CAN-ASC-7.1 - Accessible Travel Journey

Accessibility Standards Canada was created under the Accessible Canada Act. Its mandate is to prevent, identify, and remove barriers to accessibility for Canadians with disabilities. In pursuit of this mandate, Accessibility Standards Canada develops standards based on the needs of people with disabilities. These needs have been identified in consultations with Canadians with disabilities, including the Governor in Council appointed Board of Directors, who are primarily people with disabilities and have approved the development of this standard.

In addition to these identified needs, Accessibility Standards Canada standards are developed following the principle of “nothing without us”. This means that Accessibility Standards Canada standards are developed with research that has been led by people with disabilities or lived experience, participation of people with disabilities on our technical committees and produce equity-based requirements that take into account the needs and perspectives of people with disabilities. This also means that the public review process for this standard will be accessible, allowing even more people with disabilities to be part of the standards development process.

For the CAN-ASC-7.1, a number of articles have been released recently describing unacceptable experiences by people with disabilities during travel demonstrating a need for a standard to remove and prevent barriers to provide equitable access to travel.