Barrier Free Manitoba

Accessible public transportation is a basic human right. That's why the Province has committed to the development and enforcement of an accessible transportation standard under the landmark Accessibility for Manitobans Act.

While the Province has repeatedly committed to having this (and all the other five initial) standards in place by October 2020, work has not even begun on this crucial standard. So there is no better time than now to review accessible standards already in place in other jurisdictions. 

The Manitoba challenge is to learn from and improve upon what has already been tried elsewhere. So as to support evidence-based decision making, we are so pleased that the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) has prepared a comparative review of transportation standards. And we're also pleased to release it today.

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Here is an excerpt from the review's "Overview and Introduction"

"Transportation is a vital service whether or not an individual has a disability. For persons with disabilities, however, a lack of access to transportation can significantly negatively impact participation in many activities such as employment, education, shopping, recreation and socializing. As a result, numerous jurisdictions have developed legislation prohibiting discrimination or unequal treatment on the basis of disability and many have implemented specific standards promoting accessible transportation. . . 

The Public Interest Law Centre was asked by Barrier-Free Manitoba to prepare a review of transportation standards in select jurisdictions. The purpose of this review is to provide background information to Barrier-Free Manitoba's in preparation of its involvement in the development of the Transportation accessibility standard under the Accessibility for Manitobans Act.

The jurisdictions which are reviewed for this report are the Americans with Disabilities Act in the United States, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act in the province of Ontario, and the Equality Act 2010 in the United Kingdom. We also examine accessible transit in Vancouver, which is not governed by specific legislation or standards. Specific and general practices are compared, processes that led to the enactment of legislation and standards are discussed, as well as best practices and challenges faced by the jurisdictions under review. The last section of this report summarizes best practices and challenges identified in our review, which may be helpful in the Manitoba context as the transportation accessibility standard under the Accessibility for Manitobans Act is developed."
 

Thanks PILC!!!!!