Summary Advice and Referrals

ARCH provides a Summary Advice and Referral service directly to persons with disabilities who live in Ontario. This is a free and confidential service.  Through this service, ARCH staff lawyers provide legal advice and information on specific disability-related areas of law.  More information is available here.

Systemic Advocacy

As a specialty legal clinic, ARCH’s law As a specialty legal clinic, ARCH’s law reform activities involve analyzing and commenting on the impact of current and proposed laws and practices from a disability perspective. ARCH makes oral and written submissions and writes papers and reports to our communities, all levels of government, legislative committees, administrative bodies, tribunals, agencies, and human rights commissions.

Test Case Litigation and Interventions

ARCH is a designated Test Case legal clinic and represents groups and individuals in test case litigation. Test cases  are cases that deal with systemic issues and whose outcome will affect a large number of persons with disabilities or will significantly affect the law as it relates to the rights of persons with disabilities in Ontario.

ARCH has represented interveners, and acted as an intervener, in many test cases at all levels of court and tribunals.

For more information about our test case litigation and interventions work visit our test case litigation and interventions webpage

Rights Education

ARCH provides rights education to persons with disabilities regarding their legal rights, as well as new developments in the law. We offer presentations, workshops, and seminars. We also produce rights education materials, such as fact sheets, toolkits, guides, videos,  ARCH newsletter (ARCH Alert), and the ARCH Blog. If your group would like to request a presentation by ARCH, please submit the presentation request form.

New Service for Clients: ARCH’s Disability Law Intensive Program’s Student Clinics

In partnership with Osgoode Hall Law School, ARCH runs a student program called the Disability Law Intensive. Through this program, Osgoode Hall Law School students work at ARCH with our lawyers on various cases and projects, from September to March each year. This year, we launched two student-led clinics to provide direct legal services to persons with disabilities in two specific areas of law. For both clinics, our law students are supervised by an ARCH lawyer and assist eligible clients with their legal issue within the area of law.

Human Rights Legal Clinic

The first student-led clinic is the Human Rights Clinic. The focus of this clinic is on human rights cases at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. Our law students can assist eligible clients with either drafting their human rights application, or with drafting their Reply form. The service from this clinic is limited only to drafting either an Application or a Reply for the client, and does not include legal representation in the case. Among other eligibility criteria, this service is available only for human rights cases that are within the areas of law practiced by ARCH. Contact us for more information about eligibility.

Education Exclusion Clinic

The second student-led clinic is the Education Exclusion Clinic. This clinic is focused on assisting students with disabilities who have been excluded from primary or secondary school under section 265(1)(m) of the Education Act. Our law students can assist eligible students in appealing a decision that excludes them from school. Contact us for more information about eligibility.

For more information about these clinics, or to access our legal services, please contact ARCH at:

Tel: (416) 482-8255 or toll-free 1-866-482-2724 ext. 0

TTY: 416-482-1254 and TTY toll-free: 1-866-482-2728

If you cannot contact us via telephone, and require disability-related communication accommodations, you can email ARCH at: intake@arch.clcj.ca

ARCH’s Areas of Legal Practice

Accessibility Laws

ARCH offers summary legal advice and legal information about the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the Accessible Canada Act as applicable.

Access to Services

ARCH offers summary legal advice on your rights if you have been denied access to a service because of your disability.

ARCH can also give you legal advice if you experienced discrimination due to your disability by a service provider while you were using their service.

Decision-Making Rights

Decision-making rights include your right to make your own decisions on important aspects of your life. ARCH offers legal advice on your rights.  

Developmental Services

ARCH offers summary legal advice and legal information on some issues related to receiving developmental services in Ontario.

Discrimination/Human Rights (In Select Areas)

If you have been discriminated against because of your disability in certain contexts, we may be able to give you legal advice on your rights.

ARCH offers summary legal advice on your rights under Ontario’s Human Rights Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act, as applicable.

Education

ARCH offers summary legal advice in matters related to meaningfully accessing primary and secondary education which includes access to appropriate accommodations and supports in school, inclusive education and placements, exclusions, expulsions, and suspensions.

If you are a student with a disability in a post-secondary institution, such as a college or university, and you require accommodations at school, ARCH can advise you on your right to be accommodated.

Home Care/Attendant Services

ARCH offers summary legal advice on matters related to home care and attendant services regarding the termination of services, insufficiency of services, and quality of services.  

Removing Guardianship/ Public Guardian and Trustee

If you are under court-ordered guardianship or someone is acting as your attorney under a power of attorney, they may be making decisions on your behalf for things such as your property, finances, or personal/health care. If you need to remove or change guardianship or revoke your power of attorney, ARCH can advise you on your legal options.

If the Public Guardian and Trustee (PGT) is controlling your finances, ARCH may be able to give you legal advice if you want to know how to regain control of your own finances from the PGT to make your own decisions on your finances, or if you believe the PGT is mismanaging your finances.

Transportation/Para-Transit

ARCH can offer summary advice in matters related to transportation

ARCH offers summary legal advice on transportation-related legal issues which includes municipal, provincial, and federally-regulated transportation. This includes city buses, accessible transportation, greyhound buses, trains, and airplanes.

If you were denied access to any of these types of transportation in Ontario due to your disability, or experienced discrimination because of your disability while using their service, ARCH can advise you of your rights. 

Workplace Accommodations

If you are an employee with a disability and you

ARCH offers summary legal advice to employees with a disability seeking appropriate accommodations at work. ARCH also advises on rights to be accommodated during the interview process.

ARCH does not advise employees who are members of a union.