Accessibility

Last updated August 12, 2021

Montréal strives to be a universally accessible city where all people can exercise their rights and carry out their daily activities independently and without barriers, regardless of their abilities.

Tangible actions 

The city carries out tangibleactions to show this commitment to accessibility.

A universal accessibility policy

The city has produced a universal accessibility policy to guide its actions.

It targets four areas of action: 

  • Architecture and urban planning
  • Programs, services and employment
  • Communications
  • Awareness and training

Une stratégie d’intervention 2021-2022

La Stratégie d’interventions 2021-2022 en accessibilité universelle et auprès des personnes ayant une limitation fonctionnelle se décline en 9 orientations visant à réduire les obstacles rencontrés par ces personnes au quotidien.

Annual achievements

Every year, Montréal takes actions to become more and more accessible.

Recent work includes:

Work on buildings, public places and urban infrastructures

  • Accessible washrooms, interior signs, furniture, automatic doors, ramps and elevators installed
  • Inspectors visited city buildings and parks to assess how accessible they are 
  • “Age-friendly” active trails created
  • Terraces and parklets designed to be accessible

Culture, sports and leisure

  • Shows designed to accommodate families with newborns, and people with sensory, intellectual, neurological or learning disabilities
  • Beach and tennis court layouts made more accessible 
  • Recreation resource directory produced for people with functional limitations
  • Montréal’s recreation companion program provides financial assistance to organizations working with children and adults with special needs who need a companion when participating in recreational activities.

Employment and communication

  • Employment Springboard program launched. This pilot project aims to integrate persons with disabilities.
  • Ergonomic adaptation applied to workstations, equipment and software .
  • Guide to making communications with the public universally accessible published.

A universal accessibility project

Montréal has launched a large-scale project to improve its universal accessibility practices. This project, which will run until 2024, brings together external partners, experts in universal accessibility and people with disabilities.

Digital accessibility

In keeping with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines, Montréal makes its website accessible to people with disabilities or special needs. To help people find information more easily, it allows keyboard navigation, pays attention to colour contrasts, uses understandable language, etc.

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