Travelling with a disability
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) offers services and accommodations for persons with disabilities travelling into Canada.
How the CBSA can help with your border crossing
If you are a traveller with a disability, you can request assistance from the CBSA upon your arrival. A border services officer will be happy to help.
The CBSA will:
- help you through the steps of the border clearance process, including assisting you in completing your declaration and providing verbal or visual cues or additional instructions
- provide you with instructions in writing or in sign language, if possible (in American, Quebec or Indigenous sign language)
- direct you, and any support person you are travelling with, to a dedicated line to help you move through customs with ease if you have difficulty waiting in line for disability-related reasons
- help place and retrieve personal items on a counter for inspection if you must undergo more extensive clearance
Using the special services counter
Persons with disabilities can use the special services counter line available in all CBSA primary inspection areas.
You can request information related to traveller processing (such as the declaration of goods and personal exemptions), through braille booklets at the following airports:
- Vancouver International Airport (YVR)
- Calgary International Airport (YYC)
- Winnipeg Richardson International Airport (YWG)
- Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) (Terminal 1 and 3)
- Hamilton International Airport (YHM)
- Montreal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL)
- Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB)
- Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)
Know your rights
The Canadian Transportation Agency has developed regulations to ensure that travel is accessible in all air services, as well as rail, bus, and ferry services.
The Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations (ATPDR) are also applicable to the CBSA and provide a set of specific and legally-binding accessibility requirements on services, technical standards for equipment, communications, training, and security and border screening. Specifically, the CBSA is subject to Parts 1 and 5 of the regulations.
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