Thank you for reaching out and for giving candidates an opportunity to engage with London’s disability community.
1. What do you feel is the #1 accessibility issue facing the City of London?
For me, the biggest issue is making sure accessibility exists in the real world, not only on paper.
One place I see this clearly is during road and sidewalk construction. As an able-bodied person, I can usually walk around an obstruction, cross a rough surface or take another route. Someone using a wheelchair, walker or mobility aid may simply lose access.
London is rebuilding a great deal of infrastructure. We need to think about how people continue navigating the city safely during construction, not only whether the finished project eventually meets an accessibility standard.
More broadly, I want us measuring accessibility by a simple question: Can the person who needs this service, building, sidewalk or public space actually use it?
2. How will you commit to improving accessible housing opportunities in our city?
My professional background is in real estate, and I have personally dealt with the cost and complexity of accessibility retrofits in commercial property.
That experience reinforced something simple: it is much easier and less expensive to plan for accessibility from the beginning than to retrofit it later.
I support increasing London’s housing supply, including supportive and affordable housing, while encouraging accessible and adaptable design as part of new development.
I also want the City to examine whether its own approvals, incentives and rules make it unnecessarily difficult or expensive to create accessible homes.
Housing should not simply increase our unit count. It should create homes in which Londoners can actually live and flourish throughout different stages of life.
3. How will you work to improve accessible transportation including conventional transit, Paratransit, taxis and ride sharing?
I think accessible transportation has to be viewed as an entire journey rather than one vehicle.
A kneeling accessible bus is valuable, but it does not solve the problem if someone cannot safely reach the stop. The same applies to Paratransit, taxis and ridesharing.
I would want to hear directly from the people using these services about where the journey actually breaks down: reliability, wait times, booking, sidewalks, snow clearing, construction detours, curb access, transfers or something else.
Then we should measure those problems and report whether they are improving.
My commitment as a councillor is consistent across issues: listen before choosing, understand the real experience behind the reports, measure the results honestly and change course when reality demands it.
Thank you again for inviting me into the conversation. I look forward to hearing directly from members of the Accessible London Coalition throughout the campaign.
. What do you feel is the #1 accessibility issue facing the city of London?
A: While the City has taken steps to be more accessible through implementation of sidewalk corner bumpers and auditory crosswalk cues, there are still steps that can be taken. There are still crosswalks (specifically 4-way and 3-way stop signs) that don’t possess bumpers and pose a danger of decreased audio cues and negligent drivers who ignore stop signs. A few more steps should be taken to ensure all crossings are safe and accessible for everyone using them.
2. How will you commit to improving accessible housing opportunities in our city?
A: I think London should hold developers accountable when constructing new builds, in the same way the City requires a set number of units to be affordable for seniors and low-income residents. Amending the requirements to include a number of units also are required to be accessible for residents with mobility issues would provide more opportunities for accessible housing.
3. How will you work to improve accessible transportation including conventional transit, Paratransit, taxis and ride sharing?
A: When speaking with the people I know who rely on Paratransit, the number one complaint expressed is the use of AI. It’s been installed to improve efficiency with routes, but in practice it’s created less efficient routes that increase wait times, delays, and emissions. Reinstating part of this job to human administration would improve rider experience; for example, if AI is required for the company, adjust its usage to have AI collect and compile a list of ride requests for each day with addresses, generate them all on a map, and then have a human review and make adjustments as necessary. This will improve efficiency, and decrease the need for the driver to call in to make adjustments when these inefficient moments are discovered mid-route. Additionally, scheduling separate, designated drivers for same-day ride requests would take last-minute adjustments out of the prepared rotations, also reducing ride delays.
In terms of public transit, elements of Toronto’s new Capped Bus Pass Program could be implemented to remove a barrier of access. Part of the Program removes the need for a bus pass, and allows riders to use a debit or credit card to tap and pay for their transit ride. This would eliminate the need to make it to a Transit station to purchase a physical pass, and would also make transit more accessible for those who struggle with technology associated with the reloadable cards currently in rotation. To be clear, the price of the monthly pass would not change; the Toronto Program relies on the rider using the exact same card for each ride, and once the rider has reached the equivalent of the monthly bus pass, any rides after this one are free (using the same payment method) until the next month.
For ride sharing, there’s an option in British Columbia that connects people for carpooling. An example of this is a flight attendant driving to the airport with room in their car, connecting with people who are needing to catch a flight. The app is called Poparide, and it could be utilized here in a variety of ways. It works similarly to the website Rover (for pet sitting), where people can apply to be drivers; they would undergo a background check, and then create a profile that shows what type of car they drive, and in this case whether their car is accommodating of special needs, if they can accommodate more than one person, etc.
Accessible London Coalition 