Inclusive design is a process that enables and draws on the full range of human diversity. Most importantly, this means including and learning from people with a range of perspectives.

Updated in 2021, the new City of Toronto Accessibility Design Guidelines (TADG) are a benchmark guide for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the built environment. TADG builds upon the minimum legislated standards, such as the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), Design of Public Spaces Standards (DOPS), and the Ontario Building Code (OBC), and integrates better practices, research and the lived experience of persons with disabilities.The guidelines act as a guiding standard of excellence in accessibility for building and renovation, representing a best practice standard and a level of accessibility that goes beyond that of the minimum legislative requirements.

Comprehensive in nature, TADG includes improved guidelines for accessible parking, service counters, signage and wayfinding, washrooms and other updated requirements covered within several key categories: exterior, interior, systems and controls and maintenance.

Join us for this 1 hour lecture as Jesse Klimitz, Lorene Casiez and Haley Rae Dinnall-Atkinson of Human Space, accessibility consultants to the TADG, provide us with an overview of these improved guidelines and the principles behind them. A variety of qualitative considerations and technical requirements in TADG will be reviewed to demonstrate thoughtful design solutions that can improve individual experiences.