Projects
CCBR typically has 15-20 ongoing projects and has completed over 500 projects since 1982. Each project is guided by our commitment to impacting social change in practical and powerful ways. We conduct research with people not on people, cultivating respect with communities at every step of the process.
Projects can be searched for using words from the project title or using the service area, theme, or date range for the project. You can also type 'Service Area' or 'Theme' into the search bar to get a list of options in each of these fields.
The Centre for Community Based Research (CCBR) and the Canadian Association for Supported Employment (CASE) partnered to explore the barriers, promising practices, and support systems that shaped employment outcomes for persons experiencing disability in Canada.
The project was conducted in three components. The first involved online interviews with 12 job seekers or employees experiencing disability and 2 employers who worked with persons experiencing disability. The second included 4 in-person interviews that were recorded to create public video clips. The third focused on knowledge dissemination, including edited video clips, 11 case stories about the employment journeys of persons experiencing disability, and a toolkit for employment service providers and the broader community published by CASE.
Project purpose:
- To examine barriers faced by job seekers and employees who experience disability, as well as the support systems that help address them.
- To explore how Canadian employers and employment service providers understand and approach workplace accessibility and disability inclusion.
- To generate knowledge that can support more inclusive hiring, retention, and career advancement opportunities for persons with disabilities.
Main Research Questions
- What barriers and challenges do job seekers and employees who experience disability encounter throughout their employment journey?
- What promising practices in employment and workplace support systems enable successful job placement and retention for individuals who experience disability?
- What actions can improve accessibility, inclusion, and long-term employment outcomes for individuals who experience disability?
Summary of Findings
The study identified multiple barriers affecting employment experiences for persons experiencing disability, including discrimination in hiring, inaccessible workplaces, rigid work structures, fragmented disability support systems, transportation challenges, and limited flexible employment opportunities. At the same time, participants highlighted promising practices such as supportive workplace cultures, empathetic supervisors, inclusive hiring and onboarding processes, practical accommodations, assistive technologies, and psychologically safe environments. Participants also recommended improvements at workplace, organizational, and policy levels, including flexible and hybrid work options, disability awareness training, safe disclosure processes, transparent hiring systems, accessible transportation, and stronger funding and coordination for disability support services and community organizations.
