Toronto-based consultant Pamela Shainhouse is not surprised by a recent Statistics Canada report that says more than 741,000 Canadians with disabilities who could work are unemployed.
“A significant amount [of businesses] are not interested in providing accessibility for their employees and customers,” said Shainhouse, who has consulted for companies on accessibility, diversity, equity and inclusion through her company The Shainhouse Group since 2019.
Some companies are improving. But others are not.
“It is like talking to a brick wall sometimes,” she said, explaining some companies’ resistance to becoming accessible for people with disabilities.
This resistance means businesses could be neglecting more than a quarter of Canada’s population.
Statistics Canada released its first in-depth report on the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability on Tuesday. The report looks at how many Canadians have disabilities, how many are employed, and the incomes of Canadians with disabilities versus those without.
According to the report, 27 per cent of Canadians 15 years or older report having one or more disabilities. This represents about eight million people and is up from 22 per cent in 2017, when about 6.3 million people reported having a disability.Â
For the survey, a person is considered to have a disability if they report a limitation in daily living activities because of a disability type. The survey asks about 10 different disability types: seeing, hearing, mobility, mental health, pain, flexibility, dexterity, learning, developmental and memory-related. The most commonly reported disabilities related to pain, flexibility, mobility and mental health.
People with disabilities continue to report significant challenges finding employment. In 2021, 62 per cent of 25- to 64-year-olds with disabilities were employed, compared to 78 per cent of people in the same age range who do not have disabilities.
Nearly half of unemployed adults with disabilities — 42 per cent — had what the survey calls potential to work. According to the report, potential to work means that people could have paid employment if the labour market was fully accessible, there was no discrimination and they had the accommodations they needed.
Shainhouse says that, in her experience, companies may discuss racial or gender diversity, but are less likely to focus on accessibility for people with disabilities.
People resist change, she says, and making a business accessible for employees with disabilities requires change. Shainhouse knows. She has a mobility disability and sometimes uses a walker.
“They have to do something for me,” she said, describing what an employer would have to do to make its workplace accessible. “They may have to adjust a bathroom. They may have to adjust a floor. They may have to get a desk. … It is another step for them.”
Rising mental health challenges
In 2022, Ottawa announced Canada’s first Disability Inclusion Action Plan, a list of how the federal government plans to improve the lives of Canadians with disabilities. The strategy includes an Employment Strategy for Persons with Disabilities.
In an email to Canadian Affairs, Alisson Lévesque, spokesperson for Kamal Khera, minister of diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities, said the government “looks forward to launching the strategy soon.
“This will be Canada’s first-ever comprehensive plan to support persons with disabilities find and keep good-paying jobs or become entrepreneurs,” Lévesque said.
According to the Statistics Canada report, youth between 15- and 24-years-old with disabilities face particular challenges finding employment. About 114,000 youth who were not working or in school had the potential to work, the report says.
British Columbia is developing a strategy to help youth with disabilities find employment.
The province “understood that there was a real patchwork of services available to youth with disabilities in the province,” says Robin Syme, executive director of CanAssist, a grant-funded organization at the University of Victoria that helps people facing employment barriers find work. The organization has helped youth with disabilities find work since 2008 and is developing the provincial employment strategy for youth with disabilities.
“Virtually any youth can work if they want,” says Syme. Employment services are often created for adults, so youth are uncomfortable with them, she says. They also do not think employers will want to help them.
More youth today are facing mental health challenges, in part because of living through the pandemic and climate change. Environmental concerns “weigh heavily on them,” Syme said.
According to Statistics Canada, the rate of disability for youth aged 15 to 24 increased by seven per cent since 2017. Most of this increase is explained by rising mental health disabilities in young people.
Young women were impacted the most: 19 per cent of women aged 15 to 24 in 2022 reported a mental health disability, compared with nine per cent of men that age.
Young workers’ expectations
Misconceptions about what people with disabilities can do are still a big barrier to employment, says Brian Foster, national program manager for Ready, Willing and Able, a program that helps people with autism or intellectual disabilities find work.
The program has helped around 5,000 individuals across Canada secure employment. But that is only “a drop in the bucket,” says Foster, compared with the people who need supports.
More young people with disabilities talk about finding employment as adults, he says. They do not expect to spend their days in recreational programs or working for meagre pay at sheltered workshops for people with developmental disabilities.
“I’m seeing more and more people in the populations we serve expecting equitable opportunities and outcomes,” said Foster.
But while companies may want to hire workers with disabilities, they often need help knowing how to make that possible, he said.
Regardless of whether they have a disability, younger workers expect employers to care about diversity and inclusion, he adds.
“Millennials and Gen Z especially expect to see employers reflecting the population,” said Foster. “They expect to see diversity and equity statements on job postings. You cannot not do that stuff anymore.”
Comments are closed.