Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations: TRAN – February 27, 2024

Service

• Carriers have to accept service dogs for carriage.
• Carriers have to establish a "buffer zone" upon request of a person who has a disability as a result of a severe allergy.
• If a person with a disability requires more than one passenger seat due to disability-related needs – for example, because they travel with a support person or a service dog – carriers have to provide additional, adjacent passenger seating at no extra cost (domestic only).
• Helping a passenger who is at the terminal for boarding get from the curbside zone outside to the check-in area inside, and then from check-in to boarding.
• Helping a passenger who has de-boarded at the terminal get from the general public area inside to the curbside zone outside.
• Helping with wheelchairs, baggage, and navigating the terminal as part of this curbside assistance.
• Carriers must ensure the safe storage and transportation of mobility aids, and their temporary and permanent replacement, where required.
• Ensuring ground transportation services are accessible if the terminal has entered into an agreement with service providers.

Communications

• Key announcements and other communications to inform the public have to be provided in accessible formats.
• Automated self-service kiosks, which must comply with csa specifications.
• Telecommunications systems for reservations and information.
• Carriers to clarify the size and weight of mobility aids that their fleets can carry in cargo holds and baggage compartments.
• Prominently post information about the terminal's accessibility, including any accessible intra-terminal or ground transportation.
• Publish a notice, including on their website, that they are subject to the atpdr and the provisions that apply to them, in addition to the services that they offer to persons with disabilities and any related conditions.

Training

• Training must cover key human rights principles regarding dignity, equal opportunities, barrier-free access, and autonomy.
• Employees and contractors must complete required job-specific training within 60 days of starting their duties, and refresher training must be provided at least once every three years.
• Untrained personnel have to be supervised by trained personnel until they receive training.
• Transportation service providers have to give a description of their training program to the cta and any person upon request (unless the information is confidential or otherwise sensitive).
• New training requirements will apply to employees or contractors who assist passengers with on-board entertainment systems and automated self-service kiosks.
• The regulations require transportation service providers to consult with persons with disabilities when developing training programs and the principal teaching methods.

Technical Requirements

• National Standard of Canada (CSA) specifications for the accessible design of their fleets and equipment. These specifications cover such elements as washrooms, elevators, doors, and operating controls. Many of these provisions apply to future purchases or modifications.
• Transfer seats, mobility aid spaces, and mobility aid storage space, lifts and ramps, window emergency exits, and accessible washrooms.
• The availability of passenger safety information in accessible formats (i.e., in large print and Braille or using an electronic device) and on-board wheelchairs on trains.
• Tactile row markers, armrests, and call buttons.
• Accessible on-board entertainment systems.
• Relief areas for service dogs.

Requirements for the Canada Border Services Agency and Canadian Air Transport Security Authority

• Provide assistance to persons with disabilities, when requested.
• Where applicable, help persons with disabilities complete their declaration card, or accept a verbal declaration instead.
• Screen a person and their disability aid at the same time, or promptly return the disability aid if it requires separate screening.
• Provide instructions in writing or, if possible, in american sign language or langue des signes québécois, where requested.
• Ensure any signs they produce and display are accessible.
• Offering an alternate line designed to move people more quickly through the process when they have difficulty waiting in line and any support person travelling with them.

CATSA and CBSA

Requirements related to security screening and border clearance, training, and communication, apply to CATSA and CBSA

Enforcement

• The CTA is responsible for enforcing the ATPDR, including through administrative monetary penalties of up to $250,000.
• The CTA can also, in resolving a complaint, award a person compensation if they experienced physical or psychological pain and suffering because a transportation service provider has contravened the regulations.

ATPDR Regulatory Review

• The CTA has been working on a regulatory review of the ATPDR. The purpose of the regulatory review is to address minor errors, omissions and inconsistencies to ensure clarity and certainty in both the interpretation and the application of the ATPDR.
• In addition, the CTA is starting to explore potential amendments to ATPDR requirements which could improve the transportation of mobility aids.

ATPDR Small Transportation Service Providers

• For small air carriers, Part VII of the Air Transportation Regulations (ATR) ensures that air carriers provide certain accessibility services to passengers with disabilities travelling in Canada on aircraft with 30 or more passenger seats.
• In addition, most small carriers are subject to the Personnel Training for the Assistance of Persons with Disabilities Regulations, which require that personnel have the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to assist passengers with disabilities.
• The CTA has been working on developing new accessibility regulations for small transportation service providers (TSPs). The goal of the new regulations is to extend the ATPDR, where appropriate, to small TSPs while considering their specific operational realities serving regional and remote travelers.
• The CTA created in the summer of 2022 a small advisory committee composed of representatives of persons with disabilities and small transportation service providers, to help the CTA to develop our consultation plan to cover the small TSPs.
• The CTA held two virtual meetings with members of the small advisory group between August and October 2022. As a result of these discussions, the Agency drafted a consultation plan which outlined the parameters of the consultation and identified stakeholders for the initial consultation phase.
• The consultation plan was shared with the Accessibility Advisory Committee members for input.
• During spring and summer 2023, as part of the initial consultation phase, a series of discussions and site visits took place with small TSPs and persons with disabilities to learn about small TSPs' operating realities and the needs of persons with disabilities who travel with these TSPs.
• The knowledge acquired will support the development of the pre-consultations, which are expected to begin in Summer 2024, followed by pre-publication in Canada Gazette, Part I, in Winter 2025.