The Access Guide Canada is an online searchable database of places and services available in Canada for persons with disabilities. Users are encouraged to add listings.

The online Access Guide Canada - Your Guide to Accessible Places in Canada is a database of places, transportation, resources and services in Canada for people with disabilities. It is provided by the Canadian Abilities Foundation through its website, EnableLink.

Database is Searchable by Town

The Access Guide Canada is easy to search. There is a drop-down menu to select the province of interest, and then another menu to pick the town or city.

For each town or city, there is a little write-up about it and a menu of the listing types available. For example Calgary, Alberta has 11 types of listings under the heading "Accessible Calgary", including transportation, lodging, restaurants, shopping, entertainment, and financial institutions.

Clicking on "transportation" in the Calgary example leads to a list with nine headings, including full-service gas stations and accessible transportation. Each of these is a link to more detailed information about individual gas stations and transit.

Anyone Can Add A Listing

Access Guide Canada is easy to read and to contribute to.

Making an entry requires setting up an account on the site. This is simple and fast.

Adding a listing is straightforward. There is a step-by-step series of questions to answer. Many questions are yes/no. The user should supply the name, address, phone number and website (if applicable) of the place they are submitting. There are boxes for adding more comments to flesh out the information.

Listings Can Be Edited Later, By Their Author

The author of an entry can go back and edit it later if the circumstances change. Once one person writes about a place, it appears that no one else can add comments or change the listing. This is a shortcoming, as the information could be out of date. It would be a good idea to double-check the information using other websites (e.g. from the places involved) before setting out.

Users Should Add Descriptive Listings if They Can

Although the Guide is generally an excellent idea and a good resource, one thing that is a little misleading is the way the form describes places. For example, SouthCentre Mall in Calgary is a large mall with several designated handicapped parking spots at different parts of the property, but the description says "at least one". Anyone familiar with this major shopping centre would know that one parking spot is hardly enough - and in fact, the mall is well-equipped with them, but the description of "at least one" sounds like there could be as few as two.

This shortcoming of the Guide can be overcome. Users making entries in the guide can put more detailed comments in the text boxes when they first fill out the listing form.

Benefits

As a guide prepared by users for users, this resource is practical and deals with the places people want to go, and the services they want to use. The listings are concise and well-organized.

The site itself has an uncluttered look and is reasonably easy to navigate. A button called "Contrast" on the top right of the screen reverses the print so instead of black letters on a white background, it's the other way around.

About the Photograph

Entitled "Blind child making the acquaintance of a bit of statuary at the Oklahoma School for the Blind", this photo by Lewis G. Hine is dated 1917. It comes from the Ellis Report and is part of the records of the National Child Labor Committee (U.S.). Public domain. Reference number nclc 05233 in the digital image collection of the Library of Congress.