Moving Forward Together A Pan-Canadian Strategy for Disability and Work Employment throughout Canada is inclusive. Persons with and without disabilities have equality of opportunity and choice in careers, jobs and work. Prepared by the Disability and Work in Canada (DWC) Steering Committee, in consultation and collaboration with partners across Canada Disability and Work in Canada Steering Committee The development of this strategy was led by the Disability and Work in Canada (DWC) Steering Committee. The members include the following, listed alphabetically by last name. Alec Farquhar, Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy: www.crwdp.ca Maureen Haan, Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work: www.ccrw.org Kathy Hawkins, Inclusion NL (Employer Support Services): www.inclusionnl.ca Steve Mantis, Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups: www.injuredworkersonline.org/ injured-workers-community/ontario-network-of-injured-workers-groups-oniwg Kathy Padkapayeva, Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy: www.crwdp.ca Ron Saunders, Institute for Work & Health: www.iwh.on.ca Emile Tompa, Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy: www.crwdp.ca Monica Winkler, Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work. www.ccrw.org For more information This strategy, as well as information on the development of the strategy and supporting background documents, is available online at: www.crwdp.ca/dwc-strategy. If you have questions or comments about this strategy, email: feedback@DWCstrategy.ca Moving Forward Together A Pan-Canadian Strategy for Disability and Work Table of contents 2 Foreword 3 Vision Where we want to be 3 Objectives What it will look like when we get there 4 Proposed initiatives What we need to do to get there 4 Foster disability-confident and inclusive workplaces 6 Develop comprehensive supports for persons with disabilities 8 Core values The principles that will guide us along the way 11 Measurement and accountability How we will know how far we have come 12 Strategy implementation Proposals for getting it done right 15 Model Elements of the DWC strategy at a glance 16 Acknowledgements 17 Consultation and supporting documents Foreword Offered here is a strategic framework – a roadmap for moving forward, so to speak – for increasing the sustainable employment of persons with disabilities in Canada. The strategy articulates a vision, objectives, initiatives, core values and measures. These are ambitious in scope and framed broadly enough that they can be embraced as a guide for action by persons with disabilities, injured workers, businesses, employers, labour, community service providers and all levels of government. How it all began In 2017, the Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work (CCRW), the Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy (CRWDP), Inclusion Newfoundland (InclusionNL) and the Ontario Network of Injured Workers’ Groups (ONIWG)—already working together as members of a community caucus formed by the CRWDP research partnership—formed the Disability and Work in Canada (DWC) Steering Committee to host the first DWC conference. One of the outcomes of the first conference was a decision to develop a pan-Canadian strategy on disability and work. After two years of consultations with persons with disabilities, injured workers, disability organizations, labour/unions, employers, businesses, service providers and government representatives from across the country – through national conferences, provincial/territorial- based focus groups, and an online survey that garnered more than 400 responses – the DWC Steering Committee finalized the pan-Canadian strategy on disability and work in November 2019, outlined in this document. Why now? Persons with disabilities are under-employed. According to Statistics Canada’s Canadian Survey on Disability (2017), 59 per cent of working-age adults with disabilities are employed, compared with 80 per cent of adults without disabilities. Among working-age adults with disabilities who are neither employed nor at school, two in five (39 per cent) have the potential to work. This represents nearly 645,000 individuals with disabilities who have the potential to work and are not working. Persons with disabilities also have lower incomes. Working-age adults with more severe disabilities have a median after-tax annual income (from all sources, including work earnings and benefits from support programs) of $19,200, compared to $34,300 for those with milder disabilities and $39,000 for those without disabilities. And persons with disabilities are also more likely to live in poverty. Among working-age adults, 28 per cent of those with more severe disabilities live below Canada’s official poverty line, compared to 14 per cent of those with milder disabilities and 10 per cent of those without disabilities. At the same time, Canadian businesses and employers are facing a labour shortage that is not expected to ease for 10 years. Canada cannot achieve its full potential as an inclusive and productive society until these inequalities are addressed. Vision Where we want to be Employment throughout Canada is inclusive. Persons with and without disabilities have equality of opportunity and choice in careers, jobs and work. Objectives What it will look like when we get there Disability-confident and inclusive workplaces Employers will understand the value of, and be committed to, hiring, managing, accommodating, supporting and retaining persons with disabilities. And they will be confident in their ability to successfully do so. Comprehensive supports for persons with disabilities Persons with disabilities will be supported in their pursuit of meaningful employment, while assured of income and benefits that provide a life with dignity above the poverty line. Proposed initiatives What we need to do to get there To achieve the strategy’s vision, the strategic framework proposes initiatives under each of the two main objectives. These are presented as high-level activities. Organizations involved in implementing the strategy have the flexibility to tailor specific initiatives to their role and their context. Foster disability-confident and inclusive workplaces These initiatives address workplace design, workplace accessibility, supports to employers and businesses, and workplace culture change. They are designed to help employers become confident in their ability to successfully hire, manage, accommodate, support and retain persons with disabilities. • Provide a knowledge base of supports to employers for the hiring and retention of persons with disabilities. Design these supports so that they can be tailored to the context (e.g., size, sector) of the employer. Supports may include: • help with recruiting, hiring, onboarding and accommodating workers with disabilities, which could include a multitude of supports – from inclusive job descriptions, appropriate accommodation plans for all workers, and plans for retention and advancement; • a guide for senior managers on incorporating inclusion/responsiveness into performance management and accountability for themselves, other managers and supervisors; • tools for supervisors/managers to help them identify, respond to and communicate needs for accommodation/adjustments, as well as how to talk with other employees about accommodations and barrier-free workplaces; • tools for co-workers to help them understand and support the needs and contributions of persons with disabilities; • tools for employers to build and measure the business case for hiring and retaining persons with disabilities in meaningful, non-precarious employment; • a method to identify and reward disability-confident and inclusive businesses/employers, whose stories can be used as the basis for instructive case studies of success; • job-matching tools to assist employers, based on an understanding of talent requirements from the employer perspective; and • evidence-informed financial incentives and best practice guidance for workplaces in their use in hiring persons with disabilities, which would include a guide for businesses to access funding to offset any added costs of hiring, such as additional training requirements. • Facilitate access to a knowledge base of supports for employers through: • a “one-stop-shop” for businesses to access information on employing persons with disabilities, which will simplify employer engagement and assist with finding support from service agencies and governments, accessing financial resources for hiring persons with disabilities and supporting business-to-business communication; • a systems navigator function that would provide assistance with identifying a comprehensive list of supports for both employers and persons with disabilities, and with securing access to needed supports; and • promotion of an understanding that disability is based on the social/attitudinal and built environments, not solely on the person and their medical condition. • Communicate how everyone benefits from accessible and inclusive design. Being “able-bodied” is a temporary condition, since many of us may eventually have disabilities at some point in our lives. But everyone can participate if provided an “enabling” environment. • Develop a set of case studies of exemplary employers, businesses and organizations in the private, government and not-for-profit sectors. • Identify champions (based on the case studies) who can help develop and promote best practices and the win-win of inclusive workplaces (i.e., the business case). • Create a centre of expertise on accessible and inclusive design focusing on the recognition of concrete levels of support available to employers. • The centre should work with schools of architecture and engineering to ensure that inclusive design is included in post-secondary curricula. • The centre should address any applicable area of activity or knowledge related to accessibility. • Create flexible supports for persons with disabilities who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs. Develop comprehensive supports for persons with disabilities These suggested initiatives focus on supports for persons with disabilities, the navigability and alignment of support programs and education-to-work transitions. They aim to ensure persons with disabilities are supported in their pursuit of meaningful employment while assured of income and benefits that provide a life with dignity above the poverty line. The costs associated with improved supports are likely to be offset by economic benefits to businesses, employers and governments. These benefits include a more productive labour force, higher tax revenues and lower levels of dependency on transfer payments arising from higher incomes of persons with disabilities. • Use a poverty reduction lens to guide the design of income and employment benefits. • Ensure income amounts reflect current market costs of goods and services related to disability. • Develop an income supplement strategy that protects benefits for persons with disabilities when they can and want to work (e.g., when only part-time work is feasible). • Ensure earnings exemptions are sufficient to encourage the pursuit of employment, including self-employment. • Ensure that persons with disabilities have access to affordable housing (e.g., housing costs that account for less than 30 per cent of income). • Unbundle income benefits and employment supports to assist persons with disabilities in qualifying for programs so that, when combined, they provide a better quality of life and work- related resources. Examples include the following. • Provide employment supports for persons with disabilities that are portable (i.e., can be carried from school to work and from job to job). • Provide flexible supports that can be tailored to the employment context and adjusted over time to changing circumstances of the individual. • Help persons with disabilities access technology to enhance their capacity to participate in the workforce. • Provide better transit services for persons with disabilities and, more generally, for people living in low-income areas often distant from city centres. • Provide affordable childcare. • Provide a universal pharmacare program for all persons living in Canada. • Reform the array of federal, provincial/territorial and municipal programs for persons with disabilities so that the system is: • user-friendly – programs are designed to meet the needs of persons with disabilities and eligibility rules are easy to understand; • coherent – programs are complementary and provide sustained support (e.g., medical benefits that outlive income benefits) to meet individuals’ needs; • easy to navigate – persons with disabilities can find the help they need to identify the programs most suited to their needs and are able to move from one program to another as eligibility circumstances change, which may mean access to system navigators; and • inclusive – programs avoid conflicting eligibility rules that impede participation in the workforce and allow for benefits to be combined. • Ensure programs support an intersectional understanding of persons with disabilities. • Provide resources (e.g., education, co-op opportunities, mentorship and other employment and training opportunities) that move with young persons with disabilities into adulthood, thus enhancing their capacity and ability to participate in the labour force. • Provide how-to guides and education to persons with disabilities that help them communicate with their employer about how their needs can be met, while respecting their right not to disclose diagnoses. • Address the stigma associated with disability and the mindset of some program officials to ensure providing adequate income benefits is prioritized over caseload reduction. ? Core values The principles that will guide us along the way The activities undertaken to achieve the vision and objectives will: • Remain strongly grounded in the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). • Recognize and respect the rights of persons with disabilities as individuals, as well as the vital role of collective commitment to their inclusion and support (an approach taken, for example, in Indigenous communities). • Adhere to the “nothing about us without us” principle. That is, persons with disabilities will be fully involved and integrated in all stages of strategy evolution and implementation. As the strategy evolves, barriers will be removed to enable persons with disabilities to be in decision- making roles – not just speaking as disability community representatives, but also as employers, labour representatives and policy-makers. • Ensure all who are taking part, including persons with disabilities, employers, policy-makers, service providers and researchers, are accountable for the commitments Canada made under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and adhere to the Accessible Canada Act and other federal and provincial/territorial legislation dealing with human rights, accessibility, employment and more. • Adopt an evidence-informed approach to decision-making during all stages of strategy implementation. What is evidence-informed practice? Evidence-informed practice means relying on scientific evidence to guide decision-making. It is based on finding, evaluating and drawing on the best available research (i.e., research that is current, relevant and conducted using reliable and trusted methods), while also incorporating the expertise of the persons implementing the practice and the values of those being served. Evidence-informed practice requires that people pay more attention to the relevant scientific evidence to inform their decision-making. Its end goal is to eliminate anecdotal and unsound or outdated practices in favour of ones shown by research to be more likely to work. It moves decision-making beyond tradition and intuition to a more grounded, scientific way of thinking. • Apply an intersectional lens and life-course perspective. That is, activities will take into account that other aspects of persons’ identities – such as race, class, immigration status, gender and family role – may intersect with their disability to make them even more vulnerable to discrimination and at even greater disadvantage in their work and other life roles. And activities will also take into account that the needs of persons with disabilities change as they journey throughout the different stages of their lives, within and beyond work. What is intersectionality? Intersectionality can be defined as the interconnected and overlapping nature of identities such as disability, gender, race, indigeneity, class, immigration status and family role. For persons with disabilities, other aspects of their identity may intersect with their disability to make them even more vulnerable to discrimination and at even greater disadvantage in their work and other roles. Applying an intersectional lens to the strategy ensures that related implementation activities address the diverse needs of persons with disabilities. It ensures that businesses and employers are supported in expanding their markets and client base by recruiting and hiring from a pool of diverse talents, thus driving innovation through diversity and inclusiveness. It ensures that measures used to determine the success of initiatives, programs and activities also reflect the degree to which they are inclusive of diverse worker groups. What is a life-course perspective? A life-course perspective takes into consideration the changing needs of persons with disabilities as they journey throughout the different stages of their lives, within and beyond work. It considers different environments and how they address the specific barriers that persons with disabilities encounter over their life course. These include the well-recognized challenges persons with disabilities face in transitioning from school to work, finding meaningful work, advancing their careers, aging at work and transitioning to retirement. Taking a life-course perspective to strategy implementation ensures that specific initiatives, programs and activities respond to the goals of persons with disabilities in the context of their life trajectories and lived experiences. It ensures that employers are supported in enabling the full potential of workers with disabilities and engaging their unique experiences, skills and talents in meaningful ways. It ensures that the measures of the success of initiatives, programs and activities include how well they fit the needs of persons with disabilities during different stages of their lives. • Develop mutually beneficial and effective partnerships among employers, persons with disabilities, government representatives, service providers, researchers and other stakeholders to ensure a joint commitment to providing needed supports for the employment success of persons with disabilities and supports for business success and innovation through diversity . Effective partnerships: What success looks like This strategy is designed to foster inclusive workplaces that enable persons with disabilities to participate fully in the workforce. Achieving this goal necessarily requires partnerships among many organizations and communities. Indeed, effective partnerships underpin the success of the whole strategy. While some progress can be made by individual organizations and community groups acting on their own, substantial gains will only be realized when efforts are coordinated through partnerships. This will ensure that the complex array of supports to individuals and employers, and the efforts to promote culture change, are coherent, complementary and evidence-informed. Effective partnerships will be successful when: • Persons with disabilities are fully involved and integrated in all key activities proposed in this strategy, especially partnerships, to ensure that the development and implementation is informed by their lived experiences. Persons with disabilities are supported with the necessary resources to participate in all key activities. • Federal, provincial/territorial and municipal governments and Indigenous communities work together, in partnership with all other stakeholders, responding to the frontline realities of persons with disabilities and employers. They work together to improve the range of supports available to persons with disabilities so that the system is user-friendly, coherent, easy to navigate, flexible, inclusive and effectively supports employment. They work together to develop tools for businesses and employers to help them hire and retain persons with disabilities. • Employer associations, business champions and unions work together to promote a culture of inclusion in workplaces, engaging employers with a robust business case for hiring persons with disabilities. Governments set an example as employers in their hiring of persons with disabilities. • Educational institutions work with businesses, employers, community organizations and governments to identify and implement ways to better support the employability of persons with disabilities over their life course. • Researchers work collaboratively with representatives of all stakeholders to identify and address evidence gaps, document successes in case studies, assist in the evaluation of new or changed programs, and communicate (in plain language) research findings relevant to the employment of persons with disabilities. • Partners connect with each other through a support hub. • Partners increase employment opportunities through innovation. • Key partnerships are reviewed on an ongoing basis to support maximum engagement. A mechanism is in place to identify partnerships that have moved beyond transactional and routine interactions and can act as champions that set an example for other partnerships. Measurement and accountability How we will know how far we have come To ensure progress is made in achieving the objectives and realizing the vision, strategies are proposed to measure if and how well proposed initiatives are being carried out. These measurement strategies serve to ensure accountability through monitoring, evaluation and reporting of findings to relevant stakeholders. Strategies include developing baseline measures, setting goals, identifying indicators of progress, creating data sets and a repository of initiatives and resources, and monitoring and reporting by objective third parties. Activities are designed to ensure progress is measured, documented and reported in an accurate, meaningful and timely manner. • Develop an outcomes framework and an outcomes-based tracking system. Include system-level indicators, as well as both quantitative and qualitative measures, and stratify the samples by key characteristics such as demographic subgroup, source of disability and nature of disability. • Identify key indicators of progress towards the desired outcomes, and develop repeated measures and longitudinal data collection mechanisms to evaluate progress over time. Possible measures include: • percentage of persons with disabilities of working age who are employed; • employment status among diverse groups of persons with disabilities (by sex/gender, age, race, sexual orientation, citizenship status, Indigenous status); • earnings of persons with disabilities compared to the general population; • job satisfaction; • duration of work/job retention; • wellness; • employer progress towards fully inclusive workplace cultures; • employer reasons for hiring/not hiring a person with a disability; • percentage of persons with disabilities above the poverty line; • marginal effective tax rates (i.e., the financial penalty that must be paid from any small addition to income); • perceptions of persons with disabilities about adequacy of income and employment supports; and • measures of educational attainment and school-to-work transitions. • Ensure data collection methods facilitate research by harnessing data linkages between sources such as surveys and administrative data (e.g., the Canadian Survey of Disability and tax files). • Develop measures that indicate employers’ levels of “disability confidence.” • Develop key indicators that measure changes in workplace culture. • Identify public- and private-sector savings in terms of reduced expenses for supports, increased income and sales tax revenue, and impacts on GDP. • Develop a reporting/communications plan to serve as a feedback loop to promote accountability. • Create a guide for the evaluation of initiatives at both the system and workplace levels. • Create a repository/database of initiatives and resources that have worked well. Group them under headings such as recruitment, accommodation, workplace design and technology. • Tell stories of success (related to the initiative outlined under the objective of Disability- Confident and Inclusive Workplaces). Strategy implementation Proposals for getting it done right Previous experiences at the federal and provincial/territorial levels, as well as within private enterprises, have contributed to the development of some key implementation proposals: • Implementation of the strategy by key stakeholders and various levels of government should proceed on a voluntary basis. Through an extensive, pan-Canadian consultation, the DWC Steering Committee has attempted to ensure there is broad consensus on the values and goals underlying this strategy, and many of the proposed initiatives were seen by key stakeholders as compelling and important to implement. In particular, government involvement is very important for implementation of key initiatives in the strategy. While voluntary, this strategy encourages governments at different levels to work together and with other stakeholders towards achieving the vision. Down the road, legislation may be involved at various levels, and this will be up to individual governments to determine. Most recently, the Accessible Canada Act came into law in July 2019, and regulations to support its activation are in development. In general, as the value of the strategy and related initiatives are validated in practice, the momentum to implement and sustain the various proposed initiatives within the strategy across the country will grow organically. • A potential role for the DWC Steering Committee is to track and report on important initiatives across the country, perhaps in a periodic newsletter or an annual report. The objective of the publication would be to help potential partners find out about activities across the country and connect with them. In this way, the DWC Steering Committee can play an important facilitation role in supporting partnerships and collaborations. • New or expanded partnerships will be encouraged in general and around specific initiatives in the strategy. This approach is based on the belief that partnerships are critical to effective implementation. Therefore, a vital stage in effective implementation is the identification of key partnerships that need to be established and/or strengthened to spearhead the various initiatives and ensure that progress is made. Ongoing support will be needed to facilitate and maintain partnership connections. Partnerships will be forged through ongoing forums such as annual stakeholder conferences and federal-provincial/territorial policy roundtables. • Going forward, it will be important to ensure all relevant stakeholder groups are represented, in particular groups of persons with a disability who may be especially vulnerable, such as Indigenous persons, racialized minorities, women and LGBTQ+. The intersectional lens is critical to ensure the voices of persons with disabilities with diverse lived experiences are heard and their experiences understood. • Funding will be needed to help support involvement of individuals and organizations representing vulnerable groups. In general, funding proposals need to take into account the importance of providing funds to support the engagement of persons with disabilities who do not have salary support from an employer or other organization. • It will be important to identify organizations and people who can take action. Some of this may occur naturally as discussions continue at periodic stakeholder gatherings. In some cases, there will be a need to seek out individuals and organizations to take a lead on certain activities. The DWC Steering Committee will continue as a “neutral convenor” at future meetings/workshops among stakeholders and with government representatives to ensure ongoing dialogue about implementation activities. Continuation of the federal-provincial/territorial policy roundtables hosted by the DWC Steering Committee is an important part of maintaining the dialogue across different levels of government. Resources to facilitate partnerships and engagement will be actively sought. • Ideally, a centre for expertise or a network hub will be created that is broadly scoped to assist with the development and promotion of evidence-informed tools, resources and service delivery models to support a broad range of needs and to address issues of accessibility across various domains. A key principle would be to embrace a co-design/co-creation approach, with full involvement of persons with lived experience and frontline employers. Activities of the centre/hub could include the following. • Provide links to existing evidence-informed tools, resources and service delivery models, as well as links to supported employment and other service providers across the country, so that such information is easily accessible to employers and persons with disabilities. This could take the form of a web portal. • Conduct or sponsor research to assess knowledge gaps regarding what tools/resources/ models are effective in different contexts, and develop and evaluate new evidence-informed tools and resources to address these gaps. • Promote inclusive design of physical structures and workplace environments. • Monitor progress on the strategy and related activities. • Create a repository of case studies of successful initiatives. • Provide resources for organizations to develop business cases for their own initiatives. • Measurement, monitoring and evaluation are critical to ensure progress is made toward reaching the vision and objectives, as is the need to communicate the results of initiatives and activities undertaken. The current state of employment for persons with disabilities should be benchmarked, with validated performance indicators that can be monitored and reported on over time. It will be vital to know whether progress is being made, where success is being achieved, and where more focus is needed. Ideas for measurement, monitoring and evaluation include the following. • Develop baseline measures that identify the current situation. An important area of inquiry is awareness about services and supports among persons with disabilities, and access to services, supports and information. Details on types of measures are provided in the section on measurement and accountability in this strategy. • Estimate lost productivity in the labour market associated with barriers to employment of persons with disabilities and the cost to the economy. This can help specify the cost of excluding persons with disabilities from equal opportunities in the labour market. It can also help identify what discrimination actually looks like, and what it actually costs to affected individuals and society as a whole. • Evaluate what works and what does not work through research. For example, well- documented research findings from studies examining the results of policy changes and pilot programs will help ensure the knowledge gained about what makes them effective or not is available for future reference. • Continued research on the effectiveness of financial incentives (understood broadly to refer to wage subsidies and other resources and supports provided to businesses, employers and workers) will provide knowledge on how to better support workplaces and workers. • Measurement, monitoring and evaluating require partnering with institutions that already collect this data, such as the Labour Market Information Council, Social Research Demonstration Corporation, Employment and Social Development Canada, Statistics Canada, Canadian Human Rights Commission, provincial/territorial government organizations that monitor and evaluate labour-market initiatives at the provincial/territorial level, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. • Implementation progress should be documented in annual reports that are presented at annual conferences of key stakeholder and government representatives. Annual reporting can highlight successes and challenges. An annual conference can attract public attention and keep the strategy fresh and relevant. For example, continued annual DWC conferences could take stock of progress made to date and plan for the way forward. • Connecting with other related strategies will be needed to ensure that a disability lens is applied to all social development initiatives and that various strategies dovetail with each other. By its nature, this strategy is connected with various domains of activity within Canadian society. While organizations do not want to duplicate any key initiatives within and related to disability and work in Canada, they do want to link with and be informed about the various relevant initiatives and strategies already underway and as they emerge. This will require building ongoing dialogue and partnerships with the entities spearheading those initiatives and strategies. • Existing legislation should be a guiding light in terms of focusing all Canadians on the next stages of implementation. A key piece of legislation is the Accessible Canada Act, which came into effect in July 2019. All need to be accountable for commitments made under the Accessible Canada Act and under other provincial/territorial employment and human rights laws. There are also commitments under labour agreements between federal and provincial/territorial governments and under collective bargaining agreements between unions and management. • Ongoing efforts are needed to ensure funding for the various elements of implementation, as well as funding to support active engagement of persons with disabilities in all activities. Potential challenges in implementing this pan-Canadian strategy While the vision driving this strategy is simple, its implementation faces numerous challenges. These challenges must be kept in mind in the strategy’s implementation. 1. Making real change in the employment of persons with disabilities will necessarily engage multiple players, in both the public and private sectors, many of whom may need to change their approaches and relationships. 2. The strategy is multi-faceted and voluntary, which will naturally create a complex implementation process. 3. Federal, provincial/territorial and municipal jurisdictional issues bring further complexity. 4. While some of the proposed initiatives are relatively straightforward, others may require further review and elaboration. 5. While the business case is very strong – including the huge financial impact of increasing workforce participation and productivity, thereby reducing the amounts spent on various income support programs – savings will be realized in the longer term and investments will have to be made in the meantime. Model Elements of the DWC strategy at a glance The aim of this strategy is to create inclusive employment throughout Canada, in which persons with and without disabilities have equality of opportunity and choice in careers, jobs and work. At the centre of the strategy are persons with disabilities, whose lived experiences are understood through an intersectionality lens and a life-course perspective. There are two objectives in the strategy. These are depicted as “pillars”—the two things we need to build to hold up the vision: disability-confident and inclusive workplaces and comprehensive supports for persons with disabilities. Underpinning the success of the strategy are effective partnerships among persons with disabilities, businesses, employers and employer associations, service providers, community-based organizations, educational institutions, governments, researchers and other key partners and stakeholders. Measurement and accountability are built into the implementation of initiatives by these partnerships as they strive to build disability-confident workplaces and comprehensive supports in pursuit of the vision. Overarching all that is done to achieve the vision are core values, guiding principles and an evidence-informed approach. Core Values, Guiding Principles & Evidence-Informed Approach Vision – Employment throughout Canada is inclusive. Persons with and without disabilities have equality of opportunity and choice in careers, jobs and work. Disability- Confident and Inclusive Workplaces Intersectional Lens Persons with Disabilities Life-Course Perspective Comprehensive Supports for Persons with Disabilities Effective Partnerships Acknowledgements Moving Forward Together: A Pan-Canadian Strategy for Disability and Work is authored by the DWC Steering Committee along with all of our supporting partners, stakeholders, consultation participants, conference attendees, coordinators and participating organizations. The development of this strategy would not have been possible without them. The list below includes, but is not limited to, the people and organizations supporting this strategy. Partner organizations We thank the following partner organizations for their support (in alphabetical order): Bancroft Institute for Studies on Workers’ Compensation and Work Injury, Employment and Social Development Canada, Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic, Institute for Work & Health, IRIS Institute, McMaster University, Memorial University, Realize, Safety Net Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research, Simon Fraser University, Université Laval, University of British Columbia, and York University. Sponsors We thank the sponsors of the DWC conferences (listed in alphabetical order by year): • in 2017: Canada’s Building Trades Unions, Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work, Canadian Labour Congress, Canadian Standards Association, Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 793, and Prevention Link; • in 2018: Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work, Canadian Labour Congress, Canadian Standards Association, Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 793, Prevention Link, Unifor, WorkSafeBC and Workplace Safety and Insurance Board; and • in 2019: Business Development Bank of Canada, Canada’s Building Trades Unions, Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work, Canadian Standards Association, Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 793, Prevention Link, Workers United Canada Council, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and WorkSafeBC. People We thank the following people for their support: • all participants at the DWC conferences held in Ottawa in 2017 and 2018, for providing input, asking the right questions and encouraging us in the development of the strategy; • those who responded to the DWC survey, especially those who left their comments and suggestions on improving the strategy; • those who participated in consultation meetings and shared their experiences and opinions about the strategy; • the speakers at these consultation sessions; • those who organized the multiple consultation sessions held in 2019, including but not limited to: • Tammy Yates and Melissa Egan from Realize, and Doris Rajan and Katie Plaizier from IRIS Institute, for taking on the consultation meetings where we learned a lot about diversity of lived experiences; • Laura George for helping out with the Atlantic Cluster consultation meeting; • Rachael Dempsey and her support team including Anne Jackson, Doug Waxman, Tammy Bernasky and Estelle Palao, for organizing the Ontario Cluster consultation meeting; • Normand Boucher, Marie-Éve Schmouth and Marie-Ève Rioux-Massie for organizing the Quebec Cluster consultation meeting; and • Bancroft Institute for Studies on Workers’ Compensation and Work Injury for hosting a consultation session; • participants of the two policy roundtables that were held in 2017 and 2018, for the very thoughtful feedback and comments on strategy development and implementation; • Sabrina Imam and Pam Lahey from the CRWDP National Office for their important contributions to the consultation and revision processes; and • Cindy Moser and Jan Dvorak from the Institute for Work & Health for their editing and layout of the strategy document. Consultation and supporting documents Information on the development of the strategy and supporting background documents are available at: www.crwdp.ca/dwc-strategy Documents available include: • Guide to the Strategy and Supporting Documents • The Case for a New Strategy • How This Strategy was Developed • What We Have Accomplished in Canada • Provincial Strategies • Terminology and Acronyms • Consultation Report