This free training module covers the requirements for specific features of our public spaces that will make it easier for people with disabilities to move through, use and enjoy what our businesses have to offer.
An invaluable tool for architects, designers, building owners, planners, standards bodies, and others interested in making indoor and outdoor spaces universally accessible.
An architecture team is building a house for a man who lives with Cerebral Palsy. The hope is that the design features become common when building houses in the future.
StopGap’s first project to increase awareness was the launch of the first Community Ramp Project in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood. Through material donated by local hardware stores and volunteer labour, the Community Ramp Project provided a deployable ramp at no cost to 12 businesses in the area.
In 2014 CBC news broadcast a series of case studies explaining how the disabled have become a driving force in technology and a giant inspiration for innovation, improving goods and services to a broader market audience.
Martin Prosperity Institute study, projecting the Economic Impacts of Improved Accessibility in Ontario (2010) commissioned by the Government of Ontario.
The website of Return on Disability is a complete resource for companies, government and investors to unlock the value in disability for the global economy, the following video from their website certainly makes a case how companies that enhance their customer experience by utilizing insights from the disability market outperform their peers in revenue growth.
Outlines public and private sector reference and involvement to disability. It makes a case for why designing for accessibility matters, the business case, regulatory barriers and opportunities, and the best American and Canadian companies positioned in the disability space.
This conference paper examines the business benefits of accessible employment practices and outlines strategies and resources to help businesses develop accessible and inclusive workplaces for people with disabilities.
This guidance provides a summary of information for employers to help increase their understanding of disability and to enable them recruit and support disabled people and those with long term health conditions in work.
In this IRPP study, Michael Prince analyzes the employment situation and the policy context for working-age adults with mental or physical disabilities (PDF REPORT)
Mark Wafer is interviewed by Steve Palkin, Mr. Wafer understands and explains the business advantages that his more than 40 disabled employees bring to his bottom line.
Career Edge, is a recruitment company that promotes diversification of talent and it has designated internship programs tailored to graduates with disabilities.
A 2016 CBC News broadcast exhibits how Canadian businesses have found hiring disabled Canadians boosted their bottom line profits by retained a valued employee, increased the employee’s productivity and increased the employee’s attendance.
Makes the business case for employing People with Disabilities. They are more productive, work more safely, stay longer, require less supervision, more innovative, and the turnover rate is decreased. It states that a business is disadvantaged as a competitor if it neglects 15% of the Canadian population. Add in the friends and caregivers of PwD, and that increases to 53% of the population.
This source not only makes the business case, complete with PwD discretionary income, but it highlights the value of hiring PwD with statistics: retention rates, work ethic, attendance, and safety concerns are all positive. It also shows how an organization saves money by hiring PwD. This varies depending on which level for which an organization is hiring: executive, mid-level, entry-level college, etc. Hiring PwD can increase brand loyalty, boost staff morale, and help the organization become an employer of choice.
A national network of business leaders that understand the immense value that people with disabilities bring to an organization and it works with businesses to provide all the resources necessary to transform businesses into fully inclusive workplaces, and drive measurable strategic outcomes.
This makes the business case for having an inclusive customer experience. There are 54 million PwD in North America, with billions of dollars of discretionary income. Businesses should have an inclusive online presence and advertising features.
This free training module covers requirements for providing customer service in ways that are accessible for people with disabilities, the complete training module is about 30 minutes long, there is an option to be certificated, but only after completing a “knowledge check” or small quiz.
This web platform has been created by a Brazilian industrial designer and it has been serving the Design community since 2013. It provides articles, tools and tutorials covering various areas of Design including Universal Design.
Designing Our Tomorrow is a business toolkit to allows organizations to gain competitive advantage by making better use of the planet’s resources, and improve the user experience. There are tips for application and examples.
It provides a free website accessibility audit quote if any is interested to find out what a full assessment will cost. First step is to do a quick review of the target website, both external and password protected areas, to ascertain the complexity of the content and functionality and how many accessibility barriers are immediately apparent.
Image description guidelines developed by the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH (NCAM) in conjunction with the DIAGRAM Center (Digital Image And Graphic Resources for Accessible Materials) at Benetech.
The University of Cambridge has done much research regarding Inclusive Design. This particular page outlines what Inclusive Design is, key performance indicators, understanding user diversity, the comparison with “universal design”. The overall website includes the business case, or, why inclusive design in important. It also includes a toolkit of activities to adopt inclusive design, as well as case studies.
Microsoft explains what inclusive Design is, how to recognize it, and most importantly, how to design for inclusivity using inclusivity. This link includes the manual for what Inclusive Design is and a toolkit of activities and workshops that designers could use.
The website of Return on Disability is a complete resource for companies, government and investors to unlock the value in disability for the global economy, the following video from their website certainly makes a case how companies that enhance their customer experience by utilizing insights from the disability market outperform their peers in revenue growth.
10 tips outlining how to keep accessibility in mind when a business is catering to a certain market. This includes asking questions regarding exclusion: who is excluded? What contributes to exclusion? And how do we fix it?
Prof Jeremy Myerson from the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design gives a 30+ min talk about the utility of Inclusive Design, especially for future-oriented organizations and individuals. This talk explores designing for disability and age, but also for other marginal populations such as minorities, learning disabilities, etc.
The IDRC has compiled a list of techniques and best practices to ensure your office documents meet the requirements of WCAG 2.0 and ATAG 1.0, this resource is composed by numerous applications divided by categories (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation and other) each application has a step-by-step guidance making it easier for you to only focus on your desire applications.
This is a model system that demonstrates how web pages may be checked for accessibility problems. The accessibility checks in this system are based upon the proposed Open Accessibility Checks (OAC), a universal series of tests that may be applied to HTML pages to determine their compliance with accessibility standards.
An open source software focused on designing flexible, customizable, user-centered interfaces. Fluid produces Infusion, an open, rich, reusable set of user interface components and more.
The government of UK has an useful guidance on how to use effectively accessible communications formats to reach all your audience, while all the information is relevant to Ontario standards there are some exceptions like the use of British Sign Language (BSL), Here in Canada, American sign language (ASL) is the primary method of communication for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
Training module that covers the requirements for providing and receiving information and communications in ways that are accessible to people with disabilities.
An evolving desktop captioning and video description software. It supports captioning for Quicktime movies, movies uploads to YouTube, as well as the creation of video description audio tracks. CapScribe Desktop runs on Intel Macs and is available for download and exploration.
A technique that enables sign language based web sites on the Internet. An authoring tool called SignEd creates the webpages by marking up sign language video files with sign language based hyperlinks called “signlinks”. The website that makes SignEd available was built using the tool and demonstrates this new web page technique.
A pdf guide that assists small businesses in understanding the AODA Requirements for Accessible Information and Communications and in mapping strategies to convey those.
A 2009 report of the Independent Review of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, by Charles Beer on his findings and recommendations for improving the effectiveness of Ontario’s accessibility laws.
CWDO promotes the rights, freedoms and responsibilities of persons with disabilities through community development, social action, and member support and referral. Their primary activity is public education and awareness about the social and physical barriers that prevent the full inclusion of persons with disabilities in Ontario.
An article about a petition to Mattel, a popular toy manufacturer, to make a doll with a disability. This would be an effort to challenge common stereotypes about PwD. This could be a powerful catalyst for young children to think critically about the stereotypes and role of disability in someone’s life.
A comprehensive document providing guidance on interpreting and understanding the provisions of the Code related to people with disabilities. It sets out how individuals, employers, service providers, policy-makers and others should make sure they and their organizations comply with the Code.
Accessibility professionals from around the world can come together to define, promote and improve the accessibility profession through networking, education and certification. Join IAAP to make your impact on the accessibility profession.
The project team of BIG IDeA wishes to thank the EnAbling Change program of the Government of Ontario for its financial support in the production of this project. The team also acknowledges that this work was completed on the land of Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island, without whom none of us would be here. The land that we all work, live, and interact with on a daily basis has a history that we need to be reminded of, and it continues to be the site of Indigenous resistance and survival to this day.
Have you made a small or big change that makes your business more inclusive or accessible for your customers?
BIG IDeA showcases businesses that demonstrate exemplary and innovative practices so that they can be recognized by current and potential customers. Having your business on the BIG IDeA Showcase is a great opportunity to:
● let potential customers know what is in place to make their visit inclusive
● have your leadership in making your community more inclusive celebrated
● get more visibility within and beyond your community for your business
If you would like your business showcased on BIG IDeA, please contact the Project Coordinator, David Pereyra, by email at dpereyra@ocadu.ca , or by phone at 416-977-6000 x4672 or use our social media links.
Have you experienced and accessibility challenge that you would like to submit to our next Inclusive Design Challenge? Please tell us about it using the form bellow.
