Nothing Without Us and the Accessible Canada Act

Canada flexes its accessibility superpower muscles by passing the Accessible Canada Act and beginning the campaign “Nothing Without Us”

Man wearing dark leather zippered jacket partially opened to reveal a Canadian flag t-shirt

As a Canadian, I couldn’t be prouder of Bill C-81, the Accessible Canada Act: An Act to Ensure a Barrier-free Canada and the “Nothing Without Us” campaign. Even more proud that the bill passed unanimously — that doesn’t happen very often, and special note should be taken of that.

Accessible Canada Act — The Beginning

How did Canada do this? In a way Canadians are well-known for — publicly, and fairly. It started with the Government of Canada consulting 6000 Canadians, holding 18 public hearings, and summarizing the findings in July 2016 in a report titled “Creating new national accessibility legislation: What we learned from Canadians”

Who is covered under the Accessible Canada Act?

Then, the Canadian Parliament unanimously passed the Accessible Canada Act, which applies to the following four groups of “regulated entities” :

• Parliament, including the Senate, the House of Commons, the Library of Parliament and the Parliamentary Protective Service (with some tailoring of compliance and enforcement provisions to respect parliamentary privilege);