Access Guide Canada

“If society were arranged in such a way that disabilities were fully a facet of everyday human life, it would be much easier for people with disabilities to attain the quality of life they seek.”
– Ivan Brown and Roy Brown in “Quality of Life and Disability”

If we live long enough, we may see the day when disabilities are fully a facet of everyday human life. In the meantime, though, we can put our heads together and map out which parts of society are already working well for us. And we can be sure to spread the word.

That’s the Access Guide Canada philosophy in a nutshell.

Access Guide Canada (AGC) is an ambitious, online directory of accessible, public space in Canada. Launched in the fall of 2002, it recently moved into its second phase and now includes over 5,000 records from Directory of Disability Organizations in Canada, and 7,000 profiles of accessible public spaces, transportation and services: attractions, lodgings, parks, restaurants, places of worship, banks, stores and meeting facilities; stations and terminals, airports, gas stations, parallel transit, taxis and car rentals; and American Sign Language providers, attendant service providers, emergency vets, hospitals and clinics, and oxygen service suppliers.

And it’s continually growing and being refined. With each successive phase, AGC will improve. Next phase we’ll be adding a search function. We’re considering adding swimming pools to our assessments. We’ve had requests to list family washrooms (makes sense – keep those ideas coming!). If there’s only one Indian restaurant listed in your community, be patient: soon there will be two. Better yet, be impatient: get out, find that second Indian restaurant and add it to AGC yourself. It’s easy.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology,” Arthur C. Clarke famously wrote, “is indistinguishable from magic.” Databases are everywhere, and online databases have been around for years, so perhaps we’re jaded about these technologies. But let’s not be. Consider: AGC database records won’t disappear, they’ll only be updated. Access Guide Canada will carry its history with it as a permanent resource, a continually improving filter that cuts out the noise of inaccessible public space to expose universal design and choice. That choice can only grow. Access Guide Canada will only increase in value to people with disabilities.

“The saddest aspect of life right now,” Isaac Asimov wrote, “is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” By gathering the fruits of our society’s movement towards universal design, Access Guide Canada actually reverses that disheartening trend.

There is a catch. Revolutionary hardware and software can do nothing unless acted on by people and organizations. When your corner store adds an exterior ramp, when your favourite restaurant finally offers a Braille menu, when your local bank installs an audio ABM, you’ll know about it, but the rest of us won’t – unless you sign up and share the good news.

Sign up today. It’s easy to add an accessibility profile. You can give it a try by visiting the Access Guide Canada project at www.enablelink.org/agc.

“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.”
– Immanuel Kant

HOW TO CONTACT ACCESS GUIDE CANADA ON ENABLELINK:
Access Guide Canada, c/o Canadian Abilities Foundation
340 College Street, Suite 650, Toronto, Ontario M5T 3A9
Tel.: (416) 923-1885 Fax: (416) 923-9829 E-mail: agc@enablelink.org

We are grateful to the Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada for their support of EnableLink.