Under Nova Scotia’s Human Rights Act, people with sight loss have important legal rights when it comes to accessing transportation services. This includes the right to have an equal level of access to transportation services as anyone else. This also includes the right to receive reasonable accommodations from transportation service providers, up to the point of undue hardship.
Short-term solutions
Short-term solutions to accessibility issues can often be achieved through actions taken by employees, such as drivers, security personnel, or ticket collectors to provide
accommodation. Employees must be aware of and recognize their duty to accommodate to the point of undue hardship, and, where necessary, take steps to provide instant accommodation for people with disabilities, even if it means performing a task outside of their regular duties.
This may be as easy as having staff on hand to help someone navigate through a terminal or ensuring a bus driver is able and willing to identify stops and provide other information to passengers who require this assistance to comfortably use your service. If all staff are made keenly aware of the importance of this obligation and go out of their way to provide accommodation daily where needed, this can go a long way for persons experiencing sight loss when using public transportation services.
Long-term accommodation strategies
If there is an accessibility issue with your service that cannot be easily remedied, your company may likely be required to adopt a more long-term strategy to meet your duty to accommodate and reliably assist passengers who are experiencing sight loss.
There are many resources that can help to develop such an approach.
- Access Forward provides free, online training modules covering the requirements for public transportation providers in Ontario to increase accessibility. While the legal obligations may differ slightly in Nova Scotia, the planning and design strategies can be applied to communities across the country as a basic starting point.
- The Accessible Transportation Planning and Reporting Regulations (which is a Regulation under the Accessible Canada Act) sets out important details regarding the preparation of accessibility plans and feedback processes for transportation providers. These regulations apply to transportation service providers in the federal transportation network, but they also provide a useful model for provincial, municipal, and community service providers to draw upon when considering accommodation and accessibility. You might consider reflecting on these regulations, especially if your company or organization does not have a well- developed accessibility plan or feedback process.
- In terms of tech accessibility, many people who use your transportation services may rely on your website to access important information about fares, schedules, and booking processes. It is important to design a website or any technological resources you provide to the public, in a way that is accessible for people experiencing sight loss. The following resources may prove useful for this:
- The Ontario Government’s webpage, titled Making government services accessible; and
- W3C Accessibility
- If you rely on a mobile application to provide your transportation service, it is useful to ensure it is designed with accessibility features in mind that will allow persons experiencing sight loss to use your app comfortably.
Learn more about legal obligations as a service provider in Nova Scotia