Ensuring all people are treated with respect, with equitable access and opportunity to participate to the fullest extent in the city. Accessibility promotes equity and benefits everyone, regardless of age or ability.
The City of Edmonton Accessibility Policy ensures the needs of people with disabilities are considered in City programs, services, practices and spaces.
City Council approved the updated Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy on May 21, 2025. The updated policy aims to continue the progress towards making Edmonton a more accessible city where residents with disabilities feel welcome and have a sense of belonging.
Accessibility: A Fundamental Aspect of Society
Accessibility is fundamental to the quality of life, well-being and engagement of individuals in the social, economic, cultural, spiritual and political aspects of society.
The City of Edmonton Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy is intended to ensure all people are treated with respect, and have equitable access and opportunity to participate to the fullest extent in the city.
Policy Implementation
Corporate Accessibility Plans support implementation of the policy through tangible actions.
The 2021-2024 Corporate Accessibility Plan included 70 accessibility actions and ended in June 2024. Read the Final Progress Report.
The 2025-2029 Corporate Accessibility Plan will be implemented over the next 4 years.
Thanks for Sharing Your Feedback
The updated policy will help us continue our efforts to make Edmonton more accessible. Thank you to everyone who attended our public engagement sessions and completed our online survey.
Public engagement included 2 phases:
- Phase 1: What We Heard Report
- Phase 2: What We Heard Report
Next Steps
2025-2029
- Implementation of 2025-2029 Corporate Accessibility Plan
- Progress reports will be published annually
Project Overview
The policy is guided by a number of drivers including:
- The City’s commitment to providing accessible environments and universal design to ensure full consideration of individuals’ needs and diverse abilities
- Alignment with the City’s broader strategic framework and related plans and policies
- Alignment with national best practices and research (for example, the Accessible Canada Act)
- Opportunities to increase the City’s quality of life and reputation as an accessible city
Frequently Asked Questions
The City of Edmonton’s Diversity and Inclusion Policy will remain a separate policy from the Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy.
Words can often have differing interpretations. For this Policy work, the City has adopted the following definitions to create a common understanding:
Accessibility
Accessibility refers to the absence of barriers that prevent individuals and/or groups from fully participating, contributing and benefiting from all social, economic, cultural, spiritual and political aspects of society. The term also refers to rights to access, and to universal design characteristics of products, devices, information, programs, services, practices and spaces that enable independent use, or support when required, and access by people with a variety of disabilities, both visible or invisible.
Disability
Disability means any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment - or a functional limitation - whether permanent, temporary or episodic in nature or evident or not, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society (Accessible Canada Act, 2019).
All Edmontonians, visitors and City employees. The policy is a shared direction and way of working, influencing how we plan and make decisions in areas that affect people with visible or invisible disabilities. The work supports both the City’s corporate promise of enabling a better life for all Edmontonians and several policies of the City Plan. The Corporate Accessibility Plan includes actions aimed at identifying, preventing and reducing barriers to accessibility to make Edmonton a more accessible city.
The policy is expanded in scope to identify and remove accessibility barriers in all areas of work at the City, including: technology, information, communication, transportation, recreation, open spaces, civic engagement, programs and services. The Policy states the City’s commitments. The City is taking a well thought out, strategic approach to fulfill the commitments. The Corporate Accessibility Plan identifies priority actions to remove barriers. The Plan is incremental in nature with a phased-in approach.
The City worked with various external groups representing different disabilities, including the Accessibility Advisory Committee, to develop the policy.
The City also engaged people with disabilities for feedback on actions in the Corporate Accessibility Plan.
The City continues to engage with Edmontonians with disabilities and disability organizations to share progress updates and understand the barriers they experience when accessing City programs, services and spaces. The 2025-2029 Corporate Accessibility Plan is based on this feedback.
Contact Us
311 Contact Centre
Phone 311 | Outside Edmonton and Video Relay Service (VRS): 780-442-5311 | TTY 711