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Overcoming discrimination against those with disabilities
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
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Job seekers with disabilities FEEL discriminated against and job seekers with disabilities ARE discriminated against in securing employment as well as in advancing within organizations. That might seem like an obvious statement, but there is often a difference between what we feel and what is actually occurring in the labour market.
It's possible a person feels they are best person for the job and an employer has hired someone else due to a disability. It’s also possible the employer knows the other person is more qualified and has simply hired them for this reason. It’s also possible that the employer thinks the other person is more qualified but has been unconsciously influenced that the person with a disability could not function as well in the role due to their disability.
And, let’s be honest, it’s entirely possible the employer just hired the person without the disability because they don’t want to hire someone with a disability.
Job seekers, and job developers for that matter, are not aware of all of the factors an employer considers when they make a hiring decision, so we fill in the gaps. Prejudice against someone with a disability is an easy answer but there’s a lot more complexity to all of this.
There is what the employer is consciously aware of and where they are motivated on an unconscious level. Sometimes they simply aren’t hiring those with disabilities because they are uncomfortable with disabilities.
And while we can give a lot of thought to the motivations and decisions of hiring managers and human resources professionals, they are only part of the equation.
If job seekers with disabilities are presented with job loss or fail to secure a position, it’s easy to see the disability as the major factor, without understanding the hiring process.
We love to think we live in a world that is black-and-white, where people are good or bad. An employer is prejudiced against a job candidate simply because they didn’t hire them. The job seeker with a disability doesn’t get the job, it must be because they have a disability.
Let me be clear. As I said earlier, it is harder for those with disabilities to find employment than those without disabilities. While the employment rate for Canadians 15-25 was 54 per cent in 2024, it was just 46.4 per cent for youth with disabilities and this had fallen from 47.1% in 2023. It’s getting harder, year after year.
Discrimination is real and it takes the form of employment outcomes that are lower than the skill and education level of the individual; lesser wages; and fewer opportunities for advancement.
This is taking a real toll on job seekers. Keep in mind that Canadians with disabilities now represents more than a quarter of our entire population. During the 2017 Canadian Disability Survey, 22.2 per cent of respondents reported having a disability. By 2022, this had increased to 27.0 per cent.
At the time of the national survey, more than one-third (37%) of persons with disabilities indicated that they considered themselves to be disadvantaged in employment because of their disability, while 35 per cent believed their current employer or any potential employer would be likely to consider them to be disadvantaged.
Encouragingly, this represents a decrease from 2017, when 41 per cent said they considered themselves to be disadvantaged and 42 per cent said a current or future employer would be likely to consider them disadvantaged as a result of their disability.
Between 2017 and 2022, the percentage of persons aged 25 to 64 with disabilities who believed they had been refused an interview in the past five years because of their disability edged down from eight to seven per cent, and the percentage reporting a job refusal decreased slightly from 12 to 10 per cent.
Persons with more severe disabilities, men, 2SLGBTQ+ persons and racialized persons were more likely to perceive some of these workplace discriminatory practices than their respective counterparts.
More than one-third of persons aged 25 to 64 with disabilities (37%) considered themselves to be disadvantaged in employment, while 35 per cent reported that their current employer or any potential employer would be likely to consider them to be disadvantaged in employment because of their condition.
The 2SLGBTQ+ population with disabilities was more likely than their non-2SLGBTQ+ counterparts to report having experienced labour market discrimination, with higher proportions indicating that they had been refused an interview (10% versus 6%), a job (16% versus 9%) or a promotion (15% versus 9%).
I think this speaks to the idea that people who experience multiple challenges have an exponentially harder time securing employment.
You may be wondering why the perceptions of discrimination have fallen in spite of a job market which has clearly become much more competitive in the past three years.
I believe the answer to this lies in the fact that we’ve seen the population who identifies as having a disability grow so much in such a short time. In 2017, 22.2 per cent of Canada’s population had a disability and by 2022, it was 27 per cent; representing an increase of more than one-fifth in just five years.
I believe, during the turbulent period of the pandemic, the stigma of a disability eased slightly. People who would have once described something as a physical, emotional or psychological challenge were more prepared to identify this as a disability.
Also, our population is getting older and sadly, as you get older, the chances of developing a disability grows.
If we have a sudden influx of hundreds of thousands of new individuals who identify as having a disability, it’s likely a larger portion of these disabilities will have minimal career impact, so the perception of prejudice isn’t not going to be as significant.
This said, it still leaves us with the fact that there is both actual and perceived perceptions of discrimination and what do we do about it.
Older workers are often challenged with the presence of both real and perceived prejudice. When I’m advising mature job seekers, I coach them to not let these perceptions affect how they conduct themselves. I suggest they maintain a positive attitude, demonstrate a willingness to learn new things and if necessary, start at the bottom.
There are employers who perceive that mature workers will have a sense of entitlement, inflexibility and a desire to stick to traditional ways of doing things.
When coaching individuals with disabilities, I encourage clients to remember that not all employers are going to have a prejudice against those with disabilities and some who do aren’t even aware of it.
I would provide training to job seekers in both directly and indirectly demonstrating that a disability is not going to limit a candidate’s ability to do the job. If there are factors that will impact the job, to directly speak to approaches, supports and technology that will minimize these impacts.
We have a lot of ways we can demonstrate this. In resumes we can detail all of the different tasks and responsibilities our client held in previous jobs. In cover letters, we can speak to specific workplace accomplishments they achieved and how they stood out in the workplace. In interviews or networking, our clients can share stories of how they haven’t been held back in the workplace by their disability, maintained better attendance and demonstrated greater commitment to their past employers.
So, what do we do about the employer who genuinely doesn’t want to hire someone with a disability and this is a conscious decision?
Why waste your time and set your client or student up for disappointment? There are hundreds of employers in town and I doubt that threats of human rights violations and legal jeopardy are going to make much of a difference.
It’s not to say that these aren’t pathways for some individuals who’ve been wronged by employers and I would keep these resources available to share with job seekers and those who’ve been let go due to a disability.
For our part, we want to focus on employers who can look past these challenges. For employers who have an unconscious bias towards those with disabilities, we need to share information, experiences and specific candidates that will defy these perceptions.
This is why I love breakfasts, lunches and awards that honour employers who see the value of hiring those with disabilities. It’s a clear demonstration of this value to the broader employer community.
In my experience, nothing helps an employer see the value of hiring someone with a disability like hiring someone with a disability. I have seen it happen time and time again and in many cases these employers become your best ambassadors in the community.
And while that might seem like a major hurdle, a larger hurdle might be changing the attitude of the person you are working with.
While many people with a disability, consider it a challenge to defy expectations and tackle every day with optimism and hard work, this is not everyone’s story.
Just as for those who don’t have a disability, for many of us our daily challenges break us down and leave doubt and disappointment. It’s easy to see the disability as a burden and every employer as someone who can’t look past this.
I don’t think there are any easy answers and I’m going to suggest every client is walking their own path. The best we can do is to support them where they are; help them focus on their own personal strengths and abilities and to acknowledge that while there is genuine prejudice out there, this is not the case for all employers, or even the majority of them.
Individuals with disabilities are no different in this case than anyone who encounters challenges in obtaining employment. We need to build them up, help them find their confidence and encourage them to put their best foot forward, regardless of what might be going on in the mind of the person who is reviewing their application or resume.
I firmly believe that confidence is one of the most important selling traits in job search and it is an area where we in the career development sector can so positively influence our clients or students.
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We’ll be discussing the feelings of discrimination many job seekers face at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Monday November 10th at 8:30am Pacific; 9:30am Mountain; 10:30am Central; 11:30am Eastern; 12:30pm Atlantic and at 1pm in Newfoundland.
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On the morning of Monday November 10th 'Click this Link' to view the session on YouTube.
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'2025 Labour Market
Year-in-Review Workshops'
20% Early-Bird Discount ENDS THIS WEEK
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Registration is open for our Labour Market Year-in-Review workshops, taking place respectively in British Columbia and Ontario. We have a 20% discount for everyone who registers by Nov. 14th. To learn more:
BC Workshop Link | Nov. 28th / Dec. 1st
or
Ontario Workshop Link | Dec. 5th and 8th
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