Matthew McKean, chief R&D officer at BHER says employers lack capacity and resources to make workplaces universally accessible
A recent report released by the Business and Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) found that employers, specifically hiring and EDI managers, are facing misconceptions about accommodating persons with disabilities (PwDs), prohibitive organizational structures, hiring processes, along with capacity and funding needs.
Matthew McKean, chief research and development officer at BHER, says PwDs are an “untapped talent pool” in Canada, despite significant strides in post-secondary achievements and work readiness. That’s why they’re engaged with employers to identify the barriers, needs, and enablers in hiring, supporting, and retaining PwDs.
“The employers we spoke to all want to do this so that's not the barrier and that’s not the challenge,” McKean said. “It's having the capacity and the resources to make workplaces universally accessible. We often think 75 per cent of the challenge in the workspace is similar to the company next door. It's that last 20 or 25 per cent that's going to be a little bit different.” He compares this to creating accommodations on a construction site.
“That’ going to be different than upgrading accommodations in an office but there's probably a whole lot of commonalities when it comes to accommodating people with different disabilities,” he added. “That can be shared across companies who want to do it, then we can figure out that 25 per cent to get a variation that that we need to support companies to get all the way.”
Some of the barriers that employers face, as outlined in the report, McKean highlighted include misperceptions, organizational structures and processes and a lack of internal resources. As McKean says, the misperceptions are based around what it takes to implement accessibility in the workplace.
For example, employers were at various levels of familiarity with legislation. Some viewed legislation as a burden to introducing accessibility accommodations into their workplace and feared legislation that does exist or that will be implemented will create new barriers. Additionally, employees of said companies could start to have negative associations with some of those accessibility efforts.
“We found that to be a misperception, and an unfortunate one, that could be overcome by raising knowledge and awareness about what gaps there are and how they can be overcome.” McKean said.
Other misperceptions include what constitutes a disability, the abilities that PwDs have and the value that they bring to organizations, in addition to misperceptions around types of accommodations, like physical buildings or HR policies.
BHER says the shift to remote work during the pandemic forced many employers to rethink how they work and what’s possible for accessibility in the workplace. It required employers to reassess and better understand the challenges faced by equity-seeking employees, including PwDs.
“For some, this was the nudge they needed to act and invest more into the recruitment and support of PwDs,” the report said. “The shift to remote, hybrid and flexible work environments also meant that employers whose physical spaces could not support PwDs were still able to hire and retain them by allowing them to work from home.”
BHER’s report, titled “Employer Perspectives on Hiring Persons with Disabilities,” contains a “Proposed Maturity Level” where organizations and workplaces are graded by A+, A, B, or C, levels. C being the lowest level where employers haven’t made room for accessibility yet. They might be thinking about it or want to change their workplaces to include PwDs, but they don’t know how or where to start. A grading of B and above are employers who have created new structures to reduce barriers and create more opportunities to hire and support PwDs, ensuring employees with disabilities are part of the process.
For those who might need more resources or information, McKean points to the report where they can access several workplace resources, such as tool kits and funding resources “to help [employers] find funding to accommodate employees with disabilities.”
“We understand this can be overwhelming to go from nothing. That’s why we list the resources in the report and [encourage] calling up the local association that might be able to help and starting there versus trying to take this on all by yourself,” McKean said.
Ultimately, one of the main takeaways from the report, McKean highlights, is “no one has to start from scratch. In Canada, we have a habit of starting from scratch on everything. Everybody goes out and creates their own tools, resources or maps,” he says. “We need to coordinate and avoid the duplication of efforts and collaborate with one another. For us, that's a big opportunity here too.”
The report was released to recognize National AccessAbility Week (NAAW) 2024. The Government of Canada is also working towards developing new accessibility regulations under the Accessible Canada Act, aiming to make workplaces barrier-free for PwDs by 2040. BHER worked in collaboration with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) and with funding from Accessibility Standards Canada to produce the report.
