Accessible transportation
Accessibility and the Canadian Transportation Agency
The Canadian Transportation Agency‘s (CTA) vision is for Canada’s national transportation system to be the most accessible in the world. Since 1988, the CTA has had a mandate to protect the fundamental human right of persons with disabilities to accessible transportation services. We also create regulations, codes of practice and guidelines for accessibility. Individual complaints about accessibility can be resolved through facilitation, mediation or adjudication.
On June 25, 2020, the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations (ATPDR) came into effect, providing a set of clear, consistent, specific and legally binding accessibility requirements for many transportation service providers. The ATPDR apply to large carriers and terminals in modes of transport under federal jurisdiction.
The ATPDR are an important tool for making sure travel is accessible. However, small transportation service providers not covered by the ATPDR are still required to provide accessible services, and can be the subject of complaints from persons with disabilities. Many of these transportation service providers are covered by the Air Transportation Regulations and the Personnel Training for the Assistance of Persons with Disabilities Regulations.
Services and information
Accessible transportation for persons with disabilities regulations
Find all information related to the new Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations.
Take charge of your travel
These resources will help facilitate barrier-free travel on airplanes, trains, ferries and buses that cross a provincial/territorial or Canadian border
Guidance
These guides describe the rules that service providers must follow under the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations (ATPDR).
Training
Federal transportation providers and terminal operators are required to train their staff and contracted personnel on how to assist persons with disabilities.
Standards
A compilation of standards for large and small transportation service providers.
Committee
For advice on accessibility issues, the Agency consults its Accessibility Advisory Committee, made up of representatives from the community of persons with disabilities, the transportation industry and other interested parties.
Quick links
- Accessible travel in the context of COVID-19
- FAQs: Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations
- Chair and CEO Keynote Address to the IATA Global Accessibility Symposium
- CTA Initiatives to Advance Accessible Air Travel Internationally
- Best practices for providing assistance to customers with disabilities: A resource tool
- One person one fare policy decision
- Interpretive decision - Accessibility-related applications
- Mobility Aids and Air Travel Final Report
- Enforcement
What we are doing
Regulations
- Accessible Transportation Planning and Reporting Regulations – made under the Accessible Canada Act (S.C. 2019, c. 10)
- Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations (SOR/2019-244)
- Personnel Training for the Assistance of Persons with Disabilities Regulations (SOR/94-42)
- Part VII of the Air Transportation Regulations (SOR/88-58)
Consultations
- Consultation on Request for Conditional Exemptions from the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations - Open
- Proposed Accessible Transportation Planning and Reporting Regulations - Open
- Phase II - Consultation on Accessible Transportation Guidelines for Medium and Small Transportation Service Providers - Open
- Requests for Temporary Exemptions from the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations - Closed
