Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy

Ensuring all people are treated with respect, with equitable access and opportunity to participate to the fullest extent in the city.

Share Your Thoughts: Help Build a More Accessible City

The City is updating the Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy to continue to make Edmonton a more accessible city. The Corporate Accessibility Plan supports the Policy with tangible actions.

Thank you for providing feedback on the barriers to accessibility during Phase 1 engagement in 2024. Based on this feedback, the City has developed new actions to improve accessibility to City programs, services and spaces. These actions will make up the 2025-2029 Corporate Accessibility Plan.

Please share your thoughts on the proposed Policy updates and the draft actions. The survey will close on March 16, 2025.

Take the Survey

The City of Edmonton’s Accessibility Policy guides the development and implementation of City policies and civic engagement, programs and services, communications and technology, employee services, and infrastructure (facilities, open spaces, and transportation) to ensure full consideration of the needs of all individuals and their diverse abilities.

Accessibility: A Fundamental Aspect of Society

Accessibility is fundamental to the quality of life, well-being, and engagement of individuals in the social, economic, cultural, spiritual, and political aspects of society.

The City of Edmonton Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy is intended to ensure all people are treated with respect, and have equitable access and opportunity to participate to the fullest extent in the city.

The Policy

The Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy was approved by City Council on September 24, 2019 and can be found here.

Policy and Plan Implementation

The 2021-2024 Corporate Accessibility Plan supports the Policy through action. The Plan included 70 accessibility actions and ended in June 2024.

Read the Final Progress Report

Corporate staff training to support awareness on disability and accessibility for people with disabilities was released in 2020.

The 311 app was updated in 2020 to track accessibility-related submissions.

2021–2024

Implementation of 2021-24 Corporate Accessibility Plan

June 2021

First 3-year Corporate Accessibility Plan published

December 2020

Updates to 311 app to track accessibility related submissions

October 2020

Corporate awareness training on Accessibility for People with Disabilities released

Public Engagement

Thanks for Sharing Your Feedback

A new Corporate Accessibility Plan will help us continue our efforts to make Edmonton more accessible. Thank you to everyone who attended our public engagement sessions and completed our online survey.

Input from the public engagement sessions and online survey will be used to finalize the 2025-2029 Corporate Accessibility Plan. View the What We Heard Report for more details.

Project Overview

The Policy is guided by a number of drivers including:

The City’s commitment to providing accessible environments and universal design to ensure full consideration of individual’s needs and diverse abilities

Alignment with the City’s broader strategic framework and related plans and policies

Alignment with provincial, national and international policies, best practices and research

Opportunities to increase the City’s quality of life and reputation as an accessible city

Frequently Asked Questions

Open All

Close All

Does this Policy include Diversity and Inclusion too?

The City of Edmonton’s Diversity and Inclusion Policy C538 was approved by City Council in 2008. It is currently under review for an update and will remain a separate policy from the Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy.

How does the City define accessibility and disability?

Words can often have differing interpretations. For this policy work, the City has adopted the following definitions to create a common understanding:

Accessibility — A concept integral to human rights that refers to the absence of barriers that prevent individuals and/or groups from fully participating in all social, economic, cultural, spiritual and political aspects of society. The term is often linked to people with disabilities and their rights to access. It also refers to universal design characteristics of products, devices, information, programs, services and infrastructure that enable independent use or support when required, and access by people with a variety of disabilities.

Disability — Disability means any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment - or a functional limitation - whether permanent, temporary or episodic in nature or evident or not, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society (Accessible Canada Act, 2019).

Who benefits from the Policy and the Corporate Accessibility Plan?

All Edmontonians, visitors, and City employees. The Policy is a shared direction and way of working, influencing how we plan and make decisions in areas that affect people with visible or invisible disabilities. The work supports both the City’s corporate promise of enabling a better life for all Edmontonians and several policies of the City Plan. The Corporate Accessibility Plan includes actions aimed at identifying, preventing, and reducing barriers to accessibility to make Edmonton a more accessible city.

What kind of changes can I expect to see because of this Policy and the Corporate Accessibility Plan?

The Policy is expanded in scope to identify and remove accessibility barriers in all areas of work at the City including:

Technology
Information
Communication
Transportation
Recreation
Open spaces
Civic engagement
Programs and services

The Policy states the City’s commitments. The City is taking a well-thought-out, strategic approach to fulfill the commitments. The Corporate Accessibility Plan identifies priority actions to remove barriers. The Plan is incremental in nature with a phased-in approach.

Were people with disabilities involved in development of the Policy and the plan?

The City has been working with various external groups representing different disabilities, including the Accessibility Advisory Committee, in preparation of the draft Policy.

The City also engaged people with disabilities for feedback on actions in the Corporate Accessibility Plan.

The City continues to engage with Edmontonians with disabilities and disability organizations to share progress updates and understand the barriers they experience when accessing City programs, services and spaces. The 2025-2029 Corporate Accessibility Plan is based on this feedback.

Online	Contact 311 Online

Phone	311
TTY	711

Phone

311

TTY

711

Extreme Weather Alert

Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy

Share Your Thoughts: Help Build a More Accessible City

Accessibility: A Fundamental Aspect of Society

The Policy

Policy and Plan Implementation

2021–2024

June 2021

October 2020

Audio Version of Policy C602

ASL Version of Policy C602

Public Engagement

Thanks for Sharing Your Feedback

Next Steps

Project Overview

Frequently Asked Questions

Contact Us

311 Contact Centre

Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy

Share Your Thoughts: Help Build a More Accessible City

Accessibility: A Fundamental Aspect of Society

The Policy

Policy and Plan Implementation

2021–2024

June 2021

October 2020

Audio Version of Policy C602

ASL Version of Policy C602

Public Engagement

Thanks for Sharing Your Feedback

Next Steps

Project Overview

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Links

Accessible Communication Services for People who are Hard of Hearing or Deaf

Contact Us

311 Contact Centre