Expert shares best practices for employers to successfully hire workers with disabilities
Even though the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) has been in place for years, too many people with disabilities continue to face struggles in their employment lives, according to an expert.
Overall, about 61% of Canadians with disability are employed, compared with about 75% of Canadians without disability, says Ingrid Muscta, citing data from the latest Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD).
“Close to 800,000 Canadians who have a disability have the potential for work and are currently not involved in the labour force, potentially because of that concept that the workplace is not accessible to them, and because businesses haven't understood how to attract this talent pool,” says the director of special projects and innovation at the Ontario Disability Employment Network (ODEN).
This is the case even though 50% of Canadians who have a disability have post-secondary educational degrees, diplomas and apprenticeships, says Muscta, who is also the lead on Beyond AODA Compliance — Disability Inclusive Hiring, an initiative under the ODEN.
Workers with disabilities are struggling to rise in Canadian organizations, according to a previous report from George Brown College. Overall, 51% of these workers belong to the “Bottom Rungers” segment of workers – those who are in the early stages of their professional occupations, according to the report.
Muscta adds that 420,000 businesses in Ontario are expected to be compliant with the AODA, including 370,000 small businesses.
“It's very likely that not 370,000 are compliant, and it could be because of myths around what they need to do,” she says, or lack of understanding.
When it comes to hiring practices, 28% of highly skilled workers abandon a job posting platform because it's not accessible to them, says Muscta.
“Labour shortages and skilled labour [shortage] is part of the issue right now for many medium-sized and large corporations. That is a piece of that talent pool that is not being accessed.”
Some of the things that are creating barriers for workers with disabilities are job postings that are not accessible and interviews that are not providing the right accommodations, she says.
“Businesses [are] not understanding [that] simple strategies like ensuring that you provide your job opportunities in a number of ways, that you're communicating in a number of ways – not just posting on a website, but providing an opportunity for somebody to call up and ask if they can get a written copy of the policy of the posting so that they can review it and go through it and identify areas where they may need an accommodation” can go a long way when it comes to hiring workers with disabilities, says Muscta.
Muscta shares the following best practices for employers to be able to abide by the AODA and successfully hire workers with disabilities:
With many employers still in the dark, ODEN is holding three Beyond AODA Compliance — Disability Inclusive Hiring information sessions later this year, including October 16.
