Imaginer l’accessibilité dans le monde du travail

Future directions for the inclusion of persons with disabilities

Disability is often thought of as an issue that affects a small subset of the population. However, the pandemic has broadened the scope of this definition – think of long-term COVID-19 symptoms – to include mental health issues that will affect most people at some point in their lives. In other words, disability – short-term or long-term – is likely to enter everyone’s life, whether personally or as a caregiver, and policies must reflect this reality. And while Canadian disability policy has come a long way in recent years, barriers continue to limit the inclusion of people with disabilities.

Normalizing Disability
As a person with disabilities, I require a variety of workplace accommodations to reduce my pain and function properly, such as flexible hours, an ergonomic workstation, voice dictation software, and the ability to telework.

I have hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, and chronic pain, in addition to depression and anxiety, which further limit my ability to function. While my chronic pain is taking a toll on my mental health, I can’t afford the psychotherapy I need because disability-related costs, such as physiotherapy, are eating into my meager income. I have managed to cut back on some expenses since the pandemic began, but much of this is due to the fact that I have to isolate myself to avoid catching COVID-19, which would have devastating effects on my health (cerebral palsy makes it difficult to breathe). However, isolation also has a cost: it increases depression, anxiety, and loneliness. This is nothing new for people with disabilities or chronic illnesses, of course. Research has shown that those living with such disabilities have had the worst employment and health outcomes during the pandemic.

A Broad Spectrum to Foster Inclusion
I share my personal story today in the hopes of normalizing the conversation about accommodations and promoting a simplified approach. If we are to close policy gaps and guide future approaches to disability inclusion, we must give voice to people with lived experience. As experts in their own lives, people living with episodic or variable disabilities or invisible disabilities, for example, can share the challenges they face in their daily lives to inform policies on work, health care, and other systems. To ensure that policies reflect the needs of their intended audience, researchers recommend that people with disabilities be included in research and consulted as experts. This would help to break down barriers to social inclusion and openly address policy issues around employment and financial security.

Population ageing also raises new questions, particularly regarding the decline in functional capacity with age. Shouldn’t disability policies cover all people who face new or unexpected limitations in their daily lives?

In Canada’s most populous province, the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) currently provides income, employment and drug benefits only to people with “a significant physical or mental impairment that is continuous or recurring and expected to last at least one year.” This narrow definition, which focuses on permanent disabilities and chronic conditions with no prospect of improvement, excludes episodic, temporary or variable disabilities like long-term COVID-19, including confusion, shortness of breath and other debilitating symptoms. While OHIP coverage has recently expanded, people with long-term COVID-19 have struggled to navigate the benefits system because their illness is considered invisible and difficult to diagnose.

Closing the Gaps
While social assistance programs are essential, benefits are allocated primarily on the basis of functional disabilities. In other words, the worse a person is, the more financial support they will be eligible for. However, the system also makes it difficult for people with disabilities to break the cycle of poverty and income assistance. To get off welfare, they must be able to work full-time (or at least enough to earn a living). However, most ODSP recipients are not able to work, and those who are often have to settle for low-paying jobs (which involve long days on a computer) that do not reflect their skills (such as call centre jobs).

Unfortunately, these types of systemic barriers to employment are all too common. In 2019, I applied to the federal government’s Student Disability Inventory, an employment program that provides students with valuable work experience in the public service. However, I was rejected because I was a part-time student (the program is only open to full-time students). I tried to explain that my disability required me to study part-time in an attempt to get accepted, but it didn’t work.

Another example is the Accessible Canada Act , passed in 2019, which aims to remove barriers in employment, the built environment, communication, information, service delivery and transportation. In many cases, workplace adjustments are minor – adapted hours, telework, ergonomic workstations – but cumbersome approval processes often cause frustrating delays.

Similarly, the federal government has implemented the Public Service Accessibility Strategy , which calls for hiring 5,000 people with disabilities by 2025. Candidates must provide medical proof during the selection process in order to receive assessment accommodations. This criterion seems reasonable, yet using a centralized service to document accommodations would reduce the cost of medical notes for people who often have low incomes (and do not necessarily have access to a family doctor).

Highlighting these barriers is part of the advocacy work for persons with disabilities. This work has also focused on Bill C-22, the Canada Disability Benefit Act , which proposes a monthly payment to reduce poverty among persons with disabilities. Within a year of coming into force (it is currently before the Senate), the Act will provide much-needed funding and hope for a brighter future for persons with disabilities. During this 12-month period, the Act will “provide opportunities for persons with disabilities from diverse backgrounds” to collaborate on the development of the regulations, application process, eligibility criteria and benefit amount. I hope that these consultations will result in a broader definition of disability and promote equitable access to appropriate services so that persons with disabilities can lead fulfilling working and civic lives.