency evacuation for people with disabilities.”

The most recent review of the Ontario government’s progress in implementing the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) found current disability emergency procedures an immediate safety threat.

Rich Donovan, a government-appointed assessor, issued a “crisis recommendation” to the province in June 2023 to implement clear protocols for all government buildings that include the “immediate and safe evacuation of all persons from the building” regardless of disability when present a need for evacuation.

To do so, he asked the province to establish a crisis committee chaired by the premier within a month of submitting its report and to release updated government evacuation plans within six months of the committee’s creation.

There are no new evacuation protocols yet

But nearly a year and a half after receiving Donovan’s recommendations and 10 months after the province submitted its report, no new emergency plan has been released.

Instead, internal government records obtained by CBC Toronto through a Freedom of Information request show that as recently as May, the province was still exploring the feasibility of implementing two options to reduce wait times for people with disabilities to be evacuated from provincial buildings.

CBC Toronto asked the Ontario Ministry of Seniors and Accessibility about the current status of these efforts.

In a statement, a spokesman for Minister Raymond Cho did not address specific evacuation options, but said the ministry had reviewed all existing processes.

“(The ministry) is now actively working to update and improve building evacuation for all provincial government-owned buildings to ensure the safe evacuation of people with disabilities,” said Wallace Pidgeon, director of communications for Cho.

STOP | Disability advocates weigh in on emergency protocols:

Ontario doesn’t prioritize accessibility, advocates say

The Ontario government’s most recent review of progress in implementing the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act called emergency status procedures for people with disabilities a “crisis.” Nearly a year and a half later, the province still hasn’t implemented new protocols, and advocates say it’s another example of the province failing to prioritize accessibility.

The statement also said the ministry is creating a new volunteer group of people with disabilities to provide their first-hand experience and feedback on accessibility issues.

For Al-anizi and other disability advocates CBC Toronto spoke to, the delay in implementing the new protocols is indicative of how they say the government generally treats people with disabilities.

“It’s further evidence of the terrific job they’re doing with affordability,” said David Lepofsky, president of the AODA Alliance, a consumer advocacy group that monitors implementation of the legislation.

Enacted in 2005, the AODA was meant to make Ontario accessible by 2025. But Donovan’s review found it was a “near certainty” the province would miss the deadline for Ontarians’ 2.9 million people with disabilities.

When it comes to implementing this legislation, Pidgeon’s statement said the province “has taken a whole of government approach to addressing accessibility and how AODA compliance is implemented at all levels, which focuses on customer service and the design of public spaces “.

The province is considering evacuation seats, designated elevator

The current approach to emergency evacuations for people with disabilities from multi-storey buildings in the province is generally to wait for the assistance of firefighters, according to internal government documents obtained by CBC Toronto.

A slide from May, titled “Improving Emergency Response Protocols for OPS Buildings for Persons with Disabilities,” said the ministry is working with the Fire Bureau and other government agencies to “develop options to improve current evacuation procedures in the event emergency in the short and long term.”

Any short-term solutions presented in the filing appeared to be drafted under a freedom of information exemption for government advice.

Options floated as a “long-term approach” on the slide deck were to buy evacuation chairs for every floor of all government-owned buildings and to investigate whether a dedicated elevator could be used to evacuate people with disabilities.

Liability review, options cost

Considerations for adopting these options included reviewing the liability implications, the cost of purchasing chairs for each floor of nearly 200 government-owned buildings, which range from $732,000 to $2.9 million, and the changes that would be required to build safety plans at fire, according to the document.

In its statement, the ministry did not acknowledge the evaluation of those options and did not respond to questions about short-term solutions it is implementing or considering.

From his own experience, Al-anizi was impressed with the ejection seat.

“It should be a part of the arsenal, a tool in the arsenal,” he said. “But not all disabilities are the same, so it won’t work for everyone.”

Keeping an elevator designated for disabled evacuation would be ideal if it could be done safely, said Kate Welsh, a disability inclusion educator who uses a walker and wheelchair.

“(This way) people have autonomy, you don’t necessarily have to carry their chair and have it carried for them – it’s a lot more dignified,” they said.

Above all, Welsh, Al-anizi, Lepofsky and Anthony Frisina, spokesperson for the Ontario Disability Coalition, said the province needs to consult with the disability community and accessibility experts to establish these new emergency protocols .

“There needs to be an intervention through the disability community to have our say not just in terms of being listened to, but being heard,” Frisina said.

Wherever the government lands with these protocols, Al-anizi said the plan must be clear and communicated to the public.

“In an emergency, you can’t afford ambiguity.”