Accessibility

Information desks are located near the main entrances of our campuses. They are staffed with volunteers (in-person or virtual), who can provide information and assistance.

Volunteers are typically available Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

If you need spoken language or sign language (ASL or LSQ) interpretation while you are at The Ottawa Hospital, we’re here to help. These services are free and available to support your care. Just let a member of your health-care team know as early as possible so they can arrange the interpreter for you.

For more information, please visit the Interpretation Services page.

Personal amplifiers (e.g. Pocketalker) are available to use while at The Ottawa Hospital. If you would like to use one, please let a member of your care team know. They will make the necessary arrangements.

You are also welcome to use your personal amplifier.

Service animals can accompany people with disabilities in all public areas of the hospital.  

There may be limited areas that service animals cannot enter due to health and safety protocols.

The owner of the service animal may be asked to show a letter from a regulated health professional confirming that the animal is a service animal. They are also responsible for their animal’s care, supervision and behaviour.

Please let the unit or department know ahead of your scheduled visit if a service animal will accompany you. 

We welcome support persons who are accompanying a patient.

Please identify the support person who is accompanying you and give permission for the support person to be present and/or help with discussions involving confidential information.

From time to time, there may be disruptions at the hospital that affect access to certain services or areas—for example, if an accessible entrance is temporarily out of service.

We will also make every effort to post a notice at the location of the disruption. This notice will include:  

• Information on how long the disruption may last.
• The nearest alternative service, if one is available.

The way we provide the notice will be determined by the impact of the disruption. We will try to ensure that multiple accessible service disruptions do not happen at the same time.

For information on disruptions that are currently affecting access to hospital sites and services, please see the News page.

We work to ensure that all information on our website is accessible.

If you find information on this website that you cannot access, please email the web officer at  webofficer@toh.ca. Please include a link to the item and add details if possible.

If the hospital owns or manages the content, we will make every effort to fix the issue. If necessary, we can provide the information in a different format. 

If you would like to request documents or information provided to you from the hospital in a different format, please speak to a member of your health-care team during your visit. We will make every effort to provide information in the format you request.

You can also contact the Accessibility Office: