David C. Onley Initiative

Want to make your workplace more inclusive and engage with new talent? Below are some helpful tools and resources to get you started.

David C. Onley Initiative resources

DCOI guide books

1. Employers Guide to Hiring and Working with Professionals with Disabilities
2. Job Seekers Guide for Students and Graduates with Disabilities

For employers

1. Tips for Employers: Understanding Disability (accessible PDF)
2. Tips for Employers: Language and Disability (accessible PDF)
3. Tips for Employers: Building an Inclusive Workplace (accessible PDF)
4. Building Disability Etiquette Into the Workplace (accessible PDF)
5. Employers Guide to Workplace Accommodations (accessible PDF)
6. Tips About Disclosure (accessible PDF)

For students

1. Tips and Considerations When Disclosing a Disability to an Employer (accessible PDF)
2. General: Tips for Students About Workplace Accommodations (accessible PDF)
3. Carleton University: Tips for Students About Workplace Accommodations (accessible PDF)

For service providers

1. Tips for Working with Students with Disabilities (accessible PDF)
2. Tips for Communicating with Students About Workplace Accommodations (accessible PDF)
3. Tips for Communicating with Students About Disclosure (accessible PDF)

Articles

1. Ottawa Business Journal’s HR Update
2. CAPITAL Magazine: Creating an Inclusive Recruitment Strategy

DCOI Video: Assistive Technology

DCOI Webinar: Creating Accessible Documents

Webinar files: PDF and PPT download

Video: Disability Unemployment Statistics

External resources

Some organizations in Canada have worked hard to develop helpful tools that can support employers in building more inclusive workplaces while strengthening their businesses. Employers can find new pools of qualified candidates by considering students and graduates with disabilities in their recruitment efforts and helping them start down pathways to meaningful employment.

The Conference Board of Canada’s Employers’ Toolkit contains a large collection of insights, tools and tactics to help employers make their workplaces more inclusive.

The Mental Health Commission of Canada’s business case for hiring aspiring workers who are living with a mental illness gives employers strategies and practices to recruit and retain these people.

The Rethinking Disability in the Private Sector Report of the Panel on Labour Market Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities provides a mix of overarching and specific considerations for employers who want to create more inclusive and accessible workplaces.

The Why Hire People with Disabilities ReportDownload Acrobat Reader supplies employers with practical ideas and guidelines to hire people with disabilities, a business case for doing so, tools to train persons with disabilities, strategies to create inclusive workplaces, and guides to accommodate persons with disabilities in workplaces.

The 25-page Business Benefits of Accessible Workplaces reportDownload Acrobat Reader offers a comprehensive business case in support of accessible workplaces. The report focuses on the business benefits of accessibility by outlining various returns that organizations can gain when investing in accessible employment practices for people with disabilities.