Promoting Education in the Area of Accessible and Assistive Technology and Advancing its Dissemination

Recommendation 1: The federal government might consider using its funding transfers to the provinces as a means of ensuring that programs similar to the vancouver community college’s visually impaired Adult Program are established in all regions of canada so that blind and partially-sighted would-be employees/students will be able to ready themselves for success in their chosen pursuits.

Promoting Education in the Area of Accessible and Assistive Technology and Advancing its Dissemination

Recommendation 2: Any provincial Assistive Devices Program (ADP) aimed at providing the necessary funding to purchase assistive/accessible technology for use by blind and partially-sighted workers/students must be accompanied by suffcient high-quality training to ensure a reasonable chance at success.

Promoting Education in the Area of Accessible and Assistive Technology and Advancing its Dissemination

Recommendation 3: Additional resources should be used to encourage employers to make their workplaces accessible, to educate employers in order to increase their understanding of what accessible and inclusive workplaces are, to encourage and fund additional on-the-job accessible training, and to establish meaningful and comprehensive Assistive Devices Programs in all provinces and territories.

Promoting Education in the Area of Accessible and Assistive Technology and Advancing its Dissemination

Recommendation 4: The federal government, in collaboration with the provinces, the post-secondary sector, and employers, should work toward increased funding and providing incentives for employers to develop and implement work-integrated learning opportunities for all students, including students with visual disabilities, which are available across the breadth of the canadian postsecondary education system.

Promoting Education in the Area of Accessible and Assistive Technology and Advancing its Dissemination

Recommendation 5: To drive change for canadians with low vision or blindness in the workplace, the community must stand together to push employers to purchase only accessible and assistive systems, software, devices, and technology that includes all employees.

Promoting Education in the Area of Accessible and Assistive Technology and Advancing its Dissemination

Recommendation 6: Employers should be educated in accessible and assistive technology and how this can optimize their workforce.

Incentivizing Recruitment and Hiring

Recommendation 7: One approach to bridge the gap in successfully and equitably recruiting recent graduates with visual disabilities is to apply the concept of universal design (uD) to the recruitment and hiring process.

Incentivizing Recruitment and Hiring

Recommendation 8: The federal government should develop and implement funding programs that incentivize employers to develop recruitment and hiring practices, and workplace cultures, based upon the principles of universal and inclusive design to achieve accessibility.

Incentivizing Recruitment and Hiring

Recommendation 9: The government should re-evaluate its goal of diminishing unemployment numbers by 4% amongst people with disabilities during the program’s present term.

Supporting the Not-for-Proft Sector

Recommendation 10: The federal government should provide resources to appropriate notfor-proft agencies and those working in the career transition space to develop and implement effective, measurable, and sustainable youth targeted intervention programs aimed at enhancing the self-advocacy skill sets of youth with visual disabilities – particularly with regard to countering employer attitudes and myths and providing accommodations as necessary. such programs could include training workshops and mentorship activities.