Disability and work
People with disabilities face substantially lower employment levels than the general working-age population. This page pulls together research and resources on policies and practices aimed at improving the labour market participation of people living with disabilities.
Featured
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At Work article
Top-ranked strategies to support young persons with disabilities in the future of work
IWH researchers asked persons with disabilities, practitioners and subject matter experts about strategies for disability inclusion in the face of six future of work challenges. A new report details their top-ranked strategies to foster inclusion in the face of each challenge.
Published: June 7, 2024
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Research Highlights
How do employment support programs impact the health of young adults with episodic disabilities?
Episodic disabilities can make it challenging for workers to find and sustain employment while managing their symptoms and work demands. An IWH study investigated the health impacts of employment support programs for young adults with episodic disabilities.
Published: April 8, 2024
Project
Project
Incentives-based approaches to support stay at work/return to work: an environmental scan
This project will identify and examine the incentives for adults with disabilities that promote staying at or returning to work.
Status: Ongoing
Journal article
Journal article
Divided in a digital economy: understanding disability employment inequities stemming from the application of advanced workplace technologies
Published: SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, November 2023
IWH Speaker Series
IWH Speaker Series
Three scenarios of a future working world: Using strategic foresight to imagine and respond to a changing world of work for young adults living with a disability in Canada
Evolving social, technological, economic, environmental, and political forces are shaping all aspects of our working world. For young adults living with a disability who are entering and working their way up in the labour market, the changing nature of work can create both barriers and opportunities. In this presentation, Dr. Arif Jetha Jetha shares three scenarios or narratives describing the ways things might meaningfully change in the future for young adults with disabilities. He also discusses how these scenarios can be used to develop labour market policies and programs that respond to future needs and promote inclusion for young adults living with a disability.
Published: October 2023
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Sharing Best Evidence
Racial and ethnic inequities in the return-to-work process
In the first systematic review on the subject, IWH examined the research literature on racial and ethnic inequities in return to work. It found strong evidence that non-white workers are less likely than white workers to return to work following an injury or illness—and moderate evidence that Black workers face pronounced barriers.
Published: July 2023
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At Work article
Three future of work scenarios to help develop inclusion strategies for young people with disabilities
What do we need to do now to ensure the inclusion of young adults with disability in the future world of work? Using strategic foresight methods, an IWH team generated three future scenarios of the working world and their implications for persons with disabilities.
Published: May 2023
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IWH in the media
New federal initiative aiming to increase employment rate of persons with disabilities
The Inclusive Design for Employment Access (IDEA) initiative aims to build the capacity of employers to hire and accommodate persons with disabilities. This article profiles the initiative's mission.
Published: Benefits Canada, May 2023
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At Work article
Canadians with disabilities twice as likely to report low quality employment than those without disabilities
According to a new IWH study that measures employment quality along 16 dimensions, persons with disabilities are almost twice as likely to find themselves in low quality jobs than those without disabilities.
Published: May 2023
IWH Speaker Series
IWH Speaker Series
Skills development barriers for persons with disabilities and the promising practices to address them
According to Employment and Social Development Canada’s Skills for Success program, the nine key foundational and transferable skills needed to participate and thrive in learning, work, and life are adaptability, collaboration, communication, creativity and innovation, digital, numeracy, problem solving, reading, and writing. What do we know about the foundational and transferable skill levels and employment outcomes of persons with disabilities? In this presentation, Dr. Emile Tompa discusses what his team learned from the research literature and interviews with key stakeholders in the Canadian and international work disability policy system.
Published: April 2023
News release
News release
People with disabilities in Canada consistently report working in lower quality jobs than people without disabilities
Published: April 2023
Project
Project
TIE-C-MI: Trajectories of Income and Employment of Canadians with Mental Illness
This project aims to understand the employment and income experiences of Canadians with mental and substance use disorders during their prime working years. This information is a necessary first step to identifying the most appropriate time to implement health- and labour-related interventions to retain these Canadians in the workforce.
Status: Ongoing