#AbleTo
Prepare for work using the Field Guide
We carried out applied research to understand the causes of the employment gap that exists between post-secondary students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers. As a result of this research, we realized that colleges and universities, in collaboration with employers, could take specific actions to close this gap. Even better, we saw how we could use our research findings and conclusions to come up with best practices that post-secondary institutions can apply to prepare students with disabilities for work.
Improve the capacity and ability of campus service providers who support students with disabilities
We collected these practices together in what we call the Field Guide. To be released on October 31, 2024, the Field Guide presents four practices for post-secondary institutions to follow to improve the capacity and ability of their campus service providers to support students with disabilities.
Your post-secondary institution can adopt these practices in any order. You do not necessarily need to follow them in sequence or in full. What counts is that you take action to improve how your post-secondary institution serves the career and employment aspirations of students with disabilities.
If you adopt all the practices, your outcome will be an inclusive and accessible campus, where students with disabilities are welcomed, respected and supported across your entire college or university.
Adopt the most relevant practices from the four below:
Work together
across your campus
Practice in brief
Create more formal connection points and opportunities for knowledge sharing, so student-facing service providers of your post-secondary institutions know how to satisfy student needs when such needs fall outside the role or expertise of a particular service provider. People in your institution may have informal conversations already, but this practice enables them to be more intentional about collaboration across campus.
Main performance outcome
Increase knowledge sharing among different offices on campus, primarily between your institution’s career services and student accessibility services offices. Such sharing is not necessarily meant to make every person an expert in everything; it is to make sure they can identify the right resources for each student, direct them to these resources and, in doing so, create an enhanced student experience.
Get students with disabilities
and employers preparing
for employment early
Practice in brief
Gain insight on the different employment experiences and pathways of students with disabilities. Understand the steps students take as they seek meaningful employment. Identify the barriers students with disabilities typically face on their employment journeys. Remove these barriers and support more inclusive employment journeys for students. Learn how to discuss with employers the actions necessary to make employment pathways easier to access for students, especially students with disabilities.
Main performance outcome
Engage more students with disabilities early in their post-secondary lives and, in doing so, enable them to identify and choose the employment-development options that work best for them. For students with disabilities, this early engagement and ideal choice will increase their likelihood of finding the right employment and embarking on a successful career. For employers, this early engagement and ideal choice will give them access to a larger talent pool.
Design accessible career
and networking events
Practice in brief
Gain knowledge and resources necessary to design employment and career events—from the ground up—so that all students are able to attend. Such knowledge and resources extend to enabling your post-secondary institution to make its existing events accessible to all students. This practice also involves knowing how to design and host events meant for students with disabilities specifically.
Main performance outcome
Success is determined by two related measures: attracting a greater number of students with disabilities to employment and career events; and having more students with disabilities move further along their individual pathways to employment because more students take part in such events and engage with prospective employers.
Support students with disabilities
to explore and address
their career needs
Practice in brief
The Employment Pathways Facilitator gives students with disabilities the opportunity to explore and address their specific needs in developing skills, accessing just-in-time services and resources, and gaining work-related experience.
The EPF was developed in recognition of the fact that a student’s lived experience of their disability is not only unique, but also goes hand in hand with how they choose to navigate their employment journey. This recognition differs from how post-secondary institutions often address the needs of students with disabilities—through separate services devoted to disability-related needs and employment-related needs.
The EPF is designed to be not only comprehensive, but also flexible. Any post-secondary institution can adopt the EPF model, regardless of the organization’s makeup. For instance, one person or unified team within a college or university could be assigned to carry out all its nine functions; or these functions could be assigned to several people throughout a post-secondary institution.
Main performance outcome
Coordinate and deliver services and supports for students with disabilities across campus; and, in doing so, move more students further along their individual avenues to successful employment.
Collaborators
#AbleTo is a team effort. From the very start, our efforts relied on the close cooperation and support of many organizations from several sectors. These essential collaborators are governments, post-secondary institutions, educational organizations and community groups. Each has contributed in their own important way. We thank them all.
Ontario Pilot Schools
Ottawa Pilot Schools
