Inclusive Design for Employment Access
Employers in Canada want to improve their capacity to recruit, hire, and promote persons with disabilities, yet many lack the skills and confidence to do so. Inclusive Design for Employment Access (IDEA) aims to change this.
IDEA is a social innovation laboratory (SIL) that is strengthening the capacity of Canadian workplaces to fully include persons with disabilities.
We have five incubator hubs that focus on developing knowledge-to-practice solutions in different areas relevant to inclusive employment and disability confidence. Of the five hubs, three core hubs work on defined objectives: Workplace Systems and Partnerships, Employment Support Systems, and Transitions to Work and Career Development. The other two, Inclusive Environmental Design and Disruptive Technologies and the Future of Work, address subject matter central to the three core hubs.
Mission
Our mission is to help create stronger and more diverse labour markets that include persons with disabilities by developing, evaluating, and sharing evidence-informed knowledge-to-practice solutions.
Vision
Our vision is to see every workplace in Canada have the capacity to recruit, hire, onboard, retain, mentor and promote persons with disabilities across the full range of employment opportunities, and to see all persons with disabilities in Canada who can and want to work be able to find, keep, and flourish in meaningful, suitable and good-quality work.
Values
We value inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility in all areas of society, particularly in the labour market. We value strong and diverse labour markets where all persons have equal opportunities in careers, jobs, and work.
In 2022, 27 per cent of Canadians over the age of 15 had one or more disabilities. The most common disabilities were related to pain, flexibility (for example, arthritis), mobility and mental health. Among those of working age (16 to 64 years), 65 per cent were employed, compared to 80 per cent of those without disabilities. They were also more likely to work part-time and be paid less. Details about employment and disability in Canada can be found in Statistics Canada’s 2022 Labour Force Survey and 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability.
Poor job outcomes for persons with disabilities are a significant problem for Canada. Most importantly, they mean persons with disabilities are more likely to be marginalized and live below the poverty line. These poor outcomes also have important implications for Canadians:
- Labour markets: The low 2022 employment rates of persons with disabilities were recorded against the backdrop of strong employment and a tight labour market. As of the second quarter of 2022,employers were seeking to fill nearly one million vacant positions, the highest on record. In the face of labour shortages, persons with disabilities remain an untapped source.
- Social support programs: Disability support programs are expensive, and their cost is increasing. In 2018, $37.8 billion was spent on disability income support in Canada, an increase of 62 per cent since 2005.
- Economy: The cost of excluding persons with disabilities in Canada across all social domains, including work and other life roles/activities, was estimated to be 17 per cent of GDP ($338 billion) in 2017. Employment output (i.e., productivity) loss alone was estimated at 3.2 per cent of GDP ($62 billion).
Traditionally, programs to improve the employment rates of persons with disabilities have focused on preparing persons with disabilities for work. Little attention has been paid to the attitudes, interest and capacity of employers to hire, accommodate and promote persons with disabilities.
IDEA aims to address the poor employment outcome of persons with disabilities — and, by extension, the effects of these outcomes on labour markets, support programs and the economy — by taking an innovative approach. We are switching the focus to demand-side capacity building. In other words, we are equipping employers and other workplace parties with the knowledge, tools and confidence they need to realize the full working potential of persons with disabilities.
In 2020, the IDEA initiative was awarded six years of funding – totalling $9 million – from the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Transformation Stream.
Launched in 2018 by the Government of Canada, the NFRF supports interdisciplinary, and high-risk/high-reward and transformative research led by Canadian researchers working with Canadian and international partners. The NFRF is meant to inspire innovative research projects that push boundaries into exciting new areas and that have the potential to deliver game-changing impacts.
The NFRF is a tri-agency institute, administered jointly by Canada’s three federal research funding agencies: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.
NFRF Transformation Stream focuses on large-scale, interdisciplinary research that addresses a major challenge and has the potential to realize real and lasting change. The challenge may be fundamental, leading to a scientific breakthrough, or applied, with a social, economic, environmental or health impact. IDEA was among the first cohort of seven initiatives to receive NFRF Transformation Stream funding, out of an initial pool of 400 applicants.
Read more about IDEA’s funded proposal on the NFRF website.
IDEA also receives in-kind funding from McMaster University and the Institute for Work & Health.