Ontario’s Design of Public Spaces Standard (DoPS), the design requirements of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), was created to make it easier for everyone, including people with disabilities, seniors and families, to use public spaces.

AllAccess, launched by the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) and Human Space (a consulting division of Quadrangle) with support of the Government of Ontario’s EnAbling Change Program, is a program that gauges awareness and understanding of DoPS for designers, planners, municipalities, property owners and others, while identifying barriers to and best practices for effective implementation.

In an effort to further this goal, it has released the AllAccess Toolkit, a collection of online resources developed to support practitioners’ understanding and implementation of DoPS.

Developed to be used by planners, landscape architects, architects, designers and anyone working with DoPS, the AllAccess Toolkit has been designed as a set of individual tools and resources for practitioners to support their understanding and application of the DoPS Standard. Each of the resources is available separately, or combined in the Toolkit.

The CUI’s work on AllAccess, which included a survey, interviews and workshops, unveiled some common needs, challenges and questions in regards to DoPS. The AllAccess Toolkit aims to address many of these common challenges and to support successful implementation of the DoPS.

The AllAccess Summary Report identified recommendations for future areas of exploration and outreach to help support the role of DoPS.

The Toolkit includes information on the scope of DoPS; a technical and consultation requirements summary; a parking summary; a requirements summary; site plan visualization of DoPS and the Ontario Building Code scope; best practices for implementing DoPS and more.