The Transportation Standards under the AODA and the Transportation Standard under the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA) both require organizations to make transportation accessible to people with disabilities. Moreover, both standards require many of the same processes and practices to ensure accessibility. However, there are many important differences between the standards. The third review of the AODA recommends that the Ontario government should coordinate with other provinces and the federal government to ensure that accessibility laws are consistent across Canada. Therefore, requirements in the AODA may one day change to align with mandates under the Accessibility for Manitobans Act. In this article, we will explore requirements for accessible conventional transit vehicles in Ontario and Manitoba.
Accessible Conventional Transit Vehicles in Ontario and Manitoba
The AODA’s Transportation Standards and the Accessible Transportation Standard of the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA) both require conventional transit companies to make features of their vehicles accessible to passengers with disabilities. Both standards have technical rules describing how to make vehicles accessible. The features that these rules apply to are:
- Lifting devices, ramps, or portable bridge plates
- Steps
- Grab bars, handholds, handrails, and stanchions
- Floors and carpeted surfaces
- Lighting
- Signage
- Allocated spaces for passengers’ assistive devices
- Stop requests
- Indicators and alarms
Furthermore, both standards require companies to retrofit vehicles for accessibility, under certain conditions. However, companies do not need to retrofit a vehicle if doing so would impair the vehicle’s structure.
Differences
Manitoba’s mandate lists kneeling functions as one more required way to make conventional transit accessible. In other words, a conventional transit vehicle in Manitoba must include at least one (1) of four (4) possible types of accessibility equipment:
- Lifting devices
- Kneeling functions
- Ramps
- Portable bridge plates
In contrast, kneeling functions are not required on conventional transit vehicles in Ontario. Nevertheless, if an Ontario vehicle has kneeling functions, rules for other accessibility equipment apply to those functions.
Moreover, the Ontario standards only mandate accessibility in conventional transit vehicles that:
- Were built on or after January 1st, 2013
- Companies have purchased on or after July 1st, 2011
In addition, if companies update one (1) feature of their vehicles, such as signage, the updated feature must be accessible. However, remaining features continue to be inaccessible.
In contrast, Manitoba’s standard mandates accessibility in vehicles that:
- Companies acquire on or after January 1st, 2027
However, vehicles that companies acquire before this date must be accessible by January 1st, 2042.