Delivering Equality for People with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities (IDD) in Toronto, Canada

The Challenge

Independent travel is one of the greatest barriers to community participation and gainful employment for people with an Intellectual or Developmental Disability (IDD). The situation for these individuals in Toronto was that the system was underutilizing public transit within the city. Instead, it was relying on very expensive transportation services, or the families themselves. But as services moved towards more community-based programming, outside of a person’s neighborhood, this development put additional pressure on an already burdened system. In order to ensure smooth travels, a need arose to utilize an accessibility-friendly public transit app.

The Solution

Community Living Toronto realized that developing an app in-house was outside of their capacity and finances. They turned to Moovit for our White Label Application: a tailored platform, based on the world’s #1 urban mobility app, that offers rich customizations the customer requires to make it their own.

This custom solution utilized our capabilities in the field of accessibility and public transit to ultimately create ‘DiscoverMyRoute,’ an app designed to assist people with IDD with how to use public transit independently in Toronto.

The app works on any iPhone or Android device and provides trip planning, real-time arrival information for any transit line, and GPS-style step-by-step directions, including ‘get off alerts,’ that let the rider know when their stop is coming.

Reasons for Choosing Moovit’s White Label Application:

• A turn-key solution that is easy to implement, with rich customization capabilities 
• Works on all devices: iPhone, Android and web browsers 
• Cost-effective solution, eliminating the need to hire in-house development personnel
•  Inclusion of future updates and upgrades 

About Community Living Toronto

Since 1948, Community Living Toronto has acted as a source of support for thousands of individuals with an intellectual disability searching for accessible and meaningful ways to live in the community. Following years of work within the field, Community Living Toronto, along with additional partners, established and created — Discover My Route, a travel training program designed to teach people 18 years of age and older with an Intellectual or Developmental Disability (IDD) how to use public transit independently in Toronto.