Onboard

Seating and layout

Once onboard, if you are blind or have any other visual impairment, your carrier is required – upon your request – to describe the layout of the transportation equipment, including the location of washrooms and exits, and the location and operation of any operating controls at your seat. You can also ask for help to find and transfer into your seat and to put away and retrieve your carry-on luggage.

Announcements

Once you've settled into your seat, take a moment to find the briefing card with safety information. Most carriers will provide a general safety demonstration before departure but are required to provide an individualized briefing and demonstration if you request one. Carriers are also required to make announcements (for example, regarding weather, delays, baggage retrieval, and connections) in an audio or a visual format upon request by a traveller.

Meals or snacks

The on-board crew are required to offer limited help with meals or snacks – opening packages, identifying food items and their location and cutting large food portions – but are not required to assist a passenger with feeding. If you are blind or have any other visual impairment, you can ask them to describe all the food and beverages that are offered or to provide you with a menu in large print or Braille. And, if you are travelling by train and you are unable to access the food-service car, you (and your support person, if you are travelling with one) can order a meal and have it served at your seat or in your cabin.

On-board wheelchairs and access to washrooms

On-board crew on trains and ferries, and on airplanes which have sufficiently wide aisles, can assist you to go between your seat and the washroom using an on-board wheelchair, including by assisting in your transfer between your seat and the on-board wheelchair. On an airplane, you can use the washroom that has the most space, regardless of where it is located, if you need an on-board wheelchair or the help of a support person or service dog to use the washroom. On-board crew are not required to assist a passenger inside a washroom.

Onboard entertainment

If there is on-board entertainment available, your carrier must assist you in using it, upon your request. If you have provided advance notice to your carrier that you would like a personal electronic device (for example, a tablet), your carrier will provide you with one and help you use it if you request assistance.

A carrier cannot charge you for a personal electronic device. However, if it charges passengers for accessing on-board entertainment, it can charge you for using the personal electronic device that it provides to you on the same basis that it charges other passengers who access on-board entertainment content and who are travelling in the same class of service as you.