By: Christie Zeb (she/her)

Did you know that nearly half of students registered with disability services opt out of work-integrated learning due to their disabilities? To help combat this issue, 蓝莓视频鈥檚 Work-Learn Institute鈥檚 (WxL) shared strategies to support accommodations and increase accessibility.

On September 24, WxL hosted the webinar 鈥 Future-Ready Workforce series: supporting accommodations for inclusive workplaces.

Speakers included Anne-Marie Fannon, director of the Work-Learn Institute; Karolina Kural, global diversity, equity and inclusion, manager at Kinaxis; and Mitch Bewick, co-op student experience manager, accessibility, Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE), University of 蓝莓视频.


Barriers faced by students with disabilities

Successful work-integrated learning . However, these students are less likely to participate in WIL programs and often face barriers when they do.

Some of these barriers include:

  • Disclosure: Deciding when and how to disclose a disability is difficult, often due to fear of stereotyping. One student shared, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 tell my employer I have ADHD because of the preconceptions about how people with ADHD work鈥 it鈥檚 just safer not to because there鈥檚 a lot of stereotyping.鈥
  • Hiring and recruitment: Job descriptions, interviews and onboarding processes can lack critical information about inclusivity. 鈥淔or co-op students who are scanning through hundreds of job postings, this lack of information can be the critical decision point when they self-select out of applying for your position,鈥 says Fannon.
  • Support: Support systems are an area of concern, as many students feel the available resources are inadequate. 鈥淚 just don鈥檛 know who to go to about accommodations. I don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 Human Resources (HR) and nobody鈥檚 really told me who I would talk to make a request,鈥 a student explained.

Strategies to increase accessibility

Beyond the legal requirements, increasing accessibility and making the workplace more inclusive can help employers become a more desirable place to work and can attract top talent.

Here are some strategies to increase accessibility of your workplace:

1. Set up inclusive hiring and recruitment processes

Creating an inclusive recruitment process starts by offering transparency to help students know what to expect. If you have accommodation practices for your interview, highlight them and provide a contact they can reach out to for requests and questions.

鈥淎t Kinaxis, we trained our talent acquisition team to provide accommodations. To make it easy and consistent, we added information about accommodations to every e-mail template that goes out to candidates from our system,鈥 said Kural.

Magnifying glass looking at 3 resumes

2. Create welcoming onboarding practices

Effective onboarding is crucial for setting up students for success. A warm and informative onboarding can significantly impact a student鈥檚 comfort level and overall experience, especially for those with disabilities.

鈥淥nce you've decided what students you're going to hire, send them all a welcome e-mail with details about the first day of work and who they'll report to. Then, when you鈥檙e going through your onboarding activities, identify what flexibility exists within your workplace. Also clearly outline the process and the steps for requesting accommodation,鈥 says Fannon.

Two hands shaking infront of three people

3. Educate your workforce

Building an inclusive workplace requires educating employees about the barriers faced by people with disabilities. You can take it further by encouraging them to play their part in minimizing these barriers as individuals.

鈥淥ne of our first steps at Kinaxis was educating our workforce on how best to support colleagues with disabilities and neurodivergence. We offered an educational session to our HR team on creating accessible content. Our leaders were trained on neuro-inclusive management practices,鈥 says Kural.

Hand holding a pencil with a gear on top next to a document

4. Create an inclusive work environment

Disclosure of disabilities can feel highly personal and daunting. Kinaxis provides its co-op students with a list of adjustments they can make to their work environment without going through a formal process that might require disclosure.

鈥淲e want employees to know they can request noise-cancelling headphones or take frequent breaks without needing formal approval,鈥 says Kural.

Person in a wheelchair with an automatic door behind them

5. Use surveys to identify accommodation needs

Surveys are valuable tools for understanding the barriers students with disabilities face in securing employment and during their work terms. Kinaxis uses annual employee surveys to compare the experiences of employees with disabilities to those without, using the results to set future goals for inclusivity.

Similarly, 蓝莓视频鈥檚 Co-op and Experiential Education (CEE) department administers a co-op student experience survey to all students on recruitment and work terms. This survey provides insights into student satisfaction and highlights barriers they might face, helping the team tailor support to meet their needs effectively.

Magnifying glass looking at two people with a bar graph below them

Creating inclusive workplaces for students with disabilities requires more than accommodations, it demands a shift in mindset.

We need to move beyond applying accommodations to fix inaccessible experiences and instead focus on creating accessible environments from the start.

Mitch Bewick,聽co-op student experience manager, accessibility, CEE, University of 蓝莓视频