Canadian Transportation Agency Uses New Communications Tool to Improve Service to Persons with Disabilities

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The Agency is currently one of the few federal government departments to make available some of its key publications in the latest version of the Digital Accessible Information SYstem, or DAISY 4.0. Publications such as the Agency's Code of Practice: Aircraft Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities are now available in the DAISY format.

The Agency is responsible for ensuring that the federal transportation network is accessible. It has developed several Codes of Practice in close consultation with the Canadian transportation industry and the community of persons with disabilities.

The Aircraft Accessibility Code addresses the physical accessibility of passenger aircrafts used by Canadian air carriers. It provides guidance on many issues, including floor space for service dogs, tactile row markers for persons who are blind or have a visual impairment, storage space for passenger-owned wheelchairs, and more. The Code now becomes more widely accessible in its DAISY format.

"Our goal is to keep our stakeholders informed on the initiatives we have in place to ensure an accessible federal transportation network in Canada," says Geoff Hare, the Agency Chair and CEO. "We feel that making our publications available in DAISY 4.0 will go a long way to meet the needs of Canadians who are blind or have a visual impairment."

The DAISY format improves on traditional audio books through its navigation and search functions. A user can jump from point to point in the publication, just as a sighted user can flip from page to page. In traditional audio books, the user can move forward and backward, and bookmark content in certain players, but the user cannot search the book.

In addition to its Codes of Practice, the Agency has issued a DAISY 4.0 version of its popular travel publication Take Charge of Your Travel: A Guide for Persons with Disabilities. This handy guide helps Canadians with disabilities to travel with greater ease and confidence. It describes accessible services and features available to travelers with disabilities.

Along with Take Charge, the Agency's Reservation Checklist for Persons with Disability - a unique step-by-step travel checklist- is available in the new DAISY format.

To view these publications, visit the Canadian Transportation Agency's website at www.cta.gc.ca. For more information on DAISY, visit www.cta.gc.ca/eng/daisy

The Agency plans to re-issue other publications in the DAISY and have new publications be made available in the accessible format, including their upcoming Annual Report.

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