I spent May 29th, Ottawa’s 23rd annual #AccessAbilityDay at Ottawa City Hall, and after hearing Mayor Mark Sutcliffe proudly discuss the most recent advances in accessibility in Canada’s capital – I’m not impressed. They’re good things, absolutely, but I’m not sure they’re the “wins” they’re proclaimed to be.

1. Para Transpo is adding two new busses to its fleet. Two more busses to serve roughly 290,000 residents. About 31% of Ottawa’s total population of 1.2 million people. Two busses – with a capacity for three wheelchairs and ten ambulatory riders each. Two busses. Twenty-six people. Will this make a meaningful difference to 290,000 people and an overstretched, underfunded (para)transit system? I doubt it. Not that two additional busses are bad… but it hardly seems worthy of announcing on AccessAbility Day. Just say additional busses and stop while you’re ahead. The fact that it’s only two is not something to be disproportionally proud of.

2. Para Transpo is extending its hours on Friday and Saturday nights to offer service during the hours that the city’s LRT system runs. So… people with disabilities can now, only now, officially boast that we can stay out as late as everyone else in the city? Again, I’m glad for these small improvements, but this is hardly a groundbreaking shift, or anything you’d want to draw attention to the lack of until just now.

3. Accessibility advocates lobbied hard, and succeeded in keeping Stop Gap Ottawa operational – a non-profit that provides handmade ramps to local businesses to ensure access for disabled patrons and community members. “These disposable ramps are valuable to our local businesses and communities,” … You think so do you? Thank you ever so much! If this was a hard lobbied battle, it means the fight to keep it operational was uphill, which means there was either a lack of funding to keep it open or powerful people/bodies failed to acknowledge its value and actually advocated for its closure.

I say none of this to demean or devalue the work that was done to secure these minor improvements. I say this to draw attention to how low the bar truly is when it comes to external buy-in for BASIC access and equity for people with disabilities. We get two more busses – twenty-six more people can go out; we can stay out as long as the rest of the city; we get to keep our community funded ramps that help businesses address minor architectural barriers. These are great things, but nothing I’m prepared to celebrate with the fanfare and whooping cheers they recieved today. When I shared these three “wins” with a close friend and fellow wheelchair user also living in Ottawa she said, “I hate it here.” Able-bodied friends responded with, “Omg that’s sad,” and “Oh my God, the bar is so low.”

There was a nice game of wheelchair basketball outside City Hall this morning. A lovely panel discussion with Parolympian wheelchair basketball players and people from Special Olymipcs Ontario’s Ottawa contingent discussing the importance, camaraderie and life-changing value of sport for people with disabilities. It is wonderful to see the excitement building for the IWBF Wheelchair Basketball Championships being held in Ottawa from September 9-19, 2026. Our city is lucky to be hosting such a prestigious global sporting event.

We may be hosting a great event that will bring serious para-athletes from across the globe to Canada’s capital, but that does not mean we’re doing accessibility well. Ottawa has a lot of work to do.