Wheelchair friendly Toronto!by Richard Pennick
If visitors want to use public transit, the Toronto Transit Commission runs a service for wheelchair users called Wheel-Trans. Visitors get a temporary registration for the service, and� book a day in advance. Ph 416-393-4222. The fare is the same as regular transit, (CDN$2) and runs door to door.� There are also taxi companies with minivans for wheelchair users.
There are 4.2 million Canadians, and 42 million Americans with a disability. These numbers, along with an ageing population, contribute to the growing demand for accessible and integrated transportation, and Transport Canada is well on the way to filling this�need! The Disability Today Publishing Group, publishes Toronto With Ease: The Accessibility Guide. A guide to the city's accessible facilities and amenities. 627 Lyon Lane Suite. 203, Oakville, Ontario, L6J 5Z7, Canada.� Ph. 1-905-338-6894.� Fax 1-905-338-1836. |
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Toronto, like all Canadian cities, has an added advantage when vying for the tourist dollar - it is very sensitive to the needs of wheelchair-using travelers! From accessing airports, transferring to downtown, seeing the sights, going to the theatre, or hiring a car, Toronto caters for the special needs of the `wheelers�, making as much as possible accessible to this increasingly more mobile tourism group.
Canada takes pride in being a world leader with programs for the advancement of travel for the disabled. Governments, and municipalities long ago legislated government buildings, facilities and transportation be wheelchair accessible. Transport Canada funded a five year program which provided $20 million to private sector transportation operators to retrofit buses, trains and light aircraft with wheelchair boarding systems. The program also funded the work needed to improve accessibility to private airport ground transportation, taxis and rental vehicles at airports, assuring that all Canadians, and visitors to Canada have accesses to a safe, efficient, and integrated transport system.
In Toronto, all three terminals at the Pearson International Airport are wheelchair accessible. To get downtown, travelers use either an accessible limousine, or take the Pacific Western airport buses. Each bus has room for two wheelchairs, as well as Braille signage and a visual signboard to announce stops for the hearing impaired. The buses serve six major downtown hotels which (along with many others in the city) have rooms adapted for travelers with disabilities. All major car rental companies in Canada's larger cities, provide vehicles with hand controls. Thrifty also has accessible vans.
In downtown Toronto, most of the activities and attractions are close together with all curbs ramped, and most of the main attractions accessible. In the enclosed observation deck of the CN Tower (600metres high), there is a glass floor that you can look through - quite unnerving! From the deck you can also see the spray from Niagara Falls some 100kms away, and the shore line of New York state is also visible across Lake Ontario. 
The Sky Dome enclosed sports arena is worth a visit, (the roof is fully retractable) and the Royal Ontario Museum has one of the largest collection of Chinese art, manuscripts, furniture and ancient weapons in the world. Other museums, art galleries, theatres and all public buildings are accessible, as is the must-see and spend at Eaton Centre, with over 300 shops including the Hudson's Bay and Eaton's department stores. Inter-connected is the "underground city" with several kilometres of indoor shopping and dining that criss crosses under the streets, popping up in office buildings all over the downtown area. 
On the Toronto waterfront is a newer development - Harbourfront Centre - reclaimed from a wasteland of warehouses and grain silos, it's now a series of plazas where authors read their works, dance troupes and musicians perform and artisans display their crafts in boutiques and coffee shops. Also on the lake-shore is the hands-on Ontario science Centre, with an Imax theatre which features a memorable movie on all of Ontario. 
An hour or so south along the lake-shore is Niagara Falls. There are regular sightseeing day trips by bus from downtown Toronto, or it�s an easy drive if you rent a car! You can't miss it - just follow the cloud of rising spray! The revolving Skylon Tower offers dining and a panoramic view over the Falls and surrounding area, and the Maid of the Mist cruises almost to the foot of the thundering torrent of water. The labyrinth of tunnels behind the Falls are also accessible, and bring you almost to with touching distance of the cascading sheet of water. The gardens and parks are beautiful in spring,� summer and autumn, and the new Butterfly conservatory lets you observe close up, 2,000 flying, mini paint palettes, as one or two of them settle on your sleeve for a moment!