by yazmine laroche
as the covid-19 pandemic lingers, canadian employers are experiencing a human resources crunch, now commonly referred to as “the great resignation.”
adequate staffing and training are a significant challenge for many employers.
but this challenge also comes with an opportunity.
as we are forced to rethink many of our workplaces, we can do so with 21st-century vision. it’s time to embrace equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace — but that means disability inclusion, too.
persons with disabilities are the largest untapped resource in the canadian labour market. they are too often forgotten in other diversity hiring campaigns.
there is a large gap in employment rates between persons with disabilities aged 25 to 64 (59 per cent) and those without disabilities (80 per cent). td economics projects that by decreasing this gap and hiring persons with disabilities, 450,000 net new jobs could be added to the canadian economy resulting in an increase of almost $50 billion to our gdp.
a new $9m-funded research team, inclusive design for employment access at mcmaster university, recognizes the opportunity in this employment gap and promises to reimagine workplaces for persons with disabilities by building up employer capacity and confidence in hiring persons with disabilities.