week 7- ability and wellbeing

labour force participation

challenges:

  • finding employment

  • gender based differences

  • employment

  • hours worked of full vs part time

  • employment that aligns with KSAO’S- Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Characteristics


AODA: Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabiloties Act (2005)- Purpose:

  • it is a very comprehensive field

‘benefit all Onaraians by,

  • developing, implementing, and enforcing accessibility standards in order to achieve accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities with respect to goods, services, facilities, accommodation, employment, buildings, structures, and premises on or before January 1, 2025, and

  • providing for the involvement of persons with disabilities, of the Government of Ontario, and of representatives of industries and of various sectors of the economy in the devlopment of the accessibility standards - THIS IS TALKING ABOUT THE GOALS OF AODA- the constant and regular development to help people with disabilities, it is ongoing and constantly growing


AODA definitions:

Barrier:

  • anything that prevents a person with a disability from fully participating in all aspects of society because of their disability

  • physical, architectural, information, communications, attitudinal, and technological barriers

  • policies and practices


Application:

  • public and private sectors

  • any degree of physical disability, infirmity, malformation, or disfigurement caused by bodily injury, birth defect, or illness

  • a condition of mental impairment or a developmental disability

  • A learned disability, or a dysfunction, is one or more of the processes involved in understanding or using symbols or spoken language

  • a mental disorder or

  • an injury or disability covered by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (1997)


AODA standards:

customer service:

  • policies for serving people with disabilities that align with the principles of dignity and independence, integration, equal opportunity and accessible communication

  • train staff and volunteers in accessible customer service

  • feedback process

  • service animals and support persons


information and communication:

  • Rules for organisations to create, provide, and receive info and communications that people with disabilities can access- give all people an equal chance to learn and be active in their communities

  • e.g., delivering important info in sign language


transportation:

  • Features and equipment on routes and vehicles ought to be accessible to passengers with disabilities


Design of public spaces


Employment:

  • accessible recruitment process and opportunity to request accommodations

  • work- related information in accessible formats

  • customised emergency responsible info

  • individual accomm plans development process

  • accomm in return to work, performance management, career development, and redeployment

  • if someone is disabled, we need to make adjustments for them, for example is there is a fire drill is there a elevatior for those who are in a wheelchair etc.


Compliance and enforcement- AODA:

  • the Moran Report

  • accessible toll-free phone number- online and mail-in options, as well as to report AODA violations

  • feedback processes across all accessibility standards

  • Organisations to publicly report and to the ADO on received complaints and their resolution- they must have a report of it ‘public reporting’ if they violate AODA, and in the report, it must say what the next steps are and why u violated the guidelines

  • Audits by the ADO (accessibility directorate of Ontario).


neurodiversity:

  • Neurological differences- like autism, ADHD, and dyslexia- are natural variations in human cognition

  • the term emerged from the autism rights movement in the late 1990s, promoting the view of neurodivergent conditions as part of human diversity

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): often characteristized bu unique ways of interacting socially, repeitive behaviours, and focused interests

  • ADHD: associated with hyperactvity, implusivity, and creative thinking

  • dyslexia: affects reading and language processing, often coupled with strengths in hosltsic and conceptual thinking

  • tangible move away from seeing neurological differences as disorders towards viewing them as vulnerable variations, especially in workplaces

  • speicialised and knowledge- based jobs benefi from unique skills innovation, creativity, and problem- solving that neurodiverse indvidfuals often bring


Challenges of neurodiversity:

  • biases in hiring practices associating a greater premium and priority to social skills over task- relevant competencies

  • social stigma and stereotyping that foster notions and biases surrounding neurotypical employees or individuals as less competent, reliable, and worthy of promotion

  • Disclosure is often necessary to receive accommodations, many neuroatypical employees find themselves hesitant to disclose their status out of fear of stigma of discrimination



Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD):

– Strengths: High levels of focus, attention to detail, factual memory, and proficiency in repetitive or technical tasks.

– Ideal Roles: Data analysis, software testing, quality assurance, and engineering. – Supporting Evidence: Studies suggest people with ASD excel in pattern recognition, making them valuable in fields requiring precision.


ADHD:

– Strengths: High creativity, ability to focus deeply on interests, adaptability in fast-paced or novel environments.

– Ideal Roles: Marketing, entrepreneurship, creative industries.

– Research Insights: ADHD individuals often perform well in stimulating environments, with a higher tolerance for risk, which can be advantageous in entrepreneurial roles.



Dyslexia:

– Strengths: Holistic thinking, big-picture orientation, ability to simplify complex problems.

– Ideal Roles: Strategic roles, creative problem-solving, intelligence analysis. – Organizational Examples: UK’s GCHQ values dyslexic employees for their ability to “join the dots” and spot broader patterns in intelligence data.



PRACTICE QUESTIONS:

What changes/adjustments to interview procedures/designs are of necessity to ensure neuroinclusivity ?















  • offering alternative media- be mindful of modifications of the media

  • we want to focus on the things that we are capitalizing- if we are not hiring the person for sales and they have autism we need to make exceptions- not j focus on the great communication skills cos not everyone will have that

  • focus maybe more of the doing, instead of the interview- like is the person acc able to do a simple task- more practical, and the applicant delivering a physcial work piece, doing something practical instead of the traditional ‘ interview conversation’.



You suspect an employee is experiencing mental health challenges after observing the decline of their performance, do you intervene and how?


  • at the end of the day ur manager cares about u j wants to be mindful

  • it is important that yiu are confident with the bound of relationshio between u as an employer to employer relationship- u are not friends so u can not fully nurture


first step to approach this:

  • as a manager u can initiate a conversation about ‘your performace’ as that is the key source where we notice when someone’s mental health is bad- we approach them with this topic- we see that ur performance has taken a shift

  • then u may offer the employee whether u ask them if u can do anything to help e.g. is there anyting to why this has affected ur performance?

  • the employee may even open up,or they will be disgareeing and cut off this sibject straight away- then u can see wether u can work something else out to heighten their performance again?


what to do if they need help cos of their mental health: BEST PRACTICES when seeing someone with bad mental health at work:

  • you say ‘here is a reminder’ of the textbook that u need and u can help the person say that if u need to read through it u can

  • or u can remind them that the company they work with there are procedues and help they can seek

  • You should also reiterate that they should open up and remind them that it is okay to seek for help

  • remind them that they could in touch with a GP doctor, this depends on how difficult the situation is


What level/depth of disclosure is required of employees when requesting accommodations?


  • we need just enough infomation, we might need to know and understand some more canges about the actual type of change, help that we need to provide

  • doctor could for example say, ‘person xyz has been diagnosed with this, they need extra time on their tasks’ - the company is then aware

  • it needs to be substantiated- overall, it is not a very deep disclosure for our employees, it is a very private concern to be dealt with



An employee has returned to work after an extended leave due to a disability. What should a return-to-work discussion involve?

  • when someone comes back to work after not being there for a while, we not not want to make them start from square 1

  • it should be valuable to go back to someone’s work duties, is there any chnages in teams? organisations? structural changes? that we need to take action on