How some Canadian families are making trick-or-treating more accessible

This Halloween, a Hamilton family will join others in serving trick-or-treaters from the curb in an effort to make the experience more accessible. 

It’s part of a growing movement called Treat Accessibly. 

Mercedes Palermo, who lives in Hamilton’s central mountain area, says she’s a “huge advocate” for the movement, which promotes ways people can make Halloween accessible for those with disabilities, or who are neurodivergent.

It’s personal for Palermo, whose six-year-old daughter Camila is autistic. Not all autistic children have difficulties with Halloween, Palermo notes, but Camila gets easily overwhelmed by new things  and some sensory challenges prevent her from enjoying candy. 

Treat Accessibly promotes accessibility tips including providing barrier-free access by offering treats from a driveway, garage or trunk of your vehicle to prevent people from having to climb stairs. Other recommendations include offering a non-edible treat option for people who can’t have candy, and avoiding the use of bright lights and sudden sounds. 

Barriers like those make “something that should be so fun for everybody so difficult,” Palermo said. Palermo, who works as a registered nurse, also manages a social media page called Autism Out Loud, where she shares tips and experiences about raising a neurodivergent child. 

She recommends people “let go of any expectations that homeowners have for trick-or-treaters,” such as making sure they say “Trick-or-treat,” or are wearing costumes. 

“Let people enjoy the night.”

To advertise that their family will be offering an accessible trick-or-treating experience, the Palermo’s put up a Treat Accessibly sign on their lawn at the start of the month. 

The signs come from the Treat Accessibly organization, which got its start in nearby Oakville, Ont., in 2017. It was then that founder Rich Padulo and his daughter Siena were decorating their home for Halloween. Siena saw a boy in a wheelchair across the street and asked how he could trick-or-treat at their house if he couldn't climb stairs to get to their door. 

“That night, we made a plan,” Padulo told CBC Hamilton. They made a sign announcing their home would be accessible to trick-or-treaters and on Halloween the following week, gave out candy from the base of their driveway.

The sign got a lot of attention in the family’s neighbourhood, with people asking for their own signs. The Padulos also met the family of one trick-or-treater with a disability who drove four kilometres specifically because they saw the sign. That memory is “still right here in my heart,” Padulo told CBC Hamilton.

Now, the family-led organization is on track to reach 300,000 signs distributed by the end of this Halloween, Padulo said. 

Treat Accessibly recently got a shout-out in the House of Commons from Carleton Member of Parliament Bruce Fanjoy, who said “Treat Accessibly is a reminder that inclusion is not a barrier but an opportunity.”