Accessibility gaps remain 40 years after historic tour, says Rick Hansen

OTTAWA — In 1985, Canadian athlete and activist Rick Hansen embarked on a historic world tour, wheeling more than 40,000 kilometres across 34 countries to promote inclusion and tackle barriers for people with disabilities.

More than 40 years later, Hansen says progress has been made but that there’s still much more work to do.

A screening of the documentary film “Man In Motion: The Rick Hansen Story” — which made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September — took place on Parliament Hill Wednesday.

The event marked just more than 40 years after Hansen crossed the bridge from Hull, Quebec, onto Ottawa where thousands gathered to celebrate his journey.

Then-prime minister Brian Mulroney contributed $1 million on behalf of Canadians to the tour, which raised $26 million.

“The moment here in Ottawa was a highlight I’ll never forget,” Hansen said at the event in downtown Ottawa. “While we’ve come a long way in the dream of an accessible and inclusive Canada, we have a long way to go, and we have to accelerate our progress.”

Hansen, who became paralyzed from the waist down after a truck accident, said that while awareness has increased, there are several barriers that remain.

“The built environment is one of the most urgent priorities,” said Hansen, who has won 19 wheelchair marathons and three gold medals at the Paralympic Games.

“We’re building things for the future of our country, and unless we change the way we approach building, we are building in barriers that are not sustainable because we’re trying to achieve a minimum compliance code, which is only 40 or 50 out of 100 on a scale of accessibility, and that’s not good enough.”

The federal government’s 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability found that 8 million Canadians – or more than 27 per cent of the population – had a disability. Hansen said the number of people who know or live with someone with a disability is even higher.

“It’s the only club that eventually everyone is going to join and be part of, so this is a big deal and we have to wake up to the importance of this and start to reflect what Canadians really want,” he said. “That means incremental progress isn’t acceptable anymore. We have to accelerate.”

Hansen said programs supporting accessibility need to be sustained and that governments should ensure that “every dollar is spent wisely to ensure that everything becomes more meaningfully accessible and inclusive.”

“If we do that, it’s a marginal cost and it’s of massive financial and social benefit,” he said.

In 2019, the federal government adopted the Accessible Canada Act, pledging to make Canada barrier-free by 2040.

Hansen said that’s a never-ending process in reality as “accessibility and inclusion isn’t just about the things we build, it’s about the people and how we engage and connect and ensure that no one gets left behind.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2026.

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press